Ms. Marvel: Never Have I Ever Star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan Almost Replaced Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan
Ms. Marvel is Marvel’s latest show that focuses on the new generation of superheroes. The show’s first episode premiered on Disney+ on June 9th, 2022. Ever since the premiere, the show’s lead actor, Iman Vellani, has received tons of praise from Marvel stars as well as from Bollywood celebrities for her portrayal of Kamala Khan. Even the fans are completely in love with the young star, and it seems like Iman Vellani was the perfect choice for the role. However, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan was also considered for the role.
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan denied wanting to play Kamala Khan in Ms. Marvel
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is popular for her portrayal of Devi Vishwakumar in the popular Netflix series titled Never Have I Ever. Maitreyi is a Tamil-Canadian actress, and when asked about playing the role, she straight up denied wanting to play the character.
“I’ve seen a couple of posts about that, but honestly, no. Kamala Khan is Pakistani and I’m Tamil. If there was a Tamil superhero, I wouldn’t want to see a Pakistani girl playing [her]. I would say, ‘Really? You couldn’t find anybody who was Tamil?’ So why would I want to do that to the Pakistani community? That wouldn’t be fair“, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
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Maitreyi Ramakrishnan wants to join MCU
Even though Maitreyi is not interested in being a part of Ms. Marvel, she said she would love to be part of the MCU.
“Trust me, I’d love to be a superhero. I love Marvel so much. I could be the daughter of Deadpool or his apprentice or something. Maybe Deadpool adopts a South Asian girl. It would make sense — Ryan Reynolds and I would both make the Canadian jokes,” she stated.
Iman Vellani is the perfect choice for Ms. Marvel
Maitreyi’s reasons for not wanting to play the character are justified because even though she has South-Asian roots, her experiences of growing up in a brown household would be very different from Iman’s experiences. Therefore, the representation of the culture and religion would have been inaccurate, and that would defeat the whole purpose of the show.
As much as we would love to see Maitreyi as part of Ms. Marvel, no one can play the character of Kamala quite as Iman Vellani does. In the first episode itself, Iman Vellani stole the show and that proves that no one could replace her. But we still hope that we will Maitreyi in some other MCU project soon, perhaps one with an Indian superhero.
Ms. Marvel returns to Disney+ every Wednesday.
