Ms Marvel has the potential to give Muslim people the representation that they deserve in the media.
When Marvel Studios announced that Ms Marvel a.k.a Kamala Khan is going to get her own Disney+ series, a lot of curiosity raised between the audience to know how the series is going to cast. As all the actresses who have been the voice of Ms Marvel are in their thirties, so they will be too old to play a teenager.
Muslim, Indian, and Pakistani actors never really got what they deserve in Hollywood, but Marvel would need to bring an actress from that side who can lead the series and they succeed in this job. In September, Marvel announced they have cast Iman Vellani born to Muslim immigrants from Pakistan to portray the role of Kamala Khan.
She will be creating history as she will be the first-ever Muslim superhero. In this addition, they also made some other announcement about the director of the series Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (who most recently directed Bad Boys for Life), Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (known for Oscar-winning short films Saving Face and A Girl in The River: The Price of Forgiveness) and Meera Menon (who has recently directed episodes of television shows like GLOW, Titans, The Walking Dead, and The Punisher), all of whom come from Muslim and/or South Asian backgrounds.
Choosing Muslim and South Asian directors to direct a Muslim and South Asian story doesn’t assure success but it proves Ms Marvel has the potential to give Muslim people the representation that they deserve in media.
Ms Marvel To Show Muslim Culture At Large
Just after this announcement was made, a Hollywood Reporter spotted some light on the fact that how this decision is going to affect the culture at large. As Marvel’s first Muslim superhero Ms Marvel already left some impact in comics and now she is going to lead her own Disney+ series. With movies like Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians Marvel has already created impressions about non-white people with the non-white cast and creative teams.
Black Panther rocked the box office with a Black director, Black screenwriters, a primarily Black cast, and a creative team that included multiple Black artists.
Crazy Rich Asians were adapted from a book by Chinese Singaporean author Kevin Kwan, had a Taiwanese and Chinese-American director, a Malaysian and Chinese screenwriter, a primarily Chinese and pan-Asian cast, and a creative team that included multiple Asian artists.
Black Panther shed light on African Culture which was largely misunderstood and neglected by the western media. Same Crazy Rich Asian brought Chinese Singaporean culture to the light and both movies received some positive critics and collect many awards and nominations.
Now it seems like Ms Marvel has the potential to give Muslim people the representation that they deserve in media. Kamala is a simple teenage girl who is living in New Jersey and her life taught her how to be a hero, she just happens to be Pakistani-American and Muslim. Kamala is a nerd girl, a focused, smart, brave, and plucky kid. Her family, friends, and some religious leaders are somewhere influencing her life.
Seeing a Muslim heroine in her own story struggling with issues of faith, life, and superheroing in equal measure, surrounded by a mostly-Muslim supporting cast will be nothing short of remarkable. This shows Marvel Studios is putting great efforts to give the majority of people the representation that they deserve.
