The Ms. Marvel series on Disney+ began this week. I haven’t seen it yet, but I thought the trailer looked pretty cute. I don’t know much about the character. I got a brief lesson after the latest Dr. Strange film because I had two comic geeks in the car. The series is important for many reasons, but a big one is that Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel is the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first Muslim superhero. Pakistani-Canadian actor Iman Vellani, who plays Kamala, is thrilled to take the mantle on because she’s very aware how people with her background have been portrayed on screen. Noting that Muslims and South Asians are often, “stereotyped and misrepresented” on screen, Iman is happy to combat that portrayal. More so, she liked that the show was about a superhero who happened to be Muslim and not that her religion nor ethnicity were the focus of her character.
The new Disney+ series Ms. Marvel is drawing plenty of attention for the fact that it introduces Kamala Khan, Marvel’s first Muslim superhero, into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
(Iman) Vellani acknowledges is deeply important even if she doesn’t want Kamala’s ethnicity or religion to define her.
“Film and TV really do shape how we see people in this world,” she says. “And so often Muslims and South Asians haven’t really been shown in a positive light, or they’ve been stereotyped and misrepresented. And so it’s just so wonderful that a company as big and accessible as Marvel is providing space for characters like Kamala to exist… Because this show is not about a Muslim-Pakistani teenager. It’s about a fanfic-writing, Avengers-obsessed nerd who just so happens to be Pakistani and Muslim. And that’s how it was for me growing up. Being Muslim and being Pakistani wasn’t the entirety of my identity. It’s just one part of it. And this is how we wanted to showcase that in the show.”
Still, Vellani’s castmates say Ms. Marvel can help combat the prejudice many Muslim-Americans have faced, particularly since the events of 9/11.
“While it’s not a show about a Muslim family, we happen to be Muslim,” says Zenobi Shroff, who plays Kamala’s mother Muneeba.
“And I hope that that helps shift the needle a little bit because there is a very deeply ingrained hate for Muslims in this country. I hope that the bias shifts just a little bit [and] they just see us as a normal, joyful middle-class family.”
While I agree that Hollywood has been awful about Muslim and South Asian representation since 9/11, I would argue the bias predates 2001. We have a long history of villainizing what we don’t understand. It should be noted the comic version of Kamal Khan came out in 2013, so Marvel as a whole is late to the party on positive representation. But at least they got here. And as Iman said, it is nice that the series isn’t about Kamala’s ethnicity but her teenager awkwardness. They don’t ignore the fact the family is Pakistani or Muslim, it’s just not the story. A lot of why this season of Bridgerton worked is because the Scharma ladies being Indian and their traditions were interwoven into the story, not plot-points.
And representation is important, iust ask Iman herself, who was obsessed with Marvel growing up. That’s why she auditioned for the role. She didn’t want to be an actress, she just wanted to meet the Marvel people. It paid off, she’s meeting all her heroes now. Not to mention playing them. Fortunately they provided Iman with a new Ms. Marvel outfit and she didn’t have to dust off the one she’d made herself when she was 15.
15 year old Iman Vellani made a Ms. Marvel suit for Halloween and all her friends thought she was The Flash😭. Years later now she IS Ms. Marvel in the MCU. Like woww pic.twitter.com/PbRPdbnj7E
— carlos✧ (@CINEPAPI) June 1, 2022
Photo credit: Avalon Red and Instagram
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmcG9gaX5ze8immKeXppq5ra3Nopamq4%2BirrPCxKWWqJ6kmrugudSso6Klo5TAsMHToZaaq5mWu7Srx5qtnqaklK%2Bmsc2YqqGnp6OssbvSoquirpWhxnA%3D