Nia DaCostais ready for takeoff.
like stop.'"
“Initially, it was going to come out a year ago,” she explains.
Nia DaCosta on the set of ‘The Marvels’.Laura Radford/Marvel Studios
“Now that it’s finally in the world, it’s really nice.”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You’ve talked about growing up as a big Marvel nerd.
Was there a point during this process where you geeked out the hardest?
Carol’s flerken Goose makes coffee in ‘The Marvels’.Marvel Studios
Just being able to text Kevin Feige was a big thing for me.
What are you going to do forthat?
I have ideas!"
Iman Vellani, Brie Larson, and Teyonah Parris in ‘The Marvels.'.Laura Radford/Marvel Studios
I just admire him a lot.
Was there a particular set you loved the most?
and Carol’s ship.
Little kittens… erm… flerkens cause chaos in space in ‘The Marvels’.Marvel Studios
Those were two that I really loved.
Creating that ship was a way of answering that question.
You got hooked on Marvel as a kid because your uncle collected comics.
Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan faces a flerken in ‘The Marvels’.Marvel Studios
What did young Nia love most about those early superhero stories?
On one hand, I think it was a kind of escapism.
On another, I deeply connected with the X-Men.
Thematically, they’re really fascinating.
The idea of what makes you different is actually your superpower, that’s really powerful.
In the movie, Kamala Khan is an escapist fan like that.
Did you connect with that character?
Yeah, it’s that fandom part of her.
She really, really loves superheroes.
She writes fan fiction.
Tell me a bit about getting to work with the stunts and action elements of a movie like this.
That’s not something you have a lot of in your filmography.
As a viewer, I love great stunts, and I love great fight scenes.
What are some of the things you found inspiring?
I was interested in the 30 years that we haven’t seen [Carol].
We can almost see her as a new character.
This is like Carol and Kamala, showing the physicality of how they are different.
I also loved thebathroom fight sceneinFallout[the sixthMission: Impossiblemovie].
The fight coordinator we had was the fight coordinator for that scene.
I was really inspired to do something as grounded and as brutal.
I also have to ask about the feline actors.
What was it like to have all these cats running around on set?
So wonderful and fun!
It slows things down for sure, but it was great.
Cats aren’t supposed to be able to do that!
It was really cool for all of us on set to see that happen.
I kept holding kittens all day.
I’m allergic to cats, but I was just like, “I can’t help it!
They’re so cute!”
Was there any diva behavior from any of the cats?
Good to know."
But honestly, considering that they’re cats, they were exemplary.
With cats, you never really know what you’re going to get.
Sometimes they’re just like, “We’re not doing it today.
Give me my chicken and get out of here.”
The great thing is that when you’re working with your department heads, it’s the same.
That collaboration is so special, and it’s why I love directing in the first place.
That was where things were new.
You’ve said that you spoke to some other Marvel directors before starting production.
Did they give you any advice that you found particularly helpful?
I probably talked to [Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Ringsdirector] Destin Daniel Cretton the most.
He’s just really great.
The biggest thing that I found interesting was that we all had different experiences.
There are commonalities, obviously, but everyone is able to put themselves into the process as filmmakers.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and brevity.
Want more movie news?
