Actress/comedian Milana Vayntrub (This Is Us) has landed the starring role of Squirrel Girl in Marvel’s New Warriors, the upcoming live-action comedy produced for Freeform.
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She’ll be joined in the series by Derek Theler (Baby Daddy) as Mister Immortal, Jeremy Tardy (Dear White People) as Night Thrasher, Calum Worthy (Austin & Ally) as Speedball, Matthew Moy (2 Broke Girls) as Microbe and Kate Comer (The Comeback) as Debrii.
Marvel’s first foray into live-action comedy, the 10-episode series centers on six young heroes :learning to cope with their abilities in a world where bad guys can be as terrifying as bad dates.” Ordered straight to series in April by Freeform, New Warriors will join Cloak & Dagger on the Disney-owned cable channel.
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Anna Kendrick and Shannon Purser (Stranger Things, Riverdale) had publicly expressed interest in playing Squirrel Girl, with The Hollywood Reporter saying the latter was at one point in the running for New Warriors. Mae Whitman was also reportedly discussed, but the website says other commitments quickly took her out of contention.
Marvel released the following character descriptions for New Warriors in April:
Doreen Green (Squirrel Girl)
- Superpower: “The powers of a squirrel, the powers of a girl” (is acrobatic, strong, can fight, can talk to squirrels)
- Doreen is a totally empowered fangirl. She is a natural leader—confident and tough, but not innocent. Doreen is bouncy and energetic and her greatest quality is her optimism… She has faith in others and inspires people to believe in themselves. She also takes her pet squirrel, Tippy Toe, everywhere.
Craig Hollis (Mister Immortal)
- Superpower: Cannot die. Ever. Maybe. So he says.
- The team troublemaker and lothario… Craig is kind of like “The Most Interesting Man Alive,” except he’s more cocky than confident and at times, charmingly grumpy. Although Craig’s superpower seems amazing, he hasn’t made use of it at all—he’s lazy and figures if he has all the time in the world to learn how to fight, what’s the rush?
Dwayne Taylor (Night Thrasher)
- Superpower: None
- Dwayne is a local celebrity “hero” with his very own YouTube channel. Brilliant, strong, noble, and maybe a bit full of himself, Dwayne is a shameless self-promoter and entrepreneur. But he also deeply believes in justice — at least his version of it. Dwayne hides the fact that he comes from a really rich family because he’s afraid he’ll lose his street cred.
Robbie Baldwin (Speedball)
- Superpower: Can launch kinetic balls of energy
- Robbie grew up watching Quinjets take off from Avengers Tower and loves the idea of being a hero. He’s an impulsive and immature people-pleaser with a misplaced sense of confidence. Although you would think throwing kinetic balls of energy would be awesome and effective – his are completely out of control.
Zack Smith (Microbe)
- Superpower: Can talk to germs
- Zack is a shy hypochondriac whose ability nearly makes him a telepath — the germs tell him where you’ve been, what you ate and who you hung out with. It’s impossible to keep secrets around him. He’s a big sweet guy the team takes under their wing, and they help him find and grow his own confidence.
Deborah Fields (Debrii)
- Superpower: Low level telekinetic; trickster
- Deborah is proud, funny and quick witted. Confidently out as a lesbian, Deborah has experienced deep loss in her personal life as a direct result of super “heroics.” She can take care of herself, or at least says she can. She’s the one who calls people on their BS and has no fear of putting her opinions out there.
(via The Hollywood Reporter)