Sana Amanat, the Marvel Comics editor who co-created Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel, assures the character’s upcoming Disney+ series from Marvel Studios is every bit as quirky as her original comic books.
“The comic was very much a guiding light for us. We needed to make sure that it worked in the MCU, of course, but we wanted to make sure that we had that quirkiness and the stylistic distinction that the comics did so well. We wanted to find our own MCU version of it,” Amanat, who serves as a co-executive prouder on Disney+’s Ms. Marvel, said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“So, we’re doing things in this show that we don’t really do anywhere else in the MCU,” she continued. “It’s kind of told through the lens of Kamala’s experience and her wild imagination. I think the brightness and the colors and where we go in the Marvel universe and in Kamala’s universe is really what makes it stand out, tonally and stylistically, from everything else.
“And I think it needs to,” Amanat concluded. “Obviously, it’s a coming-of-age story, but it’s a coming-of-age story through the lens of a young brown woman. I think that in itself is going to make it stand apart. Her world is naturally colorful. She grows up in a colorful environment, not only because of the community that she’s from, but also the city that she’s from. Jersey City is a pretty crazy and vibrant and multicultural place, and we really wanted to showcase that, too.”
Created by Amanat alongside Stephen Wacker, G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona and Jamie McKelvie, the character of Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel first appeared in 2013’s Captain Marvel #14. Iman Vellani portrays Kamala in Marvel Studios’ Ms. Marvel, which is slated to premiere on Disney+ on Wednesday, June 8. Vellani will subsequently reprise the role in the 2023 Marvel Studios film The Marvels.
A 16-year-old Pakistani-American Muslim teenager who idolizes the superhero Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (played in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Brie Larson), Vellani’s Kamala has her life turned upside down when she gains superpowers of her own. Thanks to the power of a magical bangle, she can harness cosmic energy in order to form constructs. This is a departure from the comics, in which Kamala is an Inhuman who was granted the ability to stretch (or “embiggen”) parts of her body by the Terrigen Mist.
During the same EW interview, Amanat explained why this change was made. “Obviously, so much of the show is an adaptation, and we thought it was important to make sure that her powers are linking to larger stories in the Marvel Universe,” she said. “We wanted to make sure there is a little bit more story to tell after this series. Obviously, she goes into The Marvels. The powers do look different… I know people are upset about it, but as someone who’s probably one of the closest people to this character from the inception, and having spoken to Willow about this as well, I think Willow and I have always felt that this made sense. This was the right move because there are bigger stories to tell.”
See Kamala Khan’s quirkiness in action when Ms. Marvel premieres on Disney+ on June 8.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
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