Tag: Exclusive

EXCLUSIVE: Aramis Knight on Revinenting Red Dagger for the MCU in ‘Ms. Marvel’

Episode 4 of Ms. Marvel introduced one of Kamala’s earliest allies from the comics, Kareem, aka Red Dagger. The show didn’t wait long, however, to make it clear that the MCU’s version of Kareem was more than a street vigilante, making him a part of an ancient organization of Pakistani heroes who have guarded the people against unseen threats.

Kareem, and his mentor Waleed, end up playing a major role in Kamala’s journey to Karachi, educating her about the Noor Dimension from the secret lair. It’s here where the audience becomes aware that the Red Daggers on screen have been upgraded significantly and could possibly play a much larger role in Kamala’s story than in the comics. In an exclusive interview, we asked Aramis Knight, who portrayed Kareem, about the changes to the character.

I think we’re lucky to kind of be the baseline for who these characters are. Because the comics are quite new and there aren’t a lot of them, there’s not so much to go off of. Now, I kind of feel like these characters are being created by us, which gives us a lot of creative freedom.
Aramis Knight

Knight went on to explain how being on set and working with Farhan Akhtar to develop an idea of who the Red Daggers were informed how he portrayed the character.

And you’re 100% right that Kareem is shaped by his background, everybody is, and his background is dedicating his life to this society. Being able to work with Farhan and being able to wear the costume and be in Red Dagger HQ, there was like a lot of physicality to it and it wasn’t difficult at all.
Aramis Knight

Though we only saw Waleed for a short time and Kareem for just a bit more, it’s safe to say that the adaptation of the character from the comics, while significantly different, was well-thought-out and well-executed in the series. What role, if any, Kareem will have over there rest of the season remains to be seen, but he’s certainly fulfilled his role as a protector of the people. Episode 5 of Ms. Marvel will stream next Wednesday on Disney Plus.

July 2, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: Aramis Knight on South Asian Representation in ‘Ms. Marvel’

The Marvel Studios Disney Plus streaming series Ms. Marvel has opened a window into Pakistani culture, giving viewers a look at one of mainstream media’s most underrepresented communities. The cast is full of actors and actresses of South Asian origin or heritage, including Aramis Knight, who was introduced as the Red Dagger Kareem in Episode 4.

In an exclusive interview, Knight, who is of Pakistani descent, talked about what it meant to him to be part of a show that brings South Asian culture to the masses in an unprecedented way.

It was amazing. You know growing up I never really had a hero that I looked up to who I felt looked like me who sounded like me who was like me at all. So to be kind of able to be the first is incredible. I have family back home who are just over-the-moon-excited to see me in this show-to see me involved in this at all. Representation is so important and I’m really thankful to kind of be a pioneer of that. It’s the first time in mainstream television that you’re seeing South Asian representation. We’re super thankful for it. Honoring my grandmother in the best way I could think.
Aramis Knight

As director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy expressed to us in a separate interview, Ms. Marvel presents audiences with the opportunity to experience South Asian culture through experiences with Kamala Khan and her family, something that, as Knight points out, is uncommon in pop culture. Given the audience response to the show so far, those experiences have served to make the series one of Marvel Studios’ most beloved…and one that fans hope gets a second season renewal sooner rather than later.

July 2, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: Aramis Knight on Working Alongside MCU Superfan Iman Vellani in ‘Ms. Marvel’

Episode 4 of Ms. Marvel marked the MCU debut of Aramis Knight, who portrayed Kareem, one of an ancient order of Red Daggers who protect the people of Pakistan. The 22-year old Knight is another of several young actors working alongside star Iman Vellani in the show, all of whom have grown up in a world where the MCU has been front and center in mainstream entertainment.

Knight’s role as Kareem meant that he spent a significant amount of his time on set with Vellani, who fans have learned is an absolute MCU superfan. In an exclusive interview, we asked Knight if, having grown up surrounded by the MCU, he was on Vellani’s level as a fan. “No, definitely not. I’d be lying if I said I was“, said Knight. “But also, there’s few people in the world who are on Iman’s level of MCU fan, so it’s a tough act to follow, but she definitely taught me a lot about the universe.“

Knight went on to praise his co-star’s complete grasp of not only her role but also the MCU and the character’s place within it.

I’m really happy to be involved and also have her there because she, like, creatively, understands the show so much. Honestly, at this point, she should just be a producer as well because she is so well-versed in the universe. She completely understands the role that Kamala plays and she really just is Kamala. It’s absolutely amazing and I cannot imagine anyone else playing the role at all.
Aramis Knight

Through 4 episodes, Ms. Marvel has continued to receive high praise from both fans and critics and Vellani has been at the center of it all. Marvel Studios President Kevin Fiege has also mentioned how well-versed Vellani is in the MCU and, according to Knight, her presence in the series is also helping to raise everyone else’s game as well. As Knight says, it’s hard to imagine anyone else inhabiting the role now that fans have seen Vellani in it.

July 2, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: Details on The Red Dagger Lair in ‘Ms. Marvel’

Episode 4 of Ms. Marvel saw Kamala Khan leave New Jersey and head to Karachi, where she quickly met Kareem, played by Aramis Knight, and learned about a secret order of protectors known as the Red Daggers. Part of keeping an order secret is having a secret location that’s tough to sniff out and the Red Daggers’ lair certainly fit that description.

In the episode, it was revealed that the lair could be accessed through a hidden hallway behind a stove in a restaurant, something Kamala Khan found fascinating. According to Knight, the hidden lair, complete with sliding stove, was an entirely practical set and something that was kept secret from him and Iman Vellani until the day of filming.

That set was 100% practical. The Chinese restaurant set as well as when I pushed the oven and it reveals the Red Dagger HQ in the hall…that was totally practical. So that day, while we were rehearsing-it was me and Iman and Sharmeen-and we were walking through the door and we weren’t even in costumes yet, loosely walking through it, I go to push the oven and I figured that the oven would maybe move back and we’d move to a different set. Little did I know, it was 100% practical. So when I pushed it back, it just kept rolling back, kept rolling back, like 20-30 feet into just, this huge hallway, and you walk down this hallway and you’re into that like beautiful blueish-green color of the Red Dagger lair. It was just amazing. We literally stopped in the middle of our rehearsal and were just like in awe of the set that they had built. It was incredible.
Aramis Knight

In a time where complicated sets are often touched up with VFX or shot using technology like the volume, a practical set of that size with so many moving parts is impressive. Equally impressive was the crew’s ability to keep it from the actors, allowing Vellani to get an authentic reaction to the hidden hallway that could inform her character’s discovery of it during filming. The set design has been top notch for all four episodes of Ms. Marvel and the lair of the Red Daggers is no different.

July 1, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy on the Importance of Bringing Kamala Khan to Life in the MCU

Episodes 4 and 5 of Marvel Studios latest Disney Plus streaming series, Ms. Marvel, were directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, a veteran filmmaker with 20 years of experience. And while Obaid-Chinoy, who has won 7 Emmy and 2 Academy Awards for her documentary work, has plenty of time behind the camera, she is brand new to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Born in Pakistan, Obaid-Chinoy now plays a large role in bringing Kamala Khan, Marvel’s first Muslim superhero, to the screen from the pages of Marvel Comics. In an exclusive interview, the director explained why she wanted to be part of the creative team that brought Ms. Marvel to life.

I think Kamala Khan changes the way we see superheroes. And I think the world is ready to embrace the fact that superheroes come in all shapes and forms and sizes. And that, in falling in love with the Khan family, in falling in love with Kamala Khan, you open yourself up to these experiences, to this culture, to this way of life, to this food and this music and these fabrics and sort of the richness of the texture of what it is to be an immigrant in America and to find your voice. I think she does this wonderful job of doing that.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

Through 4 episodes, it’s safe to say that Obaid-Chinoy and the rest of the Ms. Marvel team have succeeded in making fans fall in love with Kamala, her family and their story as the series is among the most-well reviewed projects Marvel Studios has put out to date. The character is already beloved by fans, who are already anticipating star Iman Vellani‘s next appearance in 2023’s The Marvels, and it’s safe to assume she’s going to play a large part in the future of the MCU.

June 30, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: Director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy on the Emotional Conclusion to Episode 4 of ‘Ms. Marvel’

Episode 4 of Ms. Marvel, “Seeing Red”, ended on a very TV-esque cliffhanger that saw Kamala Khan witnessing the events of the 1947 Partition, which divided the British-occupied Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan, displacing 10 to 20 million people amidst terrible and unprecedented violence that took the lives of as many as 2 million.

The Partition has served as a key point in the story of Ms. Marvel so far as it’s part of the story of Kamala’s great-grandmother, Aisha, the character around whom the central mystery of the 6-part series continues to revolve. Whether Kamala traveled through time to 1947 in Episode 4, or if she’s part of a more immersive vision than the ones she’s previously had is unclear. What is clear, however, is that what she saw on the train platform, and what she’ll see in next week’s episode, will connect her to Aisha in a way that passed down stories from her family never could.

In an exclusive interview with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, the director of episodes 4 and 5 of Ms. Marvel, Charles Murphy asked about the emotional final scene.

Kamala is bringing audiences into something that is rarely visualized on screen, which is the 1947 Partition. And in that moment that she’s walking on the platform, she is not a superhero. She is bearing witness to this monumental period in history that carries such a generational trauma. I took hundreds of photographs from 1947 and recreated that on that platform to be able to tell that story.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

Obaid-Chinoy went on to explain how the details of the scene, specifically the conversations among those on the platforms, were part of an escalation of emotions that ended in the chilling final shot that showed millions of people chaotically scrambling, leaving friends and family behind.

I wanted Kamala to be catching-to be listening into-these frenetic conversations that were taking place as people were leaving their homes. So she’s almost listening to snippets of conversations and each conversation makes you realize what it meant for those people to leave their homes and to leave relationships and to leave their family members. In the case of the father and the son, he was too old to travel and he was sending his son. This little girl thinks that her mom and her will no longer have a place on the train because it’s so packed. These two friends who are hugging, who’ll never see each other again. And so as she was walking through and she was looking, the anguish of the families was reflecting on her face as she was listening. So I think that by making it deeply personal and making it about families and them leaving their homes, anybody…it was transcending cultures and boundaries. Anybody who’s had to leave home or who’s experienced refugees could…it touched them in some way.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

In closing, Obaid-Chinoy touched on how important it was that the audience slowly realize the scale of the historical moment and how the camera work in the scene put audiences right into the midst of the frenzy.

And the scale of it was so important, so to make her climb up on that train and to pull the camera back for you to realize that millions of people left their homes. You realize that when the camera pulls back, you see people just jumping onto the train and that frenetic energy…that is exactly how it was in 1947.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

Of course, the full extent of Kamala’s experience with Partition, and the mechanics of how she finds herself there, are still a mystery but given Marvel Studios’ track record of using the fifth episode of their streaming series to wrap up the ongoing mysteries of the series, fans will likely learn considerably more next week.

June 30, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Lightyear’ Creatives on Possibility of Sequel

Lightyear is yet to hit theaters, and fans of the character are already wondering if we’ll see more of Chris Evans‘ intergalactic hero in the future. Director Angus MacLane has described the film as the Star Wars of the Toy Story universe on multiple occasions, and even stated his belief that the animated series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command was a spin-off of the Lightyear movies within the world of Andy and his toys. This would imply that the film audiences are getting ready to see in our universe spawned an entire franchise in it’s own universe.

Murphy’s Multiverse got the chance to ask the Lightyear creatives about the possibility of potential sequels and spin-offs happening in the real world during a recent exclusive interview. Producer Galyn Susman expressed her belief that a second movie would be possible, but that she and MacLaren were simply focused on ensuring the successful release of the first one until further notice:

I would think that we could tell a second movie from all the ideas we rejected from the first movie, but that’s usually the case with our movies. Um, maybe? How’s that for a very definitive answer? We’re really sort of just finishing this up and launching this baby and we’re so excited to see this film out in theaters and see how people respond. And then I think we’re both going to go home and sleep for a couple weeks. We’ll think about it then.
Galyn Susman

The film’s director was far more open to discussing future installments, but admitted that Lightyear was conceived as a stand-alone adventure within a series of adventures in Buzz Lightyear’s lifetime:

The movie was designed to be a snapshot in a moment in time. It’s not the first adventure of Buzz Lightyear and it’s not the last… I wanted to do something where we weren’t beholden to a timeline that was necessary to do all things. Because what I found as an older fan, explaining everything is not satisfying. Actually, leaving some stuff for the audience to fill in is really a way to involve them and is an engagement with the fans in a way that allows them to make their own choices. So that’s part of it, is a need to be a snapshot. So it could go on, we’ll see.
Angus MacLaren

The gist of this answer seems to be that, while nothing is currently planned and Lightyear will work perfectly fine on it’s own, the door isn’t necessarily closed on more missions down the line. A sequel will probably depend heavily on the first film’s box office success, but if it proves to be a hit, Lightyear just might become the animated Star Wars that MacLaren has previously stated it was.

June 15, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Lightyear’ Creatives Reveal Keke Palmer and Taika Waititi Almost Played Siblings

Pixar’s Lightyear has spent years in development. As a result, it went through quite a few changes from its original conception to its eventual release. In an exclusive interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, some of the film’s lead creatives revealed that two of the project’s main characters at one point had a much different relationship than they do in the finished movie.

When asked to discuss a few unused ideas from Lightyear‘s development process, producer Galyn Susman mentioned that Keke Palmer‘s Izzy Hawthorne and Taika Waititi‘s Mo Morrison were initially thought of as siblings. Director Angus MacLane then chimed in to explain that Uzo Aduba‘s Alicia Hawthorne, Buzz’s first partner before he gets lost in time, was not in the first drafts of the story. As a result, Izzy and Mo were made to be family so the film would have the same emotional anchor:

They were originally siblings because Alicia didn’t exist. We wanted to show Izzy has a family, and Buzz doesn’t. Alicia got to be the personification of home that Buzz was after, and then connecting Izzy and Alicia was kind of like “oh, of course, that makes perfect sense.” But it wasn’t always that way.
Angus MacLane

MacLane also revealed that this version of the script had Waititi‘s Mo as a dentist. Apparently, the comedic relief character would have spent a good chunk of the movie attempting to give other characters dental check-ups, making a plethora of dental puns along the way. It’s unknown if this idea was dropped before or after Palmer and Waititi were thought of for the roles, but one can only imagine the kind of hilarious comradery that may have come out of their sibling relationship.

Lightyear lands in theaters June 17th.

June 14, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Lightyear’ Director Reveals Sox Wasn’t Always in the Entire Movie

One of the best new characters introduced in Lightyear is the robotic emotional support cat named Sox, voiced to perfection by Peter Sohn. The little furry sidekick accompanies Buzz and his companions throughout the entirety of their mission, constantly offering helpful information and hilarious sound bites. However, in an exclusive recent interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, director Angus MacLane revealed that Sox wasn’t always planned to be part of the entire film.

When asked if he could share one of his favorite abandoned concepts from the movie, MacLane began to explain that Sox was at one point replaced by a speaking survival kit after the film’s first act. The kit would have a personality similar to that of IVAN, the autopilot on Lightyear’s ship in the finished product, and would have met it’s tragic end as a means of keeping Buzz alive:

It used to be Buzz didn’t bring Sox with him, and he landed in the future, and the first interaction he had was with a robotic dog. It was a Zurg Hound, and then the only weapon he had was a survival kit from his ejection seat and the survival kit had an IVAN-like personality. She would comment on whatever he selected from the survival kit. So he’d grab the flare gun, which is still in the movie, but originally the flare gun was like, “oh, flare gun, excellent choice!”. Like that kind of thing. So it was constant, but ultimately he’d have to shove the whole suitcase into the robot’s mouth and I think that’s what killed it.
Angus MacLane

While all of this sounds fun, especially the idea of a Zurg Hound, it’s likely most fans are pleased that Sox was kept around instead. The character is sure to become one of Pixar’s most popular new additions and brings a certain heartfelt factor to Lightyear that helps put it above a lot of the competition. If you haven’t seen Sox in action, check him out in action when Lightyear hits theaters on June 17th.

June 13, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Lightyear’ Director Reveals Reason Behind Zurg’s New Look

When Lightyear hits theaters on June 17th, it will introduce the world to brand new versions of a couple of iconic characters. Buzz Lightyear and his arch-nemesis, Zurg, will both appear with fresh voices, but only the latter will show up with a new design. In an exclusive interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, the film’s director Angus MacLane explained the reason behind the change and why the toy within Toy Story‘s universe looks so much goofier than the film’s more threatening depiction.

In the past, MacLane has compared the old Buzz Lightyear of Star Command show to Lucasfilm’s Ewoks series from the 1980s. While the movies are slightly more adult, the animated spin-offs are more cartoonish and largely ignore the canon established on the big screen. Over the course of Toy Story 2, audiences were introduced to a toy version of Zurg with a skirt, cape, and humorous personality. MacLane believes this action figure, owned by Andy, was one based on the non-canon Zurg from the Star Command series and not Lightyear:

Well, I imagine the version from Toy Story 2 is from the cartoon that the Toy Story Buzz is from. In the same way that the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command cartoon show, that Zurg looks more like the Zurg that we know from Toy Story 2.
Angus MacLane

If anybody were to be an expert on Zurg, it would be MacLane, who has been part of the character’s creative team since the very beginning. The director used a few anime references to explain that Zurg’s Toy Story design was intended to be over-the-top for comedic effect, while the Lightyear creation was meant to be a bit more menacing:

Interestingly, I started as an intern [at Pixar] in January of ’97, and the first thing I got to do was actually help design Zurg the robot. That one is a little more influenced by the kind of jumbo machinder Japanese toy. It has a little more of that kind of design language… Whereas our Zurg has a little bit more influence from, I would say, more of a real robot influence from Japanese anime. It’s a little bit more Patlabor or Gundam…
Angus MacLane

Additionally, MacLane revealed that the old look for Zurg simply wouldn’t allow for what needed to be done with the character in Lightyear‘s story. Fortunately, the design team was still able to incorporate a few of the iconic elements from his first appearance:

There are things that we needed to do narratively. Like, he can’t have a skirt. That was done for goofiness in movement for [Toy Story 2]. We needed him to have legs, but if he puts his legs together they kind of form the skirt. The cape we dealt with in a different way. So we wanted to kind of take that idea and bring it into our world, but still make it awesome. I go, “what would be the coolest way to make Zurg?”. So we changed the design, but kept it in the language of this film.
Angus MacLane

While the new Zurg may not look as familiar as some might have hoped, he certainly fits the role of science-fiction villain to a tee. Hear James Brolin take over the fearsome role and decide for yourself on June 17th.

June 12, 2022