Newcomer Iman Vellani to be Marvel Studios’ first Muslim hero
The search is finally over! Marvel has found its Ms Marvel. Newcomer Iman Vellani has been chosen to play Pakistani-American super hero Kamala Khan, Variety has confirmed with a source close to the project. This marks her first major Hollywood production.
Marvel and the streamer recently named Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Meera Menon as directors on the project.
Ms Marvel is a fairly new character in Marvel comics, only debuting 2014. However, she immediately made her mark becoming the first Muslim-American superhero to spearhead her own comic book.
Related: Marvel is looking for Pakistani-American actors to play Ms Marvel
Ms Marvel hails from head writer Bisha K Ali and centres on Kamala Khan, a Pakistani-American teen. The New Jersey-based hero broke ground in 2014 as Marvel’s first Muslim character to star in her own title, and will become Marvel Studios’ first onscreen Muslim hero.
According to Marvel, the character has an “an Inhuman ability to alter shape and size [and] employs an idealistic attitude as much as any power to make the world a better place.”
The Ms Marvel series was announced during the D23 Expo, along with Moon Knight and She-Hulk.
Ms Marvel does not have a release date yet, but Disney plans to release the series exclusively on Disney Plus.
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