The new series from Marvel Studios for Disney+ has just been released on the streaming platform and we can guarantee that meeting Kamala Khan in Ms. Marvel will be a refreshing, entertaining and perfect experience for any time of day. At the moment there is only one episode -the first- available on the Disney + SVOD service, but it will probably leave you wanting more.
For the most confused, explain that Ms. Marvel is the live-action series about the beloved Marvel Comics character and that it stars the very young but brilliant actress Iman Vellani in the main role: a 16-year-old American teenager of Pakistani origin , Muslim, gamer and lover of The Avengers who, after putting on an old family bracelet, awakens latent powers in her own body that she didn’t know she had.
Scared and confused, Kamala is determined to learn to use them for good and become one of the heroes she idolizes so much, but, at the same time, she is still a teenager with the problems of her age and a family more. traditional than you would like.
Following the critically acclaimed Scarlet Witch and Vision , Falcon and the Winter Soldier , Loki , What If…? , Hawkeye and Moon Knight , Ms. Marvel is a breath of fresh air in the MCU. What things make it so different?
- A NEW SUPERHERO, A NEW GENERATION
“Marvel is about 80 years old and most of its characters have a history in comics of more than 50 years, so it is quite momentous when a new character is brought to the table ,” says Kevin Feige in statements shared by the platform . Disney+ on the occasion of the debut of the long-awaited series.
And it is that Kamala Khan, a young teenager, a minor and a fan of the classic superheroes whom she has known for absolutely all her life, is a different type of character than those we have known to date. The first of a new generation within the Marvel Cinematic Universe but one that promises to continue growing. “The interesting thing about Ms. Marvel is that she is very different and unique from the rest of the heroes ,” says the executive producer of the fiction Sana Amanat – co-creator of the character in the comics with the screenwriter G. Willow Wilson -.
In fact, still different and new, Ms. Marvel is a true institution among the readers of The House of Ideas: “It is one of the most successful new properties of Marvel Comics and fans were looking forward to seeing the character in live action”, explains Kevin Feige. “For years people have asked, ‘When are we going to see Ms. Marvel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?’ We’ve always wanted to bring her into the MCU, but one of the great things about Kamala Khan is that she’s a fan. of all these heroes in the franchise and we needed to first establish those heroes, especially Captain Marvel, so that she could have a heroine that she wanted to embody before she learned how to become her own heroine.”
- AN UPBEAT TONE AND POSITIVE MESSAGES FOR THE YOUNGER AUDIENCE
Ms. Marvel is the story of how Kamala Khan, after discovering that she has superpowers, learns to use them and investigates their origins, but it is also the story of a normal teenager, with the usual problems and dilemmas that a person of her class would face. age.
Kamala is 16 years old and very cool. She is a category ‘gamer’, she loves to write ‘fan fiction’ and is a true fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, just like the actress in charge of embodying it on screen, Iman Vellani. She has a lifelong friend that she is inseparable from, Bruno ( Matt Lintz ), and maintains a perfectly normal relationship with her family. Her parents, like her, are Muslim, but they have a more conservative outlook on life, as one might expect. While Kamala is eager for more freedom and to explore herself – no longer just as a heroine, but mainly as a person – her parents are afraid to let her fly. A scenario with which it is certainly easy to identify.
Not everything is easy at school either, where Kamala feels that sometimes she doesn’t fit in, but Ms. Marvel ‘s vision of this very complex period in life that is adolescence is super optimistic, refreshing and has wonderful messages for the most viewers. youths.
“What’s interesting about Kamala Khan is that she’s very different and unique from the rest of the heroes in that she’s just a normal kid from Jersey City trying to figure out the world,” explains Amanat. “She’s very vulnerable and curious. She has questions about the world around her and is trying to figure things out as she goes through her journey.”
In her statements to SensaCine -you can see the full interview at the beginning of this news-, Vellani was absolutely moved by the honor of being the youngest superhero in the UCM and what that means for the future. Similarly, the young actress is clear that she is a character that other young people will quickly be able to identify with: “Kamala represents everything about nerd culture. When she first gets powers, you are with her because you can see that emotion and that fascination in her eyes. That’s what makes the character so universal and relatable. It’s not about being a Muslim Pakistani American teen, but an Avengers-loving girl who is a Pakistani American teen.”
- SHE IS THE FIRST MUSLIM SUPERHEROINE AND IS INSPIRED BY THE REAL EXPERIENCES OF ONE OF HER EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
The origin and multicultural appearance of Ms. Marvel is inspired by the real-life experiences of executive producer Sana Amanat, who co-created the first Muslim female superhero for comics with writer G. Willow Wilson, artist Adrian Alphona and publisher Stephen Wacker. “When we had the opportunity to create a young superhero from South Asia and Muslim, it was something new and fresh, but at the same time it was completely aligned with the principles that Marvel characters had always represented,” explained Amanat for Disney +. “Powerful and fantastic, but with quite relatable vulnerabilities. So from the beginning I shared my personal experiences to integrate cultural authenticity into the character.”
“I’ve never seen a young woman of color, specifically a Pakistani woman, in a comic book as a superhero,” recalls the series’ lead writer Bisha K. Ali . “It was a defining moment culturally. I was finally able to see myself represented in comics and in the world of superheroes, and that’s why I was so drawn to Kamala Khan.” And the same thing happens to Iman Vellani. For both of them, doing Ms. Marvel is almost like a dream.
“We want to tell the stories without stereotypes,” adds Ali. “We want to make them real, modern, nuanced people that everyone can identify with.” “It’s the story about a young woman coming of age and what empowering her means to her in the face of the traditional norms she’s been taught,” adds Samanat.
