As Harassment Allegations Fade, Ms Marvel Star Defends the Show and Highlights Women Doing the Heavy Lifting

Marvel watchers have gotten pretty familiar with Mohan Kapur over the last few years. He plays Kamala Khan's dad, Yusuf, in Ms. Marvel, turned up again in The Marvels, and has a small part in Daredevil: Born Again. He just talked about his time on Ms. Marvel, and the story he told says a lot about how different that set felt to him compared to the Indian shoots he grew up on. It also comes after a wave of online backlash last year over serious allegations tied to his name, which did not stop Marvel from using him again.

What Kapur noticed on Ms. Marvel's set

Kapur sat down with filmmaker Pooja Bhatt on her podcast, The Pooja Bhatt Show, and compared the vibe of an American set to what he's used to in India. The thing that jumped out at him: who was doing the heavy lifting, literally.

"The thing that was most heartening for me... I saw women doing heavy lifting and I mean heavy lifting. I am saying they were lifting big a** lights, literally lifting weights... I was like 'behenji main karun?' I was shocked... This is something I found very strange in the States. Everyone does their job."

If you do not speak Hindi, that line translates roughly to him offering to step in and help. He also said that even though he was the most senior actor on set, he kept asking his younger co-stars for notes because, in his words, Bollywood sensibilities - how you pitch dialog and emotion - are different. For context, Ms. Marvel is led by Iman Vellani, with Zenobia Shroff as Yusuf's wife, Muneeba, and Farhan Akhtar pops up in the series too.

His Marvel timeline, at a glance

• Ms. Marvel - Disney Plus series where Kapur debuts as Yusuf Khan, Kamala's dad.
• The Marvels - He returns in the 2023 film.
• Daredevil: Born Again - He appears in season 1 across two episodes; at one point Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock steps in to save him, even as Matt is trying to leave the vigilante life behind.
• D23 presentation - Born Again was touted on the D23 stage alongside returning Daredevil names like Charlie Cox, Jon Bernthal, Deborah Ann Woll, and others.
• 2024 teaser backlash - When fans spotted Kapur in early Born Again footage, a chunk of Marvel Twitter pushed back because of the allegations detailed below.

The controversy and how Marvel handled it

The Direct reported in 2022 that Kapur had been accused of sexually harassing a 15-year-old and sending explicit images. The accusation was posted on X by user @Nayaaaax3, who also alleged that he later gaslit her into thinking she was to blame. Those claims resurfaced as The Marvels rolled out in 2023 and flared up again when Daredevil: Born Again footage arrived in 2024.

Unlike the high-profile Jonathan Majors situation, there has been no public disciplinary action from Marvel Studios regarding Kapur. He remained in The Marvels and appears in Born Again.

So, will we see Yusuf Khan again?

So far, Yusuf has mostly shown up when the story is in New York or directly tied to Kamala's adventures. There is fan chatter that next year's Spider-Man: Brand New Day could pull in characters from Born Again - including Jon Bernthal's Punisher - which would make another Yusuf cameo at least plausible if that Punisher rumor sticks. To be clear, nothing on that front is confirmed.

Bottom line: Kapur's account of the Ms. Marvel set is a fascinating peek at how different Hollywood and Bollywood workflows can be, and the industry talk around his continued MCU presence is not going away. If Marvel keeps using Kamala, odds are we have not seen the last of her dad.