‘Ms. The miracle: the Islamic representation of South Asia opens up new horizons

When Iman Villani She booked the role of Kamala Khan – Pakistani American teenage superhero also known as Mrs. Marvell – she was The 19-year-old newcomer’s first acting party. But upon taking up the mantle, Fellaini also took on the responsibility of playing the first Muslim superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“I’m honestly so lucky that Marvel trusts me to bring a character like Kamala to life,” says Villani. diverse. At the same time, she says, “there’s a lot of weight that comes from being first thing.”

The advice she got from the Marvel leadership was simply to be yourself. They’re like, ‘Don’t you go to work thinking you’re the first Muslim superhero; Just go to work and have fun,” Villani recalls.

“This is what I tell myself constantly: I don’t really have to go out of my way to advocate for the representation of Muslims and Pakistanis,” she explains. “This is one girl’s story. We can’t represent 2 billion Muslims and South Asians, but this is definitely a good start.”

This methodology was the bedrock of the core creative team behind “Ms. Marvel,” which debuted June 8 on Disney+. Besides the predominantly South Asian and Muslim cast, the team includes lead writer Bisha K. Ali, executive producer Sana Amanat (who co-created the comic in 2014), and directors Adel Elaraby, Bilal Falah, Mira Menon, and Sharmeen Obeid-Chinoy.

“It’s this transition from being the other person in the room to room, that’s the best way to describe it,” says Zenobia Shroff, who plays Kamala’s mother, Munibeh. “Not only on set, but behind the scenes as well. We were basically run by strong brown women, and that’s the way we love it.”

The six-episode series showcases Kamala’s origins while also overcoming the turmoil of being a teen – from the nuances of her relationships with her family and experiences at home to her high school friends and her mosque in Jersey City. The aim is to invite the masses to experience Kamala’s Islamic and Pakistani heritage without holding it in anyone’s hands.

“We try to be as original and realistic as possible, and the characters won’t explain what that means,” says Elaraby. “That’s what we wanted to do with this show.”

Ali adds: “I am very worried about justification, of pointing out things and explaining very frankly. I would rather it come from just her place.”

The series weaves in cultural cues, such as the Khan family’s Eid celebrations and, of course, Hook’s Christmas festivities.

“The festivities and events that we see, the way you interact with elements of society, it’s the everyday life of an American girl,” Ali says.

Menon directed the episode that includes the holiday, and said she “kind of couldn’t believe” that Disney and Marvel had made the resources available for the show in order to “dial” the holiday “to feel like a complete carnival.”

“We definitely had a lot of consultations about it with the cultural advisors who were present throughout the show,” she says. “Sana really guided those conversations, and made sure they sounded authentic to an experience that was specific to that community and specific enough to be global.”

Amanat notes that Marvel Studios executives, including the creative director Kevin FeigeHe did not express concern about alienating non-Muslim audiences or people who are not from South Asia from the series’ detailed cultural references. Instead, they fully embraced the nuanced perspective.

“Every time we have an Islamic reference or Brown joke, and Kevin is like, ‘What is that?’ Is it brown? “When we said, ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘Okay, great. More of that. He was really supportive of having that flavor, because he knows that’s what makes it so unique and special,” Amanat says.

Even the biggest change from ‘Ms. Marvel’s comics to the series – namely, Kamala’s powers, and how she gets them – has included her legacy. In the comics, Kamala is part of a subset of people known as Inhumans, many of whom don’t know they have superpowers until they are… Unleash their potential – as with Kamala.

Humans are not a factor in the current MCU, however, and as a series, “Ms. Marvel” is in the early stages of Whatever the long-running story (or stories) Marvel Studios plans to pursue the Infinity Saga. This necessarily means that Kamala’s powers must be, as Amanat says, “connected to the beginning of something in the MCU.”

Amanat declined to go into further details about what who – which mean, but she also saw this shift as an opportunity to tie Kamala’s powers intimately to her identity. When the first episode was revealed, released after Kamala put on a bracelet her grandmother mailed from Pakistan, subsequent episodes will delve further into how the bracelet’s origins – and the abilities it unlocks in Kamala – are deeply intertwined with the history of the Kamala family.

“What makes its powers unique and special, comes not just from this bangle, but from something much bigger and more personal,” Amanat says. “This has much more resonance, at least for me, than for Kamala’s story.”

With many cultural references, both large and small, Ali included a glossary at the top of the texts explaining some of the language.

“For everyone to be on the same page, whether they speak Arabic or Urdu,” she explains. “It was really about getting as many people as possible into this behind-the-camera process, so I felt like they were a part of it, and I think it will expand to our audience as well.”

This approach presents an opportunity for curious audiences to get an education about another culture while also having fun. “We’re not trying to hit it on our heads. We’re showing a different side of the living experience,” Amanat adds. “But, in the end, we’re telling kind of a fun and entertaining fan story about a young woman coming of age.”

Carson Burton and Jordan Morrow contributed to this story.