Ms. Marvel Red Dagger Star Details Secretive MCU Casting Process

EXCLUSIVE: Ms. Marvel star Aramis Knight talks about the secretive MCU casting process before landing the role of Red Dagger in the Disney+ series.

Ms. Marvel Red Dagger Star Details Secretive MCU Casting Process

Ms. Marvel actor Aramis Knight talks about the secretive MCU casting process before landing the role of Red Dagger in the Disney+ series. Since the Infinity Saga concluded in Phase 3, Phase 4 has been all about fleshing out the rest of the MCU. While other established characters are getting a bigger spotlight, Marvel Studios is also focused on bringing in the next generation of heroes and villains. Thanks to the launch of Disney+, Marvel Studios has gained an additional home where they are able to launch new original series that help expand the larger MCU.

One of the new shows to join the MCU slate in 2022 is Ms. Marvel, starring Iman Vellani as Marvel’s Kamala Khan. The Disney+ drama follows the Pakistani teenage heroine as she discovers that she has powers after having been a Captain Marvel fan for years. Ms. Marvel won’t be the last time fans see Kamala in the MCU as the show is setting up her arc in the Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels. In the 2023 film, Vellani will unite with Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers and Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau.

Throughout the second half of Ms. Marvel season 1, one of the new allies to have joined Kamala’s journey is Kareem, a.k.a.the Red Dagger. Played by Aramis Knight, Kareem made his first appearance in Ms. Marvel episode 4, as Kamala traveled to Karachi to gain some answers. In an exclusive Screen Rant interview, Knight talked about the casting process of joining the MCU. Like many other actors who have joined Marvel Studios in any of their projects, it was a very secretive casting period for him before landing the role of Red Dagger on Ms. Marvel.

So I knew it was a Disney+/Marvel show. I knew they were looking for South Asian actors. So it took like just a little bit of research to kind of figure out that I was auditioning for Ms. Marvel and then after diving into the comics, I had a feeling that it was for Kareem as well. But I was actually the first person cast in the show, which was really cool. I wasn’t even sure which character I was going to play at first. I was just attached to Ms. Marvel as a whole. So luckily, it all worked out because I wanted to play Kareem, I wanted to learn and do new a dialect, and bring my martial arts to the show. I felt like no one else could play Kareem but me.
Originally, when I had auditioned, it took about 3 months for them to get back to me. I got a call from Sarah Finn [the casting director] while I was visiting my family in Colorado, and they said that they wanted me to test. The next day, my agent calls and tells me ‘Oh, they want you to speak Urdu and they want you to also come with a Pakistani accent.’ So I was like, ‘Okay, I think I can do that.’ I did it a bit as a kid, with my grandma or with my cousins or with my dad, more as a joke. But I had never done it seriously, and with stakes as high as they were. So I went back in, and then within a few days, they told me that I was attached to show and then they had a month to basically tell me which character I was going to play. So it was a long process, but it was actually a quite pleasant one.

For the time being, Kareem’s arc on Ms. Marvel seems like a finished one, at least for season 1. At the end of Ms. Marvel episode 5, Kareem and Kamala part ways as he has to take over for the late Waleed and inform the rest of the Red Daggers what has happened. It’s not unheard of for MCU actors to not even know sometimes that they are auditioning for something at Marvel Studios. A primary example was Spider-Man star Zendaya having the fewest details where all she knew was that she was auditioning for a mystery female role in a Disney movie.

Marvel Studios is good at keeping casting details under wrap, although the younger actors they cast, the more challenging it might get for them. Given the massive popularity behind the Marvel brand, it’s not shocking that Knight could figure out on his own that he was auditioning for Red Dagger on Ms. Marvel. Based on whatever casting sides Knight was reading, there clearly were enough to go off on for him to know that it was Red Dagger this whole time. Whether or not Ms. Marvel season 2 happens or not, hopefully, Red Dagger will be back in the MCU sooner rather than later.