Ms. Marvel premiers on Disney Plus in a week, but star Iman Vellani is already securing her status as an icon. Before the show’s release, Vellani sat down with Toronto Now to discuss her journey from an average Canadian teen to Marvel’s first Muslim superhero. Vellani revealed she got the congratulatory call from Marvel while hanging out with friends. Not realizing Marvel was recording the call, she had a full-on excited-cry meltdown (so relatable).
Throughout the interview, Vellani seemed similar to the down-to-Earth fangirl she plays as Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel). Her favorite pastime is watching and writing about movies. She confirmed that one of the few social media platforms she interacts on is Letterboxd, a site devoted to opinions on and love of all things film.
According to her account, Vellani rated over 820 movies so far. They range from classics like Taxi Driver to modern masterpieces like Lady Bird. However, her two-star rating and review of 2019’s Captain Marvel is what people are talking about.
Much ado about Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larson as the titular character, has been a point of contention in the Marvel fandom since its release. Many negative reviews flooded websites like RottenTomatoes.com, where mostly male fans expressed their anger at an unapologetically powerful woman being the center of a superhero film. Brie Larson herself received a lot of sexist trolling. Thankfully, Captain Marvel and her legacy have survived these attacks. She appeared in the later Avengers films and is the guiding inspiration for the new hero Ms. Marvel.
It seems like a disconnect that Ms. Marvel’s star would give her character’s hero such a low rating. Vellani may have given the movie only two stars, but she also left a brief review, saying, “These stars are not for Brie Larson, I will sacrifice my own life … for Brie Larson.”
Although Vellani didn’t like Captain Marvel very much, it had nothing to do with the hero of the movie or the actor behind the role. This is accurate, because Brie Larson is amazing and deserves so much more Captain Marvel action in the MCU. She knocked Captain Marvel’s whole vibe out of the park, and it’s sadly relatable for Vellani to want to distance her criticism of the character’s solo film overall from the sexist reactions to Brie Larson personally.
Hopefully, there will be much fangirling over Captain Marvel in the new show. Right now, there is no word whether Brie Larson will be in the Ms. Marvel series. However, another upcoming Marvel movie, The Marvels, will connect Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel (along with other Marvel-titled heroes).
(feature image: Dinsey/Marvel)
