Marvel’s first Muslim superhero: who is 19

When Iman Vellani looks at herself in the role of the protagonist of “Ms. Marvel“, He can’t help but feel a sense of disbelief. Before joining this Disney + series, out on Wednesday 8 June on the subscription streaming platform, she was a simple senior high school student with the seemingly impossible dream of participating in an MCU project. She now plays one of her powerful costumed paladins of hers, just like some of the actors she has spent her life worshiping. But Iman has something more than them: she is there first Muslim superheroine from the universe Marvel.

Iman Vellani, a 19-year-old Pakistani-Canadian, is Marvel’s first Muslim superhero

Less than 2% of Hollywood characters of recent years is of the Muslim religion, and are usually stereotyped as bad or “different”. The new show “Ms. Marvel “aims to overturn this vision: the hope is that Pakistani-American superheroine Kamala Khan – played by Pakistani-Canadian Vellani – can leave behind decades of negative judgments and remedy the history of Hollywood that has ignored not only their stories, but also those of South Asian Muslims.

Iman Vellani: from Marvel’s dream to reality

“The first issue of Ms Marvel that I picked up was when Kamala celebrated Eid (days of celebration for the end of fasting, ed). I showed it to my father! ”, Says actress Iman Vellani. She was born in Karachi, Pakistanbefore his family moved, when he was one year old, in Canada, where she grew up surrounded by Marvel. “I have a brother six years older than me and we only watched the things he wanted to watch: The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean and the MCU.”

Always a passionate fan of the Avengers and comics, for her moving from her quiet life in Markham, Ontario to the Marvel Cinematic Universe to play the first Muslim superhero was an almost indescribable achievement. “It’s a very… very intense feelingThe actress said, trying to put into words her Toronto red carpet debut for the series premiere. “Being here and celebrating with all my friends and family is very strange. But yes, I’m excited “. Once on the set the young woman wears the clothes (and the cloak) of Kamala Khan, star of “Ms. Marvel “ that, to be honest, she is not that different from the actress. In fact, if you ask her if she perceives in herself the true essence of the masked paladin, the answer you will hear will be: “Well, as a wise man once said: If you are nothing without your dress, then you shouldn’t have it.” An important sentence, but who is the wise man who utters it? “Tony Stark,” she says with conviction (for the uninitiated, Stark best known with his alter ego Iron Man, played by Robert Downey Jr).

In short, it is difficult to distinguish the floors, given the passion of this 19-year-old for the MCU. Hearing her talk about Kamala Khan’s character during interviews – one nerd from New Jersey of Pakistani descent obsessed with comics and who will someday become a superhero – and his real world, where Iman is a Pakistani-Canadian teenager self-proclaimedgeek“, Obsessed with comics and playing a superhero, the task of figuring out where one ends and the other begins becomes even more difficult.

ms marvel iman vellani
The character played by Iman Vellani, Kamala Khan, is very similar in his story to the real life of the actress

Kamala Khan’s character

The 19-year-old student, from 8 June, will therefore play the role of Kamala Khan in the next series “Ms. Marvel, ”on Disney +. The fictional character is first appeared in comics in 2013. In the Marvel universe it is in fact among the most recent and is part of a generation of superheroes led by women and other ethnically diverse characters (see also She-Hulk, Elektra, and a female-focused X-Men series). She is an American Muslim, just like her creators G of hers Willow Wilson, a cartoonist who converted to Islam as an adult, and Sana Amanat, Marvel’s director of character development. Kamala Khan’s battles, however, are not only with the supervillains, but also with her spirituality, her family duties and her traditions: “It’s not about evangelism,” Wilson told The New York Times. “It was really important for me to portray Kamala as a person who he is struggling with his faith“.

Kamala Khan
Kamala Khan is a teenager who fights to save the world but also with the daily ‘dramas’, between family, first crushes and religious duties

But above all, Khan’s character and story is not just about being a Muslim. It is rather his adventures of a clumsy teenager with superpowers: has a crush on boys and does not know how to behave with them; quarrel with parents; she stresses herself out to manage her schoolwork and save the planet at the same time. Still, she is obsessed with Carol Danvers, also known as Captain Marvel, and eventually she calls herself Ms Marvel when she discovers the ability to make her body parts huge and stretch into different shapes.

Diversity in the MCU

Kamala Khan, played by Iman Vellani, also represents the second South Asian hero of the franchise, and the first female. In 2021, Kumail Nanjiani was the first performer in ‘Eternals‘, taking on the role of Kingo, a Bollywood star turned superhero. Previously, despite the abundance of South Asian characters in Marvel comics, the production in the films has limited itself to giving exposure of this type only to supporting characters like Dr. Ratha in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man‘(Irffan Khan) and Dopinder, in’Deadpool‘(Karan Soni), roles that, according to critics, were largely built on stereotypes. Even the criticisms on the lack of diversity among the main actors in the superhero franchises have increased. “Film and television literally shape the way we see people in this world. And therefore, when Muslims are represented only in a certain light, it becomes one-way, ”said the Canadian actress of Pakistani origin. Vellani has in fact declared that she also considers this role as one representation of its community and South Asian culture. “I’m very happy that Marvel is promoting a character like Kamala, who can occupy a very specific empty space (in the universe) and tell a very specific story about a very particular girl.”



Marvel’s first Muslim superhero: who is 19-year-old Pakistani-Canadian Iman Vellani