Disney+'s Ms. Marvel is on its second episode, and the show has been received well by new and old fans of Kamala Khan. While she is new to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she is already making waves in the canon as the new hero on the scene, earning herself a few fans and haters. Meanwhile, she is also garnering a real-life fan base, and the impact Iman Vellani's Kamala and her supporting cast have can not be overlooked. This series marks the first Muslim superhero in the MCU. It is a celebration of representation, identity, and community, as was addressed throughout a press conference CBR attended.
"I was gifted the comics by a friend that was like, 'This girl on the cover kinda looks like you.' I'd never seen that before," Meera Menon, director of Ms. Marvel Season 1, Episodes 2 and 3, said. "I think the power of that reflection, to be able to see yourself in someone who has to then go on a journey to summon their own bravery and sense of self to save the world, not knowing whether or not brown girls from New Jersey are capable of doing that. That is everything. It's the whole 'if you can see it, you can be' it thing. So, it's incredibly powerful. It's possibly the most powerful thing we can do."
"I think what's really incredible about this show is that we've been talking a lot about identity, and there's so much celebration happening in the course of these episodes," Menon said. "In every single episode, there's just so much love and connectivity. I feel like this show is really about a reclamation of your identity."
Menon was not the only one who felt Ms. Marvel is about celebrating identity. Throughout the conference, people discussed how organic and natural the representation was. Ms. Marvel highlights Muslim and South Asian culture in America, and the performers telling this story come from these communities, thus bringing a genuine perspective to the series as a whole.
"We're used to having to explain a lot of things or fight to change a word or say something that's a little deeper of a cut, just to get that reference out there, but with this show, it was like everybody was on the same page," Saagar Shaikh, who portrays Aamir Khan, said. "It's not our job to teach you what beta or bethe means. That's a quick Google… It made it really easy for everybody to do their jobs because everybody working on this show is like Muslim or South Asian, and we all got the references."
As for those on the series who were not from these communities, they got to share in this culture. Matt Lintz, who portrays Bruno, Kamala's best friend, for instance, learned a lot about the religion and culture from his crew and cast mates. It was something that made the experience even more memorable.
"I was so curious about the culture and the religion and everything about it," Lintz said. "There are certain scenes where I was able to see the culture and how diverse and rich it is. There are so many things I've learned. I feel like coming off of Season 1, I've learned so much from all these beautiful people, and just to call them my friends and cast mates is something that I will be forever grateful for."
The love and care that went into crafting this community and these characters on screen only makes the world feel more vibrant, welcoming, and relatable. Along with that, as Mohan Kapur, who plays Yusuf Khan (Kamala's dad), mentioned, this story about such a "culturally rich" and "ethnically diverse" community made for an amazing opportunity to highlight the community and people, and the details Ms. Marvel incorporated.
"I know this for a fact from whatever little social media that I'm into. That side of the world, they just can't wait to see this happen," Kapur said. "This is us. Now, the fact that if Marvel could run this juggernaut is a big thing for the rest of the world and the other production houses. To say, if they could do it, they knew what they're talking about, let us do it. It's gonna be a rollercoaster from here on. Hopefully for actors, for writers, directors, for the entire caboodle to sit up and say, 'Let's do this. Let's show their story and not shout from the rooftops.' This is not a political statement. This is a story of one family, one girl, but it's so beautiful. It's the story of a family in a land that's not their own, but they've called it their home, and that's beautiful."
What else is beautiful about Ms. Marvel and Kamala Khan is the fact that she cannot be boiled down to just one thing. Yes, her religion and culture are a part of her character. But there is also so much more to her than just this, as Vellani mentioned. "I think Ms. Marvel always understood fan culture on such a cellular level, and it really elevated the storytelling in a unique way," Vellani said. "She's a 16-year-old kid with superpowers. Fine, we've seen that before. But she's also a fan of every other hero within the MCU canon. That fascination and excitement are shared with real-life Marvel fans, so that's why we relate to her. She reacts how we would when she gets powers. I love that part of her, and that's why I fell in love with her."
"Culture and religion were never the main things of her personality, it was just some part of her life. You know, how it was for me," Vellani said. "This is the time I wake up. This is the time I go to school. This is the time I pray. This is the time I eat. It's just a set of normal things. We didn't wanna make the show about a Pakistani Muslim. It was about this Avengers loving, fan-fic writing dork, who just so happens to be a Pakistani Muslim."
With how the cast and crew navigated the representation in Ms. Marvel, as well as this celebration of identity and community, one cannot help but feel the amount of love that was poured into this project. There is so much that audiences can learn from Kamala and her support system, and, as Executive Producer Sana Amanat mentioned, that includes celebrating this community and the individuals that make it up.
"Watch this show and go back to your own households, your own community, and relish in it," Amanat said. "Celebrate your community and the fact that we can be proud in whatever skin color, background, sexual identity that we might have, and embrace it. We want this show to feel so joyous because this is obviously such a joyous team. But we want the show and the people to feel joyous afterward and to celebrate who they are and who their communities are and just kinda spread that love outwards."
Ms. Marvel debuts new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.