In 2013, Marvel Comics introduced Kamala Khan, a Pakistani American teenager from New Jersey who idolizes Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel. By 2014, Kamala had superhuman abilities, her own solo series and her own superhero moniker — Ms. Marvel — making her the first Muslim superhero to headline a Marvel comic.
Nine years later, Kamala is making history once again in “Ms. Marvel,” the latest Disney Plus series from Marvel Studios that debuted its first trailer on Tuesday. The series will debut on June 8.
Newcomer Iman Vellani won the title role after an extensive search by Marvel Studios. She’s joined by fresh face Saagar Shaikh as her older brother Aamir, Mohan Kapur (the Disney Plus Hotstar series “Crime Next Door”) and Zenobia Shroff (“The Big Sick”) as her parents Muneeba and Yusuf, Matt Lintz (“The Walking Dead”) as her best friend Bruno, and Aramis Knight (“Into the Badlands”) as the vigilante known as Red Dagger.
Set to The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights,” the trailer kicks off with Kamala in the high-school guidance counselor’s office, while doodles of speech bubbles, hearts and devil horns pop up on screen. Kamala is branded as the typical day-dreaming, superhero nerd, but at some point she gets strange cosmic powers, like the ability to launch energy blasts and create glowing stepping stones to walk in the air. Later in the trailer, she gets a comic-accurate, red-and-blue costume and throws some cosmic punches with a giant, glowing fist.
Bisha K. Ali (Hulu’s “Four Weddings and a Funeral”) serves as executive producer and head writer, and the six-episode first season was directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (the Oscar-winning director of documentary shorts “Saving Face” and “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness”), Meera Menon (“For All Mankind”), and Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (“Bad Boys for Live”).
Marvel initially announced “Ms. Marvel” would premiere in late 2021, but after the pandemic flooded the calendar with nine other movies and series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the studio pushed the series to the summer of 2022. That also places the show in closer proximity to the “The Marvels,” the feature film sequel to the Feb. 2023 debut of “Captain Marvel,” which will feature Vellani alongside Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers and Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau (from “WandaVision”).
Watch the trailer below.