Bisha K. Ali’s first foray into the MCU was being a writer on Loki. When she heard that Marvel was doing a Ms. Marvel show, however, she left that writers room to develop a pitch for the new series, a risk that obviously paid off.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ali shared why she thought Marvel head Kevin Feige and his fellow execs chose her for the head writer job:
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I think they really responded to the fact that this story was intensely personal. I had a real sense of who this character was as a fan because that’s who she’s representing. She represents Marvel fans in the real world, and she’s an Avengers fan within the MCU. And then there I was, a superfan as well, going into that room and being like, “Listen, I can’t believe I’m in this room either. Let’s do it. Here’s how I want to approach it.” I was able to share with them why I thought this show was important for me personally, as a fan, as a South Asian person, as a Pakistani woman, as a woman from a Muslim background. I explained why those things were important, but also how we could marry them in a way that’s specific and universal. So I laid it out for them and what my way into it would be.
Ali also emphasized how the show is more focused on the everyday life of Kamala (Iman Vellani) rather than the big explosions and supervillains that can often take up a lot of space in the MCU.
“Kamala Khan is the people’s hero of this generation. She represents so many of the current fans who’ve grown up with a decade of Marvel cinematic storytelling,” Ali said. “That element was really important, and the thing I always wanted to do from my pitch onwards was to keep this about her character, through and through. The visual storytelling, the way [the writers] did the storytelling, the powers, the relationships are all about Kamala’s internal life, psychology and journey.”
The first two episodes of Ms. Marvel are available on Disney+ with additional episodes dropping each Wednesday.
