Kumail Nanjiani Is theRomantic Comedian We’ve Been Waiting For

Kumail Nanjiani is worried about Optimus Prime. On the first night of June, in the bunker-like Playstation Theater beneath the thrum of Times Square, the 39-year-old comedian is onstage talking about the robotic leader of the Transformers. The fifth installment hits theaters June 21, two days before Nanjiani’s romantic comedy The Big Sick opens. “I thought there couldn’t possibly be anything new they could do,” he says of the explosion-laden Michael Bay movies.