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After a lengthy casting process, Disney has chosen actress Iman Vellani to take the role of Kamala Khan, or Ms. Marvel, in the upcoming television series Ms. Marvel, reports Deadline.
The series will be a first in many ways. Ms. Marvel will be Vellani’s first major role in film or television, though, Deadline notes, she was part of a group of a dozen film-loving students chosen to curate the Toronto Film Festival’s Next Wave festival in 2019. Her character, Kamala Khan, was the first Muslim character in Marvel history to star in her own book, and in the MCU, she’ll be the first Muslim superhero to appear in a Marvel film or show.
Jointly created by editors Sana Amanat and Stephen Wacker, writer G. Willow Wilson, and artist Adrian Alphona, with a costume designed by Jamie McKelvie, Kamala burst onto Marvel Comics pages in 2013. She was a superhero given the power to stretch and distort her body when her Inhuman heritage was awakened, but also a kid from Jersey City struggling to find her own identity between the pressures of school and family life, a relatable emotional core that made her an instant hit.
Kamala was part of a wave of new, diverse legacy characters at Marvel that included Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel, Miles Morales as Spider-Man, and Jane Foster as Thor, all ideas that have been or are soon to be realized on the big screen. Kamala herself has already taken on a starring role in Square Enix’s Avengers game.
Ms. Marvel does not have release date yet, but Disney plans to release the series exclusively on Disney Plus. Marvel also recently tapped a lot of talent to work behind the camera. Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys for Life) joined as episode directors, two-time Oscar-winning documentarian Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Meera Menon (Farah Goes Bang) as showrunners and directors, and screenwriter and comedian Bisha K. Ali as head writer.
