Kumail Nanjiani Wanted to Blast Middle Eastern Stereotypes in “The Eternals”

Kumail Nanjiani gets to be a superhero in the upcoming Marvel flick “The Eternals”.  And his character, Kingo, was an important opportunity for him to break free of Middle Eastern stereotypes.

He says, quote:

“I’ve been in this industry for about a decade and I looked at the usual opportunities that the brown dudes get.  We get to be nerdy. I wanted him to be the opposite of that . . . I wanted him to be cool.  With nerdy goes ‘weakling’, and I wanted him to be the opposite of that and to be strong physically.”

The other type of role Middle Easterners typically get is the terrorist, which Kumail also wanted to avoid.

“I wanted him to be this character full of joy . . . like, let’s take every single thing that I haven’t gotten to do and make a character who’s the exact opposite of the way a lot of American pop culture see people from Pakistan or the Middle East.”

The Eternals arrives in theaters on November 5th.