The article contains major spoilers for Ms. Marvel Episode 6, "No Normal."
Ms. Marvel co-creator Sana Amanat revealed that Kamala Khan was originally going to be a mutant in the comic series.
In an interview with Empire, Amanat shared that Kamala was not initially going to be an Inhuman in the comics. At the beginning of the series' inception, the crew had tossed around the idea of making the teenage superhero's powers come from her being a mutant. "Here's a really important thing that people do not know -- when we were thinking about the character of Kamala back, back, back in the day in 2012, 2013, when [comic book writer G.] Willow [Wilson] and myself were ideating, we originally wanted to make her a mutant," Amanat explained. "That was the whole intention, to be able to do that."
The Marvel Cinematic Universe appears to have fulfilled Amanat's original vision for the character. In the series finale of Ms. Marvel (Episode 6, "No Normal"), Kamala's best friend, Bruno Carrelli, reveals that the titular hero's genetic make-up was different from the rest of her family's. When Bruno tells her that he noticed some sort of mutation in her DNA, Kamala appears to be the first confirmed mutant in the MCU after Disney acquired the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises from 20th Century Fox in 2019.
Ms. Marvel's Mutation
Amanat, however, was quite tightlipped about the matter. "Is [Kamala] a mutant, question mark?" she said. "I don't know. I don't know, guys! All I know is that we use the word 'mutation', and that's all I can say." She did share her excitement over the prospect of Kamala being a mutant from a writer's perspective, though. "I will say, I think this is opening up doors for a lot of great storytelling, obviously, as a huge fan, um... of the word 'mutation'," Amanat said. "I'm really happy about it."
In Marvel Comics, Kamala Khan's latent Inhuman genes were activated by the Terrigen Bomb, with her polymorphic powers unlocked after her exposure to the Terrigen Mist. However, along with her comic book origins, the character's powers were changed for the Disney+ series as well. Unlike Amanat, series star Iman Vellani did not shy away from the word "mutant," and explained in a recent Reddit AMA why this change in the character had to happen.
"...I do think the MCU is in a very different place than the comics were," Vellani said. "And so we were actually able to go this way with Kamala, and to be fair, the original intent for the comic character WAS to make her a mutant, so I am over the moon that this is real and we could make it happen."
Season 1 of Ms. Marvel is now available to stream on Disney+.
Source: Empire