Ms. Marvel
Kamala Khan
Series · Phase 4
Ms. Marvel
2022 · 45 min
Kamala Khan is sixteen, obsessed with Captain Marvel, failing her driving test and building an AvengerCon costume in secret. A bangle from her great-grandmother's trunk gives her hard-light…
The Multiverse SagaDisney+98%Released
The story
Kamala Khan is sixteen, obsessed with Captain Marvel, failing her driving test and building an AvengerCon costume in secret. A bangle from her great-grandmother's trunk gives her hard-light constructs and a lineage she has never been told about.
The series threads a Jersey City coming-of-age comedy through the 1947 Partition of India, arriving at a grandmother on a railway platform and a mother who has spent decades not talking about it. Its Marvel plotting is functional at best; its family material is the warmest thing the franchise has produced.
Key facts
- Release date
- 8 Jun 2022
- Status
- Released
- Phase
- Phase 4
- Saga
- The Multiverse Saga
- Runtime
- 45 min
- Certificate
- TV-14
- Director
- Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah, Meera Menon, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
- Writers
- Bisha K. Ali
- Seasons
- 1
- Episodes
- 6
- Streaming
- Disney+
- Timeline placement
- 2025 — contemporary with Hawkeye and Shang-Chi
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Iman Vellani | Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel |
| Matt Lintz | Bruno Carrelli |
| Zenobia Shroff | Muneeba Khan |
| Mohan Kapur | Yusuf Khan |
| Rish Shah | Kamran |
| Aramis Knight | Kareem / Red Dagger |
Characters
Captain Marvel
Carol Susan Jane Danvers
Easter eggs
- The finale confirms Kamala carries a mutation, with the X-Men: The Animated Series theme playing over Bruno's line — the first canonical mutant reference in the main MCU timeline.
- The 1947 Partition sequence is the first time an MCU project has built a plot around South Asian history.
- Damage Control agents Deever and Cleary escalate from Spider-Man: Homecoming's cleanup company into an ICE-adjacent enforcement agency.
- AvengerCon includes a Hulk-smash booth, Ant-Man-scale cosplay and a Scarlet Witch tribute, plus a Captain America PSA clip.
- Kamala's powers were changed from the comics' embiggening and shapeshifting to Noor-dimension hard light, a decision the show ties to the bangle.
- Aramis Knight's Kareem is the Red Dagger, Kamala's Karachi counterpart from her own comic run.
- The finale's body swap with Carol Danvers sets up The Marvels directly, and Brie Larson appears in the post-credits scene.
- Kamala's fan-art doodles are animated over Jersey City throughout, a style drawn from her comic's own visual language.
Trivia
- It is the highest-rated MCU project on Rotten Tomatoes at 98%.
- Iman Vellani was a lifelong Marvel obsessive with no professional credits, cast after her aunt sent an open-call notice to the family group chat.
- Vellani has since co-written Ms. Marvel comics for Marvel, including a run with the character.
- It was the first MCU project centred on a Muslim superhero, and Sana Amanat, who co-created Kamala in 2013, produced.
- Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, a two-time Academy Award-winning documentarian, directed two episodes including the Partition material.
- Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who directed Bad Boys for Life, handled the premiere and finale.
- The soundtrack blends Bollywood playback, Pakistani qawwali and 2000s hip-hop, and became one of Marvel's most streamed.
Reviews
Critics
98%
Ms. Marvel is a joyful, warm-hearted coming-of-age story elevated by Iman Vellani's irresistible lead performance and a genuine sense of cultural specificity.
The MarvelGossips verdict
The most likeable thing in the MCU and the highest-rated by a comfortable margin, and it is not close. Vellani is a genuine star, and the Partition episode is better than most Marvel films. The Clandestine villains are a nothing plot in a show that clearly wants to be about a family instead.
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Frequently asked
Is Kamala Khan a mutant in the MCU?
Yes. The finale has Bruno tell her there is a mutation in her genes, with the X-Men: The Animated Series theme playing — the first canonical use of the term in the main MCU timeline, three years before an X-Men film was dated.
Why are Kamala's powers different from the comics?
The comics give her polymorphic embiggening and shapeshifting; the show gives her hard-light constructs from the Noor dimension. Marvel has said the change was made to distinguish her visually and to tie her to the bangle's history.
Is Ms. Marvel the best-reviewed Marvel show?
Yes. At 98% on Rotten Tomatoes it is the highest-rated Marvel Studios project of any kind, ahead of X-Men '97 and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
What happened to Kamala after the series?
She co-leads The Marvels in 2023, then recruits Kate Bishop in that film's mid-credits scene. Marvel has not announced a second season or a Young Avengers project.