Marvel has been trying to get America Chavez into the MCU ‘for a long time’

Marvel fans are excited to see Benedict Cumberbatch’s sorcerer team up with Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but let’s not forget that he’ll also join forces with a brand-new superhero, too. Fan-favorite comic book character America Chavez, aka Miss America, will be making her MCU debut in the upcoming sequel, played by The Baby-Sitters Club actress Xochitl Gomez.

With Avengers coming out the woodwork at this point, now seems like the perfect time for America to enter the MCU. As it turns out, Marvel has been finagling to get her in-universe for a while; in the latest issue of D23 Magazine (via The Direct), Doctor Strange 2 co-producer Richie Palmer admitted this interesting tidbit, before explaining why this film provided the perfect moment of introduction.

“America is someone we’ve been trying to get into the MCU for a long time,” Palmer explained. “This felt like the best place to do it, because ‘Multiverse’ is in the title and her powers specifically have to do with the Multiverse – her powers being that she can punch open doorways to other universes. That’s something we haven’t seen in our movies, a character who can actually walk from one universe to another. That’s maddening in itself for characters such as Doctor Strange and Wong, whose jobs are to protect those barriers.”

While her array of powers make America an exciting addition to the MCU, Palmer went on to stress that it’s her “aspirational” personality that will really make audiences fall for the character. While discussing how Strange reacts to encountering the young woman, Palmer added:

“He naturally wants to know more about her. With America, she just keeps going, especially when things are going wrong – and everything is going completely wrong for her. She’s running away from her uniqueness, until she learns to embrace it. She just never loses hope, and I can relate to that. She’s aspirational that way.”

The D23 article confirms that Strange first encounters America when he and Wong (Benedict Wong) protect her from multidimensional monstrosity Gargantos during his attack on the streets of New York. We’ve already glimpsed this sequence in the trailers, though now we know its importance to the plot. What’s still unclear is whether America will hail from the Utopian Parallel in the MCU, as she does in the comics, or from from an alternate reality altogether. One theory suggests she might come from the Raimiverse.

As a member of both the Young Avengers and A-Force in the comics, expect much more from America Chavez to come after Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which hits theaters this May 6.