The Marvel Cinematic Universe has long been dominated by white male heroes. In 2018, the release of Black Panther marked a major milestone when the world saw Marvel’s first black superhero on the big screen. Now we have a new kind of superhero making her debut.
After a prolonged search, Marvel officially casted its Ms. Marvel, which was first reported to the public by Deadline. 18-year-old Iman Vellani will portray the first Muslim superhero in a new Disney+ series Ms. Marvel, which is predicted to release around the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022.
G. Willow Wilson is the writer behind Ms. Marvel, which follows Kamala Khan, a Pakistani-American teenager from Jersey City. As a huge fan of Captain Marvel, Kamala always aspired to be just like her. After a dream about Captain Marvel, Kamala awoke to realize that she looked just like her; thus, uncovering her newfound shapeshifting powers. The rest of the story centers around the familiar tale of a superhero trying to juggle this newly discovered life with her normal one. Once Ms. Marvel takes to Disney’s popular streaming service, it will feature Marvel Studio’s first on-screen Muslim hero. There is already buzz surrounding inclusion in future Marvel films as well.
So far, only the titular role played by Vellani has been announced. This will be her first major production, but she already has experience bringing diversity to the industry in her own creative ways. At the 2019 Toronto Film Festival, Vellani took part in the Next Wave Committee, a group responsible for adding special tags to films in order to better resonate with others.
After the announcement of Vellani portraying Ms. Marvel, several celebrities took to Twitter to express their enthusiasm and support. Kumail Nanjiani, who will depict the first Pakistani superhero in a Marvel film in The Eternals tweeted, “I just saw they cast Ms. Marvel and legit got teary eyed. Congratulations Iman Vellani! Your work is going to mean so much to so many people, myself included. I can’t wait.”
Mindy Kaling conveyed her excitement as well after revealing she has read every Ms. Marvel comic. Kaling tweeted, “What a joy in these trying times to see that #MsMarvel (a Pakistani American teen superhero!) has cast its lead role, a young actress named Iman Vellani! Congratulations to you! I can’t wait to see the show! #RepresentationMatters.”
During a press conference, the actress of Captain Marvel Brie Larson indicated that she hoped to bring the character of Ms. Marvel on to a potential sequel. “My dream is that Ms. Marvel gets to come into play in the sequel,” Larson told Inverse.
Just like other popular superhero series including Hawkeye, Winter Soldier, Loki and WandaVision, Ms. Marvel will join this lineup of premiering exclusively on Disney+. Ms. Marvel is also one of Marvel’s anticipated releases that centers around a female protagonist in addition to Black Widow, She-Hulk and Thor: Love and Thunder with Natalie Portman playing Thor.
Filming was supposed to begin during the spring of 2020 but due to the ongoing pandemic, productions have been delayed. As a result, Ms. Marvel does not have a set release date but can be expected around the end of 2021 or 2022.
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