MCU: Location Scout | Jersey City

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Ms. Marvel features an intricate end credits sequence full of locations in and around Jersey City, which helps further define the character of Kamala Khan.

LOCATION: VARIOUS (See Below)
SHOW: Ms. Marvel, S01E01-E03 “Generation Why”

After watching the first episode of the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel, I found the locations from the episode around Atlanta, GA (where the majority of the show was filmed) and got them posted. But then the end credits of the episode began bothering me. They were shots in and around what appeared to be Jersey City, NJ–the actual city where the events of the show were taking place. And they were also locations that could be found. Challenge accepted!

I think I decided to start looking for them the day after the premiere. There were a couple of simple locations to find that either has a street sign in them, or another distinctive building. From there, more and more started to be found, and I thought that I could actually post these at MCULocationScout.com as part of the episode. Here’s some of the locations, both easy and hard that were all filmed in Jersey City, and the story of how finding these led to a call with the team that created the sequence.

The Main Ms. Marvel logo was built on the intersection of Grove St at Christopher Columbus Dr, which is basically the center of Jersey City. A number of other shots were filmed in this general area.

Keeping with the feel of the episode, where Kamala and her mother go shopping on a street full of Indian and Pakistani run businesses, the end credits show the real street that this area was presumably based on. It is the Little India section of town on the 700-900 blocks of Newark Ave.

The team at Perception added artwork to all the locations they filmed. Some were murals depicting Kamala and her family, but others were designs on ubiquitous elements of the city, like these street lights, power poles, and traffic lights. This particular image was shot at the corner of York & Washington St, and reversed for its appearance in the 5th Episode’s credits.

The train bridge is a unique and interesting location. The Van Wagenen Footbridge includes some interesting art on it already, as designed by Baltimore based artists Jessie and Katey. This bridge crosses over the rail line that takes trains from Newark to the World Trade Center in New York CIty, as noted on the shot of the train from the credits bearing the WTC monicker.

For all the blank, brick walls and non-descript elements in the end credits, the team at Perception also tried to capture several iconic elements of Jersey City, such as the Statue of Liberty and the Colgate Clock, which used to be on the Colgate toothpaste factory and in 2013 was relocated to the waterfront off Hudson St., facing Manhattan.

After posting the links on social media to the locations I received an email from the folks at Perception, the visual effects design company that created this sequence (as well as the end credits for Hawkeye, Moon Knight and all the other Disney+ MCU shows, and more). They were amazed that someone had gone to the trouble of finding these locations, but were also shocked at how many I had found. The asked if I’d like to speak with the designer of the sequence, Vivian Amaro and get some more details. I quickly setup a call and we, along with Doug Appleton, the chief creative director at Perception, spoke at length about how they shot and edited this sequence as well as some of their other work.

I was able to pick their brains about the process and some of the missing locations I had yet been unable to find. Doug also let me know about the location of the Container Yards from the Black Widow intro that hadn’t been found yet. We talked about their collaborations with Marvel Studios and what big fans they are of the stuff they work on, and how fans, like myself, excite them when they see people enjoy their sequences. Following the initial interview, Episode 4 revealed an entirely new set of locations from Karachi, Pakistan, which unfortunately Perception did not film. So, there’s now a bunch more locations from Karachi that need to be found and no inside source to help finding them.

While Vivian and Doug assured me that all the locations came from Jersey City, the opening shot of the billboard, they later admitted came from Queens (which we agreed was a suburb of Jersey CIty). 3601 Queens Blvd, Long Island City

This shot of two people walking by these brownstones (that’s Vivian in the pink hat, by the way) took a while to find. It was not in the main downtown are of Jersey City where so many other locations were. This was over near the section of the city called Little India, and was around the block from the Barber Shop used for the Production Designer’s card. 493 Mercer St

Finally, this shot of a basketball backboard along a non-descript wall was one of the five locations I had not initially found. Vivian was nice enough to share the places she and her team shot the images, even if she was chuckling to herself thinking it was funny I couldn’t find this blank wall. 119 York St

I encourage everyone to visit the Perception website where they have detailed pages documenting the creation process for a number of their Marvel Studios projects, including the Black Widow main titles and the Hydra History segment from Captain America: The Winter Solder.

If you’d like to read more about the process of creating the sequence, you can find the whole story at MCULocationScout.com under “Ms. Marvel: Credits Where Credit Is Due”. Or you can listen to a portion of the exclusive interview on the current episode of Superhero Suite, right here on RetroZap.

Please make sure to visit MCULocationScout.com for more filming locations from your favorite MCU Films and Television series.

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Got tips? Got corrections? Let me know on Twitter @JovialJay or @MCUlocations!

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Behind every scene in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a location. Some are iconic. Some are functional. Some are completely fantastic. But all of them are there to support the story.

Here at the MCU: Location Scout, Jovial Jay digs deep to uncover the real-world filming locations behind your favorite super hero films. From Iron Man to Avengers: Endgame and everything in between!