Taran Killam is living the dream of most every nerd. Forget being a TV and film star: He's also a published comic book creator and married to an Avenger, a union that comes with perks any superfan would kill for.

And Killam is very much a superfan.

As the former SNL star explains in the new episode of The Fandom Files, he got hooked on comic books early, with X-Men: The Animated Series serving as his gateway drug. The iconic Chris Claremont/Jim Lee X-Men run hooked him on comics for good, and collecting those back issues sent him down the kind of lifetime rabbit hole that leads people to read 1994 Hulk-Fantastic Four crossovers at the same time they're filming a new sitcom for ABC (Single Parents, premiering September 26).

That sort of deep familiarity with greater lore and granular imagery comes in handy when you're married to Maria Hill (well, actress Cobie Smulders) and get to visit the sets of MCU movies and even learn about plot twists that are protected with State Department-level security.

"I remember when Cobie first told me she was auditioning for the first Avengers, just that was enough to get me so excited. [I was like] 'Do you want me to read with you? We should rehearse again, right? Let's do it one more time. What's she going to wear?'" Killam remembers, laughing. "She actually snuck me a little illegal photo from the screen test. She did a screen test with about four or five other actresses. Infinity War was the first time where she let me know what was going to happen. Her tag was added on later in the schedule. She's like, 'Yeah, I'm there and then I disappear?' I was like, 'God, what does this mean? What does this mean?'"

Killam talks more about his love of Marvel and Star Wars, a passion that reaches so deep that he saw The Phantom Menace in theaters 13 times.

Click here for the podcast's RSS feed.

Subscribe on iTunes here.

Subscribe on Google Play Music here.

To contact us about the podcast — or to nominate yourself or someone else as a future guest! — feel free to drop us an e-mail or tweet at us. And if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate and review us on iTunes!