Iman Vellani watched Avengers: Endgame five times in theaters, and she’s still not over it. The Ms. Marvel actress opened up about her reaction to the 2019 blockbuster in a recent video interview, describing it as one of the most emotional moviegoing experiences of her life.
Vellani’s connection to Endgame predates her own Marvel Cinematic Universe casting by years. Long before she played Kamala Khan, she was simply a superfan from Markham, Ontario, sitting in a theater watching the culmination of over a decade of storytelling unfold on screen.
“I remember seeing it five times in a row and then never again because it was such a precious event in my life that revisiting it for this podcast made me very emotional. I couldn’t stop crying. And it’s like, I’m not even playing this up at all,” she said in an appearance on the ‘Countdown to Avengers: Doomsday Official Podcast’
That reaction puts her in good company. Cast members, including Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth, both admitted to sobbing repeatedly at the film’s world premiere, with Hemsworth going as far as to say he cried more than his co-star.
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Iman Vellani’s Journey From Avengers Superfan to Ms. Marvel Herself
Vellani’s emotional attachment to Endgame fits a pattern that goes back to before she ever auditioned for Marvel Studios. She has said she grew up as a devoted MCU fan who frequented a comic shop across the street from her high school and had a long-standing soft spot for one hero in particular.
“I just had the fattest crush on Iron Man, and I wanted more Iron Man,” Iman Vellani told Etalk in 2022, describing herself as a lifelong fan of the franchise well before landing the role of Kamala Khan.
That fandom became central to her casting. Producers built parts of Kamala’s characterization directly around Vellani’s real personality, leaning into the fact that she was, like her character, an Avengers-obsessed teenager who once dressed up as Ms. Marvel for Halloween years before she ever played the part professionally.
Watching Tony Stark’s arc reach its conclusion in Endgame as a fan, only to later join the same universe as an actress, adds another layer to why the film hit her so hard. Five trips to the theater is a lot even by Marvel diehard standards, and it underscores just how much the Infinity Saga’s ending meant to the people who grew up loving it before ever appearing in it themselves.
Vellani is expected to reprise Kamala Khan in future Marvel Studios projects as the franchise moves further into its next phase.
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