Marvel bosses have revealed plans to bring the first ever female Muslim superhero to the big screen post the release of Brie Larson’s movie next year, Captain Marvel.
In an interview with the BBC, Kevin Feige said, “Captain Marvel’s shooting right now with Brie Larson. Ms. Marvel, which is another character in the comic books, the Muslim hero who is inspired by Captain Marvel, is definitely sort of in the works”. He further added that “we have plans for that once we introduce Captain Marvel”.
Fans are divided over who should play the character. In the comic books, Ms Marvel's alter-ego is Kamala Khan, a Pakistani-American teenager from New Jersey. She is a recent character in the comic book and was introduced in 2013 as a fan of Captain Marvel. Following the popularity of the character, Kamala Khan ended up getting her very own comic, where she showed off her power of elasticity. The comic series written by G. Willow Wilson and drawn by Adrian Alphona, marked the first time a Muslim character headlined a book at Marvel Comics, and now it is being planned to be brought to a global audience through the big screen.
The significance of this announcement can be gauged from the announcement of confirmation from Disney chief Bob Iger who said that the Avengers franchise in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will continue after the conclusion of Avengers 4 next year; a movie speculated to end a decade long story arc and enable the retirement of major Marvel characters. A refreshing change in the Marvel characters on screen is evidently being explored by Marvel studio.
Since this announcement of the Miss Marvel film, the comic book fans globally have been speculating over who should play the teen icon, despite no firm announcement of the film or the casting yet. The favourite actress to play her so far is 35-year-old Priyanka Chopra despite the character’s age being 16. Priyanka already voices the character in the mobile video game 'Marvel: Avengers Academy'. However, a few fans of Kamala Khan said that the role should go to a Pakistani-American rather than Indian, in order to portray the character in an authentic way.
