Editor’s Note: Spoilers ahead for Deli Boys, Season 1
Hulu’sDeli Boysis more than just a laugh-out-loud crime caper abouttwo naive, spoiled Pakistani-American brothers navigating their father’s deadly empire. As one of thefunniest and bloodiest shows of 2025, it blends razor-sharp humor with high-stakes chaos — something that starsAsifAliandSaagarShaikhwere eager to dive into. In an interview with Collider about the series now streaming in the U.S. on Hulu and worldwide on Disney+, the two reveal which scene from the 10-episode drop had the funniest behind-the-scenes moment and the moment they knew they were onto something with the half-hour sitcom from creator,AbdullahSaeed.
The ‘Deli Boys’ Stars Reveal the Funniest Behind-the-Scenes Moment
“We’re going to get her on ‘roids before Season 2.”
By the timeDeli Boysreaches Episode 8’s “Sweaty Boys,” the chaos surrounding Ali’s Mir and Shaikh’s Raj’s reluctant inheritance of Baba’s (IqbalTheba) criminal empire is reaching a boiling point. With Mercer (AlexandraRuddy) and Simpson (TimMeltzer) tightening their grip on the DarCo crime ring, tensions are running high. But in trueDeli Boysfashion,even the most serious moments are laced with absurdity. One of the episode’s biggest standoffs unfolds inside the deli when Prairie (AlfieFuller) drops a bombshell on Mir and Raj and tries to leave. But at that point, it’s too late in the game as Lucky Aunty (PoornaJagannathan) and Ahmad Uncle (BrianGeorge) now know she’s an FBI informant and can’t have her escape.
“At this point, Ahmad Uncle and Lucky already know that she’s a rat, so Lucky pulls her gun out, and she’s like, ‘Where the fuck do you think you’re going?’ But Poorna is so weak that she couldn’t pull the trigger of the thing, her thumb is so weak, and we worked on that for so long because she couldn’t get her thumb to click it,” Shaikh says while his co-star, Ali laughs beside him.
Ali adds how the prop person was “so confused” at what he was seeing. “He’s like, ‘It’s just this,’” he says through laughs as he’s gesturing how a gun unloads. “And it was a long scene. It was kind of like a-oner, andshe goes all the way to the end and has to do this cool turn with this cool outfit, and we’re all doing this stuff…” Shaikh interjects that Jagannathan’s “whole body” was shaking because she “can’t get her thumb to push the thing down,” to which Ali jokes, “We’re going to get her on ‘roids before Season 2.”
The ‘Deli Boys’ Cast Knew the Show Was Special Early On
“It just felt like, ‘This is going to be a thing. This is going to work.’”
For Shaikh and Ali, the magic ofDeli Boyshasn’t just been in the Hulu series’ sharp writing or its high-stakes crime-comedy premise. For the two actors, who could also pass as real-life brothers simply for their magnetic chemistry,a lot of the show’s charm extends to the camaraderie felt far beyond the cameras. But for a show that has been in the works since 2022 and received critical acclaim, it wasn’t an easy road — especially considering theSAG-AFTRAandWGA strikesin 2023.
“I want to say that I felt it while we were shooting the pilot, but then so much happened between shooting the pilot and shooting Episode 2. During the strike period, there were moments where I was like, ‘I don’t know if we’re going to make it,’” Shaikh tells Collider as his co-star, Ali chimes in that “a lot of showsweregetting canned.”
But as the industry-wide strike cast a shadow over production, leaving the fate of the show uncertain,Shaikh admits that feeling changed when they were ordered back to set in Chicagoand start shooting Episode 2. “I feel like the moment we got back to set, it just felt like, ‘This is going to be a thing. This is going to work.’”
“I Feel Like We Made Magic”: The Cast of Hulu’s New “Crimedy” Series ‘Deli Boys’ Teases the Surprising Levels of Gore, Stunts and Laughs
Poorna Jagannathan also reveals when Damon Lindelo’s DCU series ‘Lanterns’ begins filming.
Ali says he knew the show was something special, but for him, it wasn’t necessarily during the shoot — it was more so in the moments they spent together off-camera. “When it was just all of us in our chairs, just talking to each other. We weren’t in this rush,” he explains. He’s been on sets where people “try to rush back to their trailers and just avoid each other,” but this experience was different. “Even with the pilot, and certainly when we were shooting the rest of the season, it just felt like we wanted to be around each other.”
As Ali adds, that kind of chemistry, thanks to casting director Seth Yanklewitz,is intangible.“When you hire actors, you don’t know — you’re just kind of making a gamble that these people will get along and that they’ll get along for three months and that they’ll actually enjoy each other’s company and that they’llunderstand each other’s sense of humor.”
While Shaikh admits it “didn’t feel like a job,” Ali adds it wasthis seamless chemistry between the cast that solidified the charm for him. “I think, [that] feeds through everything else on the show, where all of the scenes and all of the comedy and all the action, there’s a shorthand and a comfortability on set that I think is of utmost importance when you’re doing comedy.”
Will Saagar Shaikh Return to the MCU? He’s Ready — If Marvel Stops Ghosting Him
WhileDeli Boysmarks the first time Ali and Shaikh have worked together,they both have MCU roots if eagle-eyed fans have noticed! With Shaikh’s on-screen “baba,” Yusuf Khan (MohanKapur), set to reprise hisMs. Marvelrole inDaredevil: Born Againthis season — and Ali’s Norm fromWandaVisionrecently appearing inAgathaAllAlong— we had to ask: Could these two ever cross paths in the MCU?
“Shit, I wish, man!” Shaikh says when asked about a potential return, admitting that he’s been keeping his notifications on loud just in case. “I have my email notifications on. I’ve been asking them, and they’ve been ghosting me.”Ali teases that Shaikh is just waiting by the phone with the ringer onbut has a special message for Marvel Studios bossKevinFeige. “Hey, listen, Kevin, if you’re watching this, which we know you are… Kevin’s always following us. It’s so weird. He’s always just watching us, but he won’t hit ‘like’ on our posts. You can just see that he’s seen it.”
Shaikh agrees, pitching a small but memorable return: “Let’s do a little Norm and Aamir inThe Avengers.” Ali adds, “We can just be hanging out. You know what I mean?” But Shaikh takes it a step further, laughing, “Honestly. Kill us off inThe Avengers.You’ll never have to use us again.” Though that might be a sad thing for Norm and Aamir’s legion of fans, Ali has one last idea: “Let us be two fun bike messengers in the city. It’s fine.” Shaikh agrees, adding how they are both in New Jersey, to which Ali shouts, “We’re both in Jersey, baby!”
With so many doors opening across the Marvel multiverse,it seems anything is possible. Now, it’s just a matter of whether Feige is ready to pick up the phone.
