Ms. Marvel has introduced us to two great new MCU characters, both of whom happen to be the same person. The first, of course, is Kamala Khan herself, a great new hero introduced in her own show. The second is her actress, Iman Vellani, the 19 year-old Marvel superfan who used to cosplay as Ms. Marvel, and is now playing her onscreen.
Vellani is hilarious because of how much she’s actively into Marvel and the MCU, growing up with the franchise as a kid. We’ve heard stories of her contacting Marvel head Kevin Feige to debate MCU canon directly, and now we have another fun story with the two of them.
Ms. Marvel finale spoilers follow.
The biggest reveal in the finale is when Bruno informs Kamala her powers are not merely based on her Djinn history, but that she has a “mutation” in her genes. In case that wasn’t clear enough, the show plays a riff of the X-Men theme.
This is a dramatic departure from Kamala’s comic origins where she was actually an Inhuman, a superpowered race of aliens living among us on earth. But the MCU already did the Inhumans with an Agents of SHIELD plotline and a separately, horrific Inhumans series. And it’s instead looking toward its mutant-based X-Men future, of which Kamala appears to be a part, changing her origins from the comics even further than what the show had already done.