Marvel’s Disney+ series She-Hulk has found its villain: Jameela Jamil, best known for her role as Tahani Al-Jamil in NBC’s The Good Place. Looks like all that afterlife training to become a better person didn’t quite stick…
Word of the casting has been floating around for a little while, and was recently confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter. She’ll reportedly play Titania / Mary MacPherran, who was first introduced in the comics in 1984’s Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars #3. She was a shy and isolated young woman who longed to gain superpowers in order to take out her frustration and anger on those who bullied her over the years.
She eventually got her wish and gained superpowers when a supervillain named Beyonder stole the city of Denver to create a composite realm known as Battleworld. Along the way, Mary encounters Doctor Doom, who uses alien technology to imbue her with powers—in this case, super strength and a more outgoing personality. (Sounds a bit like Cheetah in Wonder Woman 1984.) She eventually became a major foe of She-Hulk in the comics.
It’s not clear how much of that comics origin story will make its way into Marvel’s TV series, but there are a bunch of elements that seem like they’d line up nicely with what they have planned—we know the Fantastic Four are set to arrive at some point (maybe this will help introduce Doom somehow?), and the series is described as a sort of legal comedy, so presumably we probably won’t get too much into the world-destroying that we’ve seen elsewhere in the MCU.
Regardless, Jamil will join Orphan Black‘s Tatiana Maslany (Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk) and Hamilton star Renée Elise Goldsberry (playing a friend of Jennifer’s named Amelia). The series will also see Mark Ruffalo reprise his role as Bruce Banner / Hulk (Jennifer is his cousin and gets her powers via a blood transfusion), while Tim Roth will return to reprise his role as Emil Blonsky / Abomination, who we met in the first MCU Hulk movie.
The 10-episode, 30-minute series is expected to debut sometime in 2022, with Kat Coiro and Anu Valia set to split directing duties.
