Development By August 2019,
Marvel Studios had begun development on a
Ms. Marvel television series for the streaming service
Disney+, with
Bisha K. Ali hired to serve as the
head writer. In September 2020,
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah were hired to direct two episodes of the series, including the first episode. Executive producers include Marvel Studios'
Kevin Feige,
Louis D'Esposito,
Victoria Alonso, and
Brad Winderbaum, in addition to
Kamala Khan co-creator
Sana Amanat, El Arbi, Fallah, and Ali. The first episode, titled "Generation Why", was written by Ali.
Writing Ali described the episode as about "being a fan and being able to speak to fans and connect to them". The episode explains how people within the
Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) are aware of the events of
Avengers: Endgame (2019), by revealing that
Ant-Man / Scott Lang has been giving podcast interviews detailing the battle. Determining this was how people were aware took many iterations and discussions with the creatives, with other ideas being that the world was posting about it on social media, and a very early suggesting from Ali that drones were near by to live stream the battle. Ali was open to creating these fictional podcasts with Lang actor
Paul Rudd. Ali called the AvengerCon scene in the first draft of the script "bananas" with " in it", including a person
cosplaying as
Korg who could not get through security, and a
Pegasus that
Valkyrie rides so they could have "represent[ed] everybody in the show".
Casting The episode stars
Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan,
Matt Lintz as Bruno Carrelli, Yasmeen Fletcher as Nakia Bahadir, Zenobia Shroff as Muneeba Khan,
Mohan Kapur as Yusuf Khan, Saagar Shaikh as Aamir Khan, Laurel Marsden as
Zoe Zimmer, and
Azhar Usman as Najaf. Also starring are
Arian Moayed as agent
Cleary,
Alysia Reiner as agent Deever,
Jordan Firstman as Gabe Wilson,
Anjali Bhimani as auntie Ruby, and Sophia Mahmud as auntie Zara. Ryan Penagos, vice president and creative executive at
Marvel New Media, has a
cameo appearance as the cosplay competition host at
AvengerCon. Shaikh and fellow series star
Rish Shah appeared in the background at AvengerCon dressed as
Iron Man and
Captain America, respectively, since both were so impressed with the set and wanted to be a part of it. Many of the
extras were fans of the MCU and real-life cosplayers.
Design Khan's high school featured a plaque with the names of all of her comic book creators, including writer
G. Willow Wilson, editor Stephen Wacker, artists
Adrian Alphona,
Jamie McKelvie, and
Takeshi Miyazawa, colorist Ian Herring, penciler Nico Leon, and letterer Joe Caramagna. El Arbi called the AvengerCon set a "homage to the fans" and "an
Easter egg paradise". The directors researched real-life comic cons to help inspire the various costumes and cosplays worn by the attendees. The creators had to imagine what regular people in the MCU would know about the Avengers and the other heroes of the world, which resulted in design choices such as referring to
Groot as "Mr. Tree". Amanat explained, "Nobody knows that Groot's name is Groot... People [of the MCU] might know some things, but they don't know the things." The series' main-on-end title sequence was designed by
Perception who filmed the sequence in Jersey City to pay homage to Khan's character, while also designing the murals themselves. The inspiration for the design is to show Jersey City from Khan's point of view while "celebrating the comic books and their artwork that this series is based on".
Filming Filming took place at
Trilith Studios,
Blackhall Studios, and Areu Brothers Studios, with El Arbi and Fallah directing the episode, and
Robrecht Heyvaert serving as cinematographer. Establishing shots were also filmed in New Jersey. The integration of the animated elements took a lot of planning during pre-production, and did not allow the directors any ability to improvise how those sequences were shot. El Arbi called the sequence with Khan and Carrelli biking "technically very difficult" since it was a
single take shot that needed the dialogue to match up with the pre-planned animations for the walls behind them. Another "super complex" shot was when Khan collapses onto her couch with the camera falling with her to make it look like she is on the ceiling; it took 15 days to craft the rig to execute the shot and about 20 takes for it to succeed. Feige called filming on the AvengerCon set "cathartic" given the production was filming during the
COVID-19 pandemic and comic conventions were not happening. He also hinted that Marvel Studios had discussed making AvengerCon an actual convention, while hinting that there would be a few places fans could experience
Ms. Marvels version of AvengerCon. Production designer Christopher Glass suggested the giant Ant-Man head cause destruction at AvengerCon, which was not originally scripted, taking inspiration from the opening sequence of
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) where
Indiana Jones is chased by a giant boulder.
Editing and visual effects El Arbi and Fallah shot a large amount of footage on the AvengerCon set to create its montage sequence, revealing their initial
director's cut had to be shorted by Marvel Studios. However, after positive reactions from test audiences to the sequence, Marvel Studios re-edited the sequence to be longer than what El Arbi and Fallah originally created. Visual effects for the episode were created by
Method Studios,
Digital Domain,
Framestore London and Montreal,
Trixter,
RISE, Folks VFX,
FuseFX,
Base FX, SSVFX,
Moving Picture Company, Stereo D,
Cantina Creative, and The Mill London.
Music The following songs were included in the episode: "
Blinding Lights" by
the Weeknd, "Disco Gully", "
Deal with It" by
Riz Ahmed, "
I Don't Want to Talk" by
Wallows, "
Oh Nanba" by
S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and
Aaryan Dinesh Kanagaratnam, "OH!" by
the Linda Lindas, "Ko Ko Koreena" by
Ahmed Rushdi, "Sohniye I Love You" by
Nahid Akhtar, "Sinkies" by
Hot Sugar", "
My Type" by
Saint Motel, "Proudly Presents" by Samuel Pegg, "Rozi" by
Eva B, and the
Habanera aria from
Carmen. Also featured during the AvengerCon sequence is
Alan Menken's "
Star Spangled Man" from
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). == Marketing ==