Aramis Knight, who portrays Kareem (also known as Red Dagger) on Ms. Marvel, speaks to Screen Rant in this exclusive interview about joining the MCU through the show. One of the newest heroes to join the MCU in 2022 was Kamala Khan, played by Iman Vellani. Disney+'s latest original series, Ms. Marvel, follows a Pakistani teenager in New Jersey who has been a big Avengers and Captain Marvel fan her whole life.

But Kamala's life is turned upside down the day she discovers that she has cosmic-like superpowers, which has been the big focus of Ms. Marvel season 1. As Ms. Marvel gears up for its finale, the Disney+ drama recently introduced one of Kamala's allies from the comics. In Ms. Marvel episode 4, titled "Seeing Red," Kamala traveled to Karachi and meets Kareem, better known to Marvel fans as Red Dagger. Played by Into the Badlands star Aramis Knight, Kareem quickly befriended Kamala as she tried to get more answers about the origin of her powers.

RELATED: Ms. Marvel Already Teased The Answer To Her Costume Mystery

Screen Rant recently spoke with Knight, discussing his journey to joining the MCU through Ms. Marvel and bringing Red Dagger to life. Throughout the interview, Knight details the secretive casting process that led to him landing the Ms. Marvel gig, the importance of South Asian representation, what Marvel crossovers he would like to do, and what his hopes are for a potential season 2 of the series.

Screen Rant: I know everyone who joins the MCU has these very intense secretive casting processes when they are going up for Marvel Studios. So what was your audition like? Did you even know you were auditioning for Ms. Marvel or was it just for "Teenage Boy in Disney Show?"

Aramis Knight: I knew it was a Disney+ Marvel show. I knew they were looking for South Asian actors. So, it took 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. Luckily, it all worked out because I wanted to play Kareem; I wanted to learn and do new a dialect, bring my martial arts to the show. I felt like no one else could play Kareem but me.

What was the timeline after having booked the show but you didn't know who you're playing to then actually finding out, was it like a long process?

Aramis Knight: 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.' 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 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 sure. There's only so many people in the world that can say, "I'm in the MCU and I'm playing a superhero," so that's pretty awesome. What was your history with the Marvel world before booking this?

Aramis Knight: [I wasn't] a huge comic book fan, but I was a fan of some of the early Marvel movies. I grew up on Iron Man [from 2008] and The Amazing Spider Man, Wolverine - I love Logan. But I wouldn't say I'm as big of a comic book fan as Iman [Vellani] would be or Laurel [Marsden.] But I've definitely learned a lot more since I've gotten to be a part of the MCU.

I know he is kind of a recent character in the comic book universe, but did you do any research for Red Dagger? If so, what aspects of his character did you really love getting into?

Aramis Knight: Yeah, absolutely. I think you're right in saying that he is kind of a new character, there's not loads and loads of information on Kareem. I think we were kind of starting with a clean slate, and I think the characters that we create in this show are really going to translate to the comics now. I feel like, in a way, we're kind of starting these characters from scratch.

Although they do have some character traits, like Kareem's very confident. He reps his city really hard, he's super loyal. Those were all things that I sort of took from the comics and implemented them into the character work. But really, we were starting from the beginning. It's not like Spider Man where there are hundreds of issues of comic books and Easter eggs. There was nothing for us to really go off of, just very simple character traits, which I think was good because it gave us a lot of creative freedom to make what we wanted to make.

Aramis Knight as Red Dagger in Ms Marvel episodee 5

I know filming this show during a pandemic probably wasn't that easy. How did you deal with it as an actor? Conveniently, you play a character who is always wearing a mask, but in general, what was the experience of having to film a show during these circumstances? 

Aramis Knight: It wasn't too bad. We had to test every single day on set. Health and safety were always really on us. But yeah, I was thankful to have like a really practical costume so I didn't have to walk around with it and then an N95 on my face all the time. I could just kinda walk around as Kareem and most of the time when he's in his Red Dagger outfit, he keeps his mask up anyway, so it was pretty nice to be able to just use my costume. [laughs]

It looks great, by the way! I looked up some images from the comics, and I saw how it was very accurate but it's also very streetwise. He doesn't stick out too much.

Aramis Knight: We modernized his costume a bit, I think. In the comics, his scarf is much longer and it drapes much more. But we went with something a bit more traditional, something that is a bit more fluid so that in the midst of our action scenes, I wouldn't be fiddling with my mask.

How many variations did it go through, was this the first initial design?

Aramis Knight: There was a couple. Initially, when I had first tried on the costume, there was no texture in the vest or the shirt, it was just colors. And then Arjun [Bhasin], our amazing costume designer, was showing me the materials that he was going to use. We tried a few different masks on some were a bit longer, like actual real scarves. Then some were just like bandana-form, like the one that we ended up going with.

But I was glad that we ended up going with that, because I think the long scarf plus [filming with] Thailand heat in the fight scenes, running around and all that would have made it a bit difficult. It's also terrible for continuity [with a] scarf. It's so bad for continuity, because it could be over one shoulder one second, the other shoulder in the next. I think it's much better that we went with the bandana style.

I'm sure you've seen one way or the other how much this show means to people, especially in the South Asian community and people who come from Muslim heritage. They get to see themselves on screen. For brown people in general, we are slowly starting to get see more of us on screen. Do you remember the first time you saw yourself on screen, where you felt, "Oh wow, I'm being represented?"

Aramis Knight: Not until Ms. Marvel. I started acting when I was five and I had never played something authentic to my heritage up until now. Which is pretty crazy. I always played Hispanic or Persian or Armenian. I played Arab, but I'd never actually been able to play a Pakistani character. Yeah, not until the show really, to be honest.

We're blessed that we have shows like Ms. Marvel that will hopefully pave the way for more, because we've come a long way but we still need to see more of us. These two episodes really set up Kareem and Kamala's friendship in a very big, fun and Marvel way. Could you talk about working with Iman and what do you hope to see from their dynamic in the future? Whether it is a season 2 of this show or maybe in another Marvel project.

Aramis Knight: Iman is one of my best friends, still to this day. We're very close; we lived next to each other in Thailand. We became such good friends throughout this that you sometimes forget that we're working on a television show together. And that eventually the show will come out and people will have opinions on us and they will perceive us together and separately. I never really took that into account just because, we're like a big family, as cliché as it sounds. Our cast is very, very close.

But working with her was incredible. I was so surprised by her seasoning and at home she was on set for having just begun her career, to have pretty incredible terms. In terms of the characters. I really have no preference, I think Kareem is a great ally for Kamala and I think he will continue to be and I hope for more team ups in the future.

Speaking of team-ups and other dynamics, even though it was short-lived, you got to work with Farhan Ahktar as Waleed. Can you talk about getting to work with him, and these characters that had this tight relationship? 

Aramis Knight: Yeah, working with Farhan was amazing, [he's] such a down-to-earth guy. We didn't talk about work too much while we were on set. We're just talking about personal hobbies that we have. He's big into skydiving, I'm big into camping. I was telling him about my van, and he was telling me about his skydiving excursions. We spent a total of probably three weeks or so on set together, so we became good friends. But it was amazing to be in his presence. Lots of respect there.

He gave me bits and pieces of advice that I'll keep with me for a long time. He was great to work with, [such a] super, super humble and nice guy.

Whether we see it on screen or not, how does Kareem deal with Waleed's death going forward? Because everything in episodes 4 and 5 was so important and was so intense. Everything went by so quickly that there was really not a moment for your character to really process everything.

Aramis Knight: Yeah, it's true. I think that he's gonna have to take on a lot more responsibility for the Red Daggers now,. He says that in the goodbye [to Kamala] "I have to go back and tell everyone what happened." So he's kind of a bearer of bad news. But I also think it will probably garner him somewhat of a promotion within the society. It felt like he was Waleed's right-hand man, so he'll probably take over some of the decision-making for Waleed.

But I think you're right in saying that he didn't really have time to process it. And also, I think this is what they really live for. I think deep down, Kareem understands that Waleed would not have wanted to go any other way. He fought to the very end, it was a very honorable death and I think for that reason, there's a bit of honor in the way that he went.

Am I right to say that, Kareem and the people he grew up with, they kind of had to grow up very fast. They didn't really get to have a childhood. Is that kind of right to assume?

Aramis Knight: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's why initially, Kareem is so sort of drawn to Kamala. Because I'm not 100% sure that Kareem has ever really even had a best friend because he lives this secret life. And you even see it on Clifton Beach, although he has these friends, they don't know that he's Red Dagger. They don't know what he does during the day, they really don't know anything about him.

There's a lot of trust initially built between Kamala and Kareem. I think that's why he's so intrigued by her is because he hasn't had a lot of time to just be with a girl or learn about a girl. I found that [to be] a very fun dynamic to play with between when Kareem is very business between being Kareem just having fun.

Aramis Knight As Red Dagger on Ms Marvel And Talks Season 2 Potential Return

From watching these two episodes, was there anything that you shot that didn't make it into these episodes?

Aramis Knight: Yeah, a bunch of stuff. A lot of stuff on Clifton Beach. We had a ton of lightning delays that day so we had about 25% of the time that we should have had to shoot all of Clifton Beach. But yeah, there was a whole festival at Clifton Beach that didn't end up making into the end of the cut. There's a scene with Waleed, Kamala and I that didn't make it into the cut. And then we got actually was all done during reshoots. So we had shot something completely different in Thailand, as the fight but creatively it didn't make a lot of sense. So coming back for reshoots, we wanted to redo it.

I know you've talked about this in other interviews about working with a dialect coach and you getting that Pakistani accent. But can you talk more about the process because I've always been fascinated when actors have to learn to do accents.

Aramis Knight: It was difficult. It's already difficult to get down the sounds of a certain dialect, but it's even more difficult to make it sound real. As well as making it like seem second nature [where] you're not thinking about it, and it took some time. I think even by the time we ended shooting, I had improved so much. i had an amazing dialect coach and amazing culture coach. That was also something that really drew me to Kareem because it's a huge challenge. Huge, huge challenge. I felt they really put a lot of trust in me to hire me because I'm American, you know? To go in there and have to appear as a kid from Karachi, [to] sound like a kid from Karachi and act like a kid from Karachi? Yeah, it takes a lot of faith in me.

When you're not doing the show and when you're not playing the character, do you still do it every once in a while? Do you rehearse that accent, just in case when Kevin Feige calls and says "Hey, you need to come back"? 

Aramis Knight: Yeah, absolutely. Mostly when I'm in the shower, actually. It's really funny. Whenever I'm in the shower, I feel like my inner-most thoughts come out. So a lot of times I'll get stuck in the accent. But now I have a pretty solid lock on it. So come a time when Kareem is back around, it shouldn't be a problem.

Episode 5, as you said, did wrap up things for him. But what are the chances that we might see you in the finale?

Aramis Knight: Oh, I definitely can't talk about that. But Kareem is a great ally to Kamala and really a great ally to every hero in the MCU, so you'll definitely see more of Kareem.

Given how many heroes are in the MCU,  do you have a wish list of characters that you hope to interact with, whether it's on future Disney+ shows or in other movies?

Aramis Knight: I think Red Dagger and Deadpool would be really good.

It would be kind of hilarious.

Aramis Knight: Yeah, I think there would just be a lot there for us to work with. And then selfishly, I'd love to meet up with Moon Knight, just because...Oscar Isaac.

Yeah, just Oscar Isaac, because it speaks for itself! I know many are hoping for Ms. Marvel season 2. If that were to happen, do you see yourself coming back? Have there been any talks about more Ms. Marvel?

Aramis Knight: Yeah, if there is a season 2, I will be back.

I'm looking forward to it. Because I definitely want to see Kareem in Kamala's world, in New Jersey, and all of that.

Aramis Knight: I'm not sure if we're going to stay true to comics or not. But if we do stay true to comics, then he'll end up in New Jersey. And I don't think it made it into the episode, but we had a couple of lines teasing Kareem ending up in New Jersey. But it's really up in the air, we aren't too sure.

I definitely want to see those scenes because I was hoping they would be something like that. This can't be it. There has to be a little bit more for Kareem.

Aramis Knight: We tease New Jersey, but then we ended up reshooting that scene and the lines changed a bit.

Before I let you go, outside of future MCU adventures, regardless of where they might be, what is coming up for you? Do you have any TV shows or movies you're working on right now?

Aramis Knight: Right now, I'm just home kind of relaxing and auditioning a bit. There's some stuff in the works but nothing to report right now. But very soon.

All right, well, I look forward to seeing where you go next and to see you back as Red Dagger but thank you so much for your time today. I look forward for fans to read and see this interview and hopefully you get that Deadpool crossover. 

Aramis Knight: Hell yeah!

Because just seeing him with kids, or teenagers, it's just hilarious!

Aramis Knight: Yeah, Red Dagger and Deadpool would be a really interesting, duo.

Well, Kevin Feige if he's watching, hopefully, we'll make it happen.

Aramis Knight: Oh do it, Mr. Feige!

Ms. Marvel Synopsis

Kamala Khan uses her cosmic powers in Ms. Marvel

A great student, an avid gamer and a voracious fan-fiction scribe, she has a special affinity for superheroes, particularly Captain Marvel. But Kamala struggles to fit in at home and at school—that is, until she gets super powers like the heroes she's always looked up to. Life is easier with super powers, right?

Check out our interviews with Ms. Marvel stars Iman Vellani, Mohan Kapur, Zenobia Shroff & Saagar Shaikh, Rish Shah, Yasmeen Fletcher & Matt Lintz, Farhan Akhtar, and Travina Springer.

MORE: The Answer To Ms. Marvel's Biggest Mystery Seems Obvious

The Ms. Marvel season 1 finale drops this Wednesday, July 13, only on Disney+.

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