Get ready to embiggen your idea of who gets to be a superhero.
Disney+ and Marvel Studios’ new series “Ms. Marvel” marks the onscreen arrival of the fan-favorite character Kamala Khan, a 16-year-old Pakistani American and the MCU’s first Muslim hero.
“It’s not really the brown girls from Jersey City who get to save the world,” Khan, played by newcomer Iman Vellani, says in the trailer, released on Tuesday.
But Khan does just that when she develops cosmic, energy-based power similar to her idol, Captain Marvel, after finding a mystical bracelet that unleashes her superhero potential.
This marks a major departure from the character’s comic book origin story, in which Khan’s ability to alter her body into any size or shape was unlocked after she was exposed to a mutation-causing vapor known as Terrigen Mist.
Marvel first introduced the character in 2013 before giving Khan her own title the following year for an award-winning and historic run.
What has remained the same is the coming-of-age story at the heart of Khan’s journey as she struggles to find her identity while navigating high school, mean girls, crushes and an undying love for superheroes.
“An avid gamer and a voracious fan-fiction scribe, Kamala is a Super Hero mega fan with an oversized imagination—particularly when it comes to Captain Marvel,” the official description for the series reads. “Yet Kamala feels like she doesn’t fit in at school and sometimes even at home—that is, until she gets super powers like the heroes she’s always looked up to. Life gets better with super powers, right?”
A new poster unveiled on Tuesday shows Khan in full costume looking out toward the New York City skyline.
A newcomer with no prior credits, Vellani was selected for the title role back in September after a lengthy casting process.
The series also features Aramis Knight, Saagar Shaikh, Rish Shah, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Matt Lintz, Yasmeen Fletcher, Laith Nakli, Azhar Usman, Travina Springer and Nimra Bucha.
“Ms. Marvel” is set to dovetail into director Nia DaCosta’s upcoming “Captain Marvel” sequel, titled “The Marvels,” starring Brie Larson, which hits theaters in 2023. Khan will appear in the project alongside Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau, who made her debut in the Disney+ series “WandaVision” last year.
Ms. Marvel is the latest young superhero to arrive in the MCU on the heels of Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop, with many fans suspecting that Marvel is already at work assembling a Young Avengers team.
Riri Williams/Ironheart (Dominique Thorne) is also set to appear in a future Disney+ series, while America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) will be introduced in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” later this year before a grown-up Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) stars in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”
“Ms. Marvel” will premiere on Disney+ on June 8.
Watch the trailer below.