Marvel Studios is at something of a crossroads.
They are still making hit movies, but the box office figures for those movies are falling short of the capital-”H” Hits that they had been making in previous phases of the MCU. The writers’ and now actors’ guild strikes are stopping any further production dead in its tracks and the controversy around Disney’s use of AI-generated opening credits for their Secret Invasion (2023) series seems particularly tone-deaf in light of them. Legal hassles are dogging the actors who have been set up as this phase’s Big Bads: Jonathan Majors’ Kang and Tenoch Huerta’s Namor.
It is fair to say that Disney’s MCU is looking for a safe harbor in the midst of this storm. And that harbor might well be Iman (“Kamala Khan”) Vellani.
Early in the promotion of the only MCU film that has a firm release date still on the calendar, The Marvels (Deadpool 3 stopped production this week due to the SAG/AFTRA strike.), the head of Marvel Studios himself, Kevin Feige — who has had a playful relationship with the young star for some time — was starting to tip his hand.
“I also know — and this is a spoiler — she (Vellani) essentially steals The Marvels.” — Kevin Feige
Watching the trailer for the film, Vellani is put squarely in focus as the movie’s giddy heart.
This all seems a bit strange on the business side of things. Ms. Marvel (2022) — the limited series on Disney+ — had, by far, the lowest viewership of any Marvel series to date (it was released alongside the highly-anticipated Obi-Wan Kenobi). It seems foolish to put all of Marvel’s eggs in that basket for their last theatrical shot of this year, but two factors seem to have kept the company hopeful about the show’s legs. First is that, while the viewership wasn’t great, it skewed to a particularly desirable demographic: viewers under 24 years old. Second, seemingly most people who did watch the series, loved it. According to Forbes, it’s amongst the best-reviewed Marvel… well, anything — just shy of the stellar reception that the original Black Panther (2018) got.
So Disney likes its demographic and likes its reception, but would like a few more people to see it, please, and thank you very much.
“The great thing about Kamala in her show, and now in this movie, is that she’s not unlike Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in Civil War. She can’t believe she’s with these other heroes and can’t believe that she finds herself in these places. And that’s fun because we want to be that. I want to be that.” — Kevin Feige
To that end, Disney has decided to put Kamala Khan and her family on network television in early August as part of a special Wonderful World of Disney block on ABC. The first three episodes will air on ABC on Saturday, Aug. 5, and the final three episodes on Saturday, Aug. 12, from 8:00–11:00 p.m. EDT/PDT.
For The Marvels to be a hit, Disney needs more people to get a chance to experience Vellani-mania, and they are stacking the deck to get there.
But this is not where it stops.
Recently, the comic Amazing Spider-Man #26 faced some serious criticism after fridging Kamala Khan. Fans were disappointed that the much-loved character was killed off so callously. Of course, this being comics, the death wasn’t permanent and the character is already due to return in Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant co-written by Ms. Marvel TV-series writer, Sabir Pirzada, and, yep, you guessed it, Iman Vellani! Whether this move will legitimize Vellani and her live-action interpretation of Ms. Marvel to comic book fans or not will remain to be seen, but it is certainly keeping the young actress in the public eye at a time when a major strike is leaving her unable to perform or promote in any other way.
Wherever this all goes, the Vellani machine is in motion and people are charmed by her terrific performances as Marvel’s first Muslim superhero.
Could it reinvigorate the MCU in a tough period? Time will tell.
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Kelly McCubbin is a columnist for Boardwalk Times
