From creator, head writer, and executive producer Bisha K. Ali, the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel follows local Jersey City teenager and self-professed Captain Marvel fangirl Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), whose biggest dream is initially to cosplay her hero successfully — until an unexpected family heirloom activates a set of incredible powers. Aside from trying to keep her true identity under wraps, Kamala has to figure out how to wield her newfound abilities, avoid suspicion or grounding from her parents Yusuf (Mohan Kapur) and Muneeba (Zenobia Shroff), be the dutiful little sister at her brother Aamir's (Saagar Shaikh) upcoming wedding, and figure out how her family's own history ties to the mysterious bangle that may have just turned her into a superhero herself. The series also stars Matt Lintz as Kamala's best friend Bruno, Yasmeen Fletcher as Kamala's friend Nakia, Laurel Marsden as popular girl Zoe Zimmer, Rish Shah as Kamala's crush Kamran, Aramis Knight as Red Dagger, Arian Moayed and Alysia Reiner as agents for the Department of Damage Control, and Nimra Bucha as Kamran's mother and Clandestines leader Najma, as well as Samina Ahmad, Fawad Khan, Mehwish Hayat, and Farhan Akhtar.

In the wake of the first season's finale, Collider had the opportunity to speak with directors and executive producers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who helmed both the premiere and the finale for the Disney+ show. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, the two discuss whose decision it was for them to direct Episodes 1 and 6, which idea they initially brought to the table that became a major part of the show, how they approached the finale's intense action scene set in a high school, who was actually responsible for directing that post-credit scene, what fans can expect from the upcoming Batgirl movie (and where they are in post-production), and more.

Collider: When did you find out that you would be directing the bookends of the season? Was it a Marvel preference to have you guys on both? Or did you request Episodes 1 and 6 specifically?

ADIL EL ARBI: That was during the beginning of COVID 2020. We just had the job, and Kevin Feige specifically wanted us to do the first and the last one, because he felt like [with] bookends, we would create a style, the visual style of it all, and then we would just try to finish it in a satisfying finale. That was always his decision, to do it like that.

I'm glad you brought up visual style, too, because one of the things I think that these Disney+ shows have really done well is be a great showcase for creators to just really show off their visual sensibilities in a way that differentiates them from the other shows. What were some of the early suggestions that you brought for this show that ended up in the finished result?

BILALL FALLAH: That animation was not really present in the script, was not really in a concept, so that's something that we brought. That's why we were like, "Yeah, we have to bring that animation." We are fans of the comic book and the comic book aesthetic, and we really wanted to get inside of the head of Kamala Khan and show her fantasy world imagination. We came up with this animation, that's also inspiration from the Spider-Verse or Edgar Wright movies, Scott Pilgrim. That's when we made the presentation to Kevin Feige, and he said, "Yeah, I like it. I love it. But just don't go overboard. Don't do it too much and stay true to the characters." That's how we brought that animation to life in this show.

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Image via Disney+

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Episode 6 is really well suited to your sensibilities as directors given it's very action-heavy. How did you want to introduce that kind of tension while keeping it realistically limited to the fact that these are technically kids, most of them without superpowers, that are fighting?

EL ARBI: Well, I think that we try to do it with humor. We learned from the great Jerry Bruckheimer that funny is money. And obviously, we watched a lot of the John Hughes movies, but also Spielberg, that kind of Goonies vibe and E.T. How could kids use all the little means not necessarily to win, but at least to try to win some time? That's actually the part of the plan. It was great fun to try to find that balance between something that could be realistic. At the same time, it had to be fun and funny, but it still had to be cool to watch. That was a big challenge, but I think us together with our VFX team, DP, and the producers, we came up with our Home Alone plan that made this sequence worthwhile.

It's a scene, though, that in spite of the fun and the excitement, there's still a lot of heavy emotion. You're getting Kamala's neighborhood basically as front row witnesses, including her own family, to this attack on children. How did you try and balance the intense emotion of the scene while also finding ways to keep it lighthearted, as well?

FALLAH: Spielberg is a big influence from that, too. It's like all his movies are very... You have these emotional moments, and you have these lighthearted situations. In this case, her real superpower is not really the power she has as a superhero, but it's more her family. Her family is a real hero power, and that was extremely important for us. That's why, for me, a key scene is the moment that she embiggens. She's down on the ground. It's her lowest point, and that's the moment that she looks at her family, her friends, and that's how she finds this inner motivation, gets the last energy assist, embiggen, and boom. She becomes Ms. Marvel, and that is the balance. It's her family. In the beginning, she was trying to find herself. Now, she is who she is, and she accepts family and friends and her neighborhood as part of her identity and her history.

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Image via Disney+

I have to ask about the post-credit scene. When was that filmed? Was that you guys, or did somebody else chip in on that?

EL ARBI: So, that was actually... Nia DaCosta shot that while she was shooting The Marvels. She was on set with Brie Larson and Iman, and she didn't know that scene was going to be used for the post-credit scene. Marvel is very good in separating all the things. So, we would always ask Kevin, "Yo, when's Captain Marvel going to show up?" And he would always tell us, "Don't worry about it. You'll see." Meanwhile, he has said to Nia DaCcosta, "Just shoot that scene. We need that. And you'll see." All of a sudden, when we were calibrating the final episodes after the credits, we said, "Oh. There's Captain Marvel." So that was a big surprise for us, as well. But it was pretty cool. It was pretty cool.

Switching gears a little bit to Batgirl, I'm sure there's not a lot that you can say, but is there anything that you can share about where you are in post-production?

FALLAH: Yeah, we are in a full editing process. We're just editing the movie. If you talk about our experience with Ms. Marvel, it's an origin story the same way Batgirl is an origin story. It's seeing that journey from somebody who's totally not a superhero becoming a superhero. In that way, we had a lot of experience with Ms. Marvel that we carried on this project. Of course, there's a big difference in the sense that Ms. Marvel is a teenager, colorful world, while Batgirl is a grown woman. She has a job, and she's in Gotham City. It's kind of darker. It's Batman, the OG. Those worlds are different, but it's very interesting to see how they become superheroes.

All episodes of Ms. Marvel are currently available to stream on Disney+. Batgirl is slated for a 2022 release on HBO Max.