‘I don’t want to spoil anything,’ says Marvel exec, before spoiling which beloved character is about to be a ‘big part’ of the MCU

If you’ve been missing a certain beloved Marvel character, easily one of the most popular and important characters to arrive on the scene since 2020, then you might just be in luck…

Very soon, we’ll be able to say that Avengers: Doomsday — the beginning of the end for the Multiverse Saga — is coming next year, and we still don’t really know what this era of the MCU is driving toward. Just take a look at the three cast members either confirmed or reliably reported to be in it so far: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Hayley Atwell. All are legacy Infinity Saga stars. So which newbies of Phases Four and Five are destined to stick around in a big way? At least we now know one of them.

Ms. Marvel confirmed to be “a big part of the MCU” despite The Marvels’ misfire

Good news, everyone! The Marvels‘ box office implosion of November 2023 might not have been quite as destructive as we feared. The lowest-grossing film in the MCU’s history memorably ended with Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan recruiting Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop into her “Kid Avengers” initiative, but since then we’ve heard nothing more on this front. Thankfully, it sounds like Ms. Marvel will be back before long, and in a big way.

Brad Winderbaum, Marvel’s head of television and animation, was asked by The Hollywood Reporter what’s next for Vellani following her guest voice appearance in What If…? season 3. Winderbaum was as cagey as you’d expect from someone personally trained by Kevin Feige, but he did promise that the New Jersey-based junior heroine is “really important” to Marvel’s plans going forward.

“I love Iman. She’s incredible,” Winderbaum teased. “I love that character. I will tell you that she’s certainly a big part of the MCU to me. Ms. Marvel is a really important show to us, and without going into great detail, because I don’t want to spoil anything, she is top of mind. So it’s going to be exciting to see where she pops up next.”

Well, ideally where Kamala popped up next would be a Young Avengers project, but considering the studio is taking its sweet, sweet time in getting that one off the ground — Steinfeld is already aging out of the job description — we might have to take what we can get. Captain Marvel 3 is an obvious choice, but honestly we’re even less sure what’s next for Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers than we are her biggest fangirl. In that way, you could argue Ms. Marvel is the biggest success story of the many next-gen heroes of the Multiverse Saga as she’s already more entrenched in the franchise than her precursor. Some, like Ironheart, Stature, and Wiccan, have yet to be given enough of a chance to prove their worth. Others, like Eros, Hercules, and Skarr, have seemingly vanished from the face of the Sacred Timeline.

At least we’ve got Vellani back as Kamala for an episode of What If…?‘s third and final season, premiering this Dec. 22 and dropping daily thereafter.