At San Diego Comic-Con last month, Marvel Studios unveiled an ambitious slate of projects for the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including live-action Disney+ shows The Falcon and Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, and Hawkeye. Now, they’ll be joined by another hero on Disney’s streaming platform: Ms. Marvel.
Disney confirmed the news during its D23 presentation this evening. Earlier today, The Hollywood Reporter (via io9) revealed that Marvel had begun developing a live-action adaptation of the comic for Disney+, with British comedian Bisha K. Ali tapped to write and serve as showrunner for the series.
The series will be based on the character Kamala Khan, the first Muslim superhero in Marvel’s pantheon to headline her own book. Created by artists Adrian Alphona and Jamie McKelvie, editors Sana Amanat and Stephen Wacker, and writer G. Willow Wilson, Kamala Khan made her first appearance in August 2013 in Captain Marvel #14, and starred in her own series, Ms. Marvel, starting in 2014.
The character is the latest iteration of the superhero — Ms. Marvel’s first iteration appeared in 1968 as Carol Danvers, an Air Force officer who was caught in an explosion and gained superpowers, and later became Captain Marvel. The next was Sharon Ventura in 1985 who received her superpowers from an experiment, while Karla Sofen assumed the identity in 2009 and 2010.
Khan, a 16-year-old Pakistani-American from New Jersey who discovers that she has the ability to change shapes. She idolizes Captain Marvel, and takes on the mantle of Ms. Marvel. In 2015, the novel earned a Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story.
There’s no guarantee that the series will be greenlit (case in point: Disney shelved its adaptation of the Book of Enchantment), but it’s a positive sign. Indeed, an adaptation of Kamala Khan has been floated before, especially after Marvel released Captain Marvel earlier this year. During the press tour prior to the film’s release, actress Brie Larson said that she hoped that the character would get a live-action depiction soon: “My dream would be that Ms. Marvel gets to come into play in the sequel. That’s the goal.”
Update: During Disney’s D23 presentation, the company confirmed that it was developing the series. This post has been updated accordingly.
