Ms. Marvel director Meera Menon shares that Kamala Khan will have to learn who she really is in the new series.
At the Ms. Marvel global press conference, Menon confirmed that Kamala will have a lot of growing up to do as she finds out what kind of superhero she’s meant to be.
“In searching for her identity, Kamala Khan is going to go on this journey to reconnect with her family, to understand why it’s so important to tell her own story and craft that story and to feel she could be that superhero she could always be, but it would be her being the superhero instead of emulating someone else.”
In the Ms. Marvel trailer, Kamala is depicted as a dreamer and a superhero fangirl to the nth degree. She doodles Ant-Man in her notebook, and she has a T-shirt featuring superheroines Captain Marvel, Valkyrie, and Wasp. There’s even a scene where she imagines herself as in a Captain Marvel uniform, and it shows just how much she wants to be like them.
The people around her, like her mother and guidance counselor, tell her that she spends too much time in fantasy land, and they might be right. While she will gain her own set of superpowers, and she should look up to those who have done it before her, she can’t be a carbon copy of someone else.
Kamala is will be the first Muslim superhero in the MCU, and similar to the comic books, Ms. Marvel will explore the many personal aspects of her life. Her religion and culture play heavily into the story in and out of costume, and the series will delve into spirituality, family duties, and traditions for a unique experience. Kamala will be struggling with her faith as she finds her way as a new hero.
There has been much discussion about Ms. Marvel’s powers from concerned fans. In the comics, she has elastic polymorphing abilities, but in the MCU it’s been changed to light constructs. Ms. Marvel co-creator Sana Amanat addressed the power change by saying they wanted her powers to link to the larger stories in the MCU.
Ms. Marvel comes to Disney Plus June 8.
