Iman Vellani has had a whirlwind start to her career, turning into an instant household name when she was cast straight out of Markham as Kamala Khan in the new Marvel series Ms. Marvel. Vellani is now transforming her MCU expertise into something totally new: a solo comic series of her own. Chachu, a five-issue neo-noir miniseries, will be released on Aug. 5. We caught up with the superhero to chat about her journey to writing, growing up and finding her identity outside of the MCU.
Where did the idea for this comic start?
I had such an intense three years of my life after I was plucked out of Markham obscurity into Marvel. And that experience was so creatively enriching because I was given so much freedom to make Ms. Marvel whoever I wanted, and bring so much myself to it. So I think after all of that, I had a minute to breathe and process, and I was just feeling some creative restlessness. I didn’t wait around for Hollywood to dictate when I got to be creative next; I just dove into movies, and I was rewatching Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye, which I think is just the epitome of cool. But that made me realize that people who look like me have never really gotten to be the focus for those kinds of stories. The neo-noir and private investigator trope existed just for white men. I wanted to scratch that itch and I wanted to know what a story like that would look like, but from the perspective of a 19-year-old brown girl. I started casually writing my take on the Pakistani Long Goodbye, and I think that just morphed into something else entirely. I started using this idea and this project as my sandbox to explore my newfound interests and curiosities and those growing pains. And I had just finished co-writing a couple Ms. Marvel minis for Marvel Comics, so I had that comic bug, and it just felt like the natural next step.
How did you manage that transition from regular kid to Marvel superhero to present day?
I had the sudden realization that so much of my identity was as a Marvel fan. I had been outsourcing my identity through the content that I was consuming, and part of that was also as a brown kid who didn’t want to accept the fact that I was a brown kid. All the movies that I watched were just white people and I didn’t ever see myself in the mirror. The media I was consuming just gave shape to my identity, and it helped me understand myself by giving me characters and stories to latch onto. But the older you get, the more complicated you get; my contradictions multiplied, and then I just got more curious about myself instead of looking outward. The stories that I love are still very meaningful to me. Iron Man is still my favorite superhero. But those characters could no longer explain all of me, and so eventually there comes a point where you have to stop consuming and start creating your own stuff.
Chachu came out of that transition; it was mostly an attempt to redirect my intensity and my passions that I had been aiming at other people’s work into my own life. I wanted to be curious about myself and my questions and my opinions, the same way I had been in everybody else’s.
How did your time on Ms. Marvel affect that identity struggle?
I was lucky because the kinds of people I was working with, they let me give all of myself. I have this crazy person journal that I carry around everywhere with me, and the producer saw that and they were like, “We’re gonna put that into the character.” So many of my stories and my quirks just entered into the story, and it was wonderful because it made my job easier as an actor who had never done this before. But at the same time I’m like, well I don’t know where I begin and Ms. Marvel ends! So I really wanted to create my own identity outside of that character.
I was trying to realize who I was outside of the MCU, and I came to the conclusion that identity isn’t something that you find in a movie or a comic book, but something that you kind of have to author yourself. And so I think my thesis for this comic was essentially that identity isn’t something that you recover from the past, but something that you write through your own stories.
Do you want to write more comics after this?
Yeah; I love the medium so much, and I grew up reading them. I have so much reverence for the kinds of stories that you can tell in comics, because it’s truly limitless.
Do you envision a page to screen adaptation for this story at some point?
When the story first came to me, I wanted it to be a movie. But I was writing comics and that’s just how my brain was working, so it felt like a natural medium to tell it with. But I am not at all writing this comic for the sole purpose of adapting it. I want this version of Chachu to only exist in this comic form and take advantage of what you can only do in comics. And then I think if and when I do adapt it, it’ll be a version that can only exist in film, and take advantage of all the tools that you can use in film. I respect both mediums for their merits, and I don’t think either one can be substituted.
What was the writing process like for this series?
I don’t think I could write this story now. I wrote it basically two years ago, and it’s so specific to who I was at that age. I’ve been writing it by myself in my childhood bedroom for the most part, and my comic team is really just five people. So you don’t really think that it’s a real thing until everybody starts talking about it and you have to do press about it. So I’m finding different themes that I didn’t realize I had been writing about that are applicable to me now.
I see now how much I had been outsourcing my identity, especially through the adults around me, which is primarily what this comic is about. I’ve been surrounded by so many grown-ups that I admired at 18 years old. They all gave me so much advice and wisdom, but then I also realized that they don’t know everything, and they’re also doing life for the first time just like me, and they have so much they can learn from me.
So this comic is like a time capsule. There’s five issues of this comic, and four and five haven’t been drawn yet. I still have those scripts, and I can change them to be whatever I want. So I can still adapt and I can keep having the story evolve. But it is hard to look back at issue one, which is totally locked in now, and be like, “Oh, I should have changed that.” I have to give myself grace.
How did you find the time to devote your energy to this new project in a new medium?
All the roles I remember getting after Ms. Marvel were the same character. This is an industry that, ironically, lacks imagination. It’s up to the artist to just keep marching to the beat of your own drum. Honestly, if I was getting the roles that I wanted, then I wouldn’t have started writing content, because I wouldn’t have had the time. So I’m glad I ended up jobless. And that gave me time to sit with myself and explore what I want and who I want to work with.
Did you grapple at all with feeling like you had to say yes to any opportunities that came your way?
I still have that battle, especially with social media. I haven’t gotten roles because they didn’t like that I didn’t have clout. That blew my mind. I led my own Disney project, and you’re telling me that because I don’t have Instagram I’m missing out on a job? They’re hiring influencers now, right? And I get it; not a lot of people are showing up to the movies. But things like the Heated Rivalry obsession, this is proof that young storytellers who have vision, that’s what matters. People just want to be respected as an audience and be handed stories, and that is our responsibility as storytellers. I just knew I didn’t want to be an influencer. Whenever I have to go to L.A., my favourite part is going to the Academy Museum or being with my friends who just love movies. My least favourite part of the job is the business of it all.
When you do go back to L.A., what friends or allies have you made there?
I gained really good relationships out of Marvel; Sana Amanat, who produced our show and created the character in the comics, has been an immense support throughout. Same with Kevin Feige; he’s always been very supportive of any of my adventures. And one of my best friends from that show is Yasmeen Fletcher; I think she and I are so similar, we just love the work.
