'Ms. Marvel' directors presented a PowerPoint to Kevin Feige to convince him to include animation, inspired by 'Into the Spider-Verse'

• Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah shared the inspirations behind the fun visuals in "Ms. Marvel."
• They told Insider they pitched Kevin Feige a presentation filled with Spider-Man and John Hughes movies.

The first episode of the new Disney+ series "Ms. Marvel" gave audiences a fun taste of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that is rarely seen.

With past shows like "Moon Knight," "Hawkeye," "Loki," and "WandaVision" taking on a more serious tone, here comes a standout show that's refreshingly light.

You can give some of that credit to filmmaking duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah.

The Moroccan-Belgian filmmakers (known collectively as Adil and Bilall) instantly saw "Ms. Marvel" as a show that should be filled with color, life, and celebration of culture.

"When we learned about the project we jumped at the chance because we felt we could bring our Moroccan flavor," Bilall told Insider over a phone call with Adil last week. "Bringing a distinct style but giving an ethnic and cultural part to it."

The "Ms. Marvel" comic-book character was created by editors Sana Amanat and Stephen Wacker, writer G. Willow Wilson, and artists Adrian Alphona and Jamie McKelvie. The comics follow a Muslim teen named Kamala Khan (played by Iman Vellani in the series) as she navigates her teenage life in Jersey City, New Jersey.

But things get interesting when she unlocks powers that give her the ability to enlarge and stretch her body. Khan, who is obsessed with Captain Marvel, sets out to become her own superhero.

Adil and Bilall were inspired by the adaptation show creator Bisha K. Ali had crafted, which leaned into Khan's Pakistani background. Also, the two could relate to the character's feelings of being an outsider in social settings.

"We never really feel like we're Belgian when we're in Belgium, and we don't really feel Moroccan when we're in Morocco," Bilall said of himself and Adil.

But they felt "Ms. Marvel" was lacking a visual touchstone. It became their quest to foster one for it.

Bilall said he got star struck pitching to Marvel head Kevin Feige

Adil and Billal felt animation would make the show pop. So they compiled a presentation with things that inspired them and headed to the Marvel Studios offices to pitch how they would direct the series to studio head Kevin Feige and his team.

"Kevin walked in and I have to admit, I was a little starstruck," Bilall said. "We did this whole PowerPoint presentation and we told them that this is our influences for the show. 'Into the Spider-Verse' was a big one because of the animation."

"For us, the animation was something we always wanted to put into it, "Adil added. "We wanted to portray that dream world of Kamala Khan and the comic book aspect to it. We were afraid that Kevin would say no because it's different from the other shows of the MCU."

The presentation also displayed the light tone they were going for, the filmmakers said, noting everything from John Hughes' classic high-school movies to "Boy Meets World" as their guiding lights.

"American high school from the 1980s and 1990s was a big inspiration for us," Bilall said. "Very colorful and very young."

The filmmakers admitted that they didn't know if they had convinced Feige when they left the room. But the "Bad Boys for Life" directors eventually got the call letting them know that they would not just direct two of the six-episode series, but be made executive producers as well.

The result is a pilot episode (one of the two episodes Adil and Bilall directed) that sets the tone for the entire series.

From an opening sequence featuring an animated collage, to flashy dream sequences, and Jersey City murals that come to life through animation, the fun, colorful, and cultural tapestry that Adil and Bilall envisioned became a reality on-screen — and all told through the eyes of a Muslim character.

The duo still can't believe that last part.

"It was during the editing of 'Bad Boys for Life' in 2019, me and Bilall were talking, 'What is the next step?' The next step has to do something with Marvel," Adil recalled. "But we joked that if it was Marvel it would have to be a Muslim superhero. What we didn't know was they were preparing a show about one."

"That's the most special thing for me," Bilall said of bringing Kamala Khan to the screen. "That she's a Muslim/Pakistani."

The first episode of "Ms. Marvel" is now available on Disney+. New episodes air on Wednesdays until July 13.