Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has explained why Ms. Marvel’s powers in the MCU Disney+ series are not exactly the same as those in the original comics.
In an interview with Empire, Feige discussed Kamala Khan’s powers in the upcoming Ms. Marvel series and why they’re not quite comic-accurate. He assured fans the tweaks were necessary for the character’s debut in the MCU because she is being introduced at a different time to her comic book counterpart, which plays a part in her transfer from page to screen.
“We adapt the comics; it’s not an exact translation,” Feige explained to the outlet, making reference to the changes spotted by fans in various teaser trailers for the series. “[Kamala] came about in a very specific time within the comic-book continuity. She is now coming into a very specific time within the MCU continuity. And those two things didn’t match.”
In the comics, Kamala is depicted as an Inhuman. She’s completely unaware of her Inhuman heritage until the day she’s exposed to a cloud of Terrigen Mists and her powers suddenly manifest. Kamala becomes a polymorph, meaning she is able to stretch and expand her body into all sorts of shapes, but this isn’t how things happen in the MCU.
The first trailer for Ms. Marvel seemed to show Iman Vellani’s Kamala gaining her powers from a mystical bracelet. However, instead of making her stretchy, the bracelet generates a purple energy aura that Kamala can use to form fists, shield herself and even walk on air. Feige has confirmed that the source of these powers will be explored in the series.
“What we will learn about where those powers come from, and how they come about, is specific to the MCU,” Feige teased, touching on the MCU’s transformation of Kamala’s powers and origin. “You will see great comic splash panels in some of our action sequences. If you want big, giant hands and arms, well they’re here in spirit, if not in stretchy, plastic-type ways.”
Premiering on Disney+ on June 8, Ms. Marvel will serve as an origin story for Kamala as well as set up for The Marvels, in which Vellani will reprise her role as Kamala alongside Brie Laron’s Carol Danvers and Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau. The Captain Marvel sequel is currently in the works with Nia DaCosta directing and is slated for release in July 2023.
For more on Marvel Studios’ coming slate of projects and releases, read our breakdown of the biggest and most noteworthy developments in the MCU, on Disney+, and in comics this year.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.
