Is Ms. Marvel Going to Reference ABC’s Inhumans?

At D23 Expo on Friday, Disney confirmed that a Ms. Marvel series is officially heading to the upcoming Disney+ streaming service, giving fans the much-anticipated introduction of Kamala Khan into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the announcement still fresh, there naturally aren’t a lot of details about the upcoming series, save for the logo and that Bisha K. Ali has been tapped to serve as showrunner, there are somethings people can’t help but wonder about the Ms. Marvel series — including whether it will make reference to ABC’s failed Marvel’s Inhumans series.

If you just read the previous sentence and found yourself confused as to why the lackluster ABC series would have connection to Disney+’s Ms. Marvel, then allow us to explain. In case you aren’t familiar, in comics Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel is a teenage Muslim American of Pakistani descent hailing from Jersey City, New Jersey. Struggling with her place in the world — specifically with the clash between her religion and culture and what she perceives as “normal” American life — Kamala sneaks out one night to attend a party that her father has forbidden her from. However, when things at the party don’t go quite as she thought, she ends up exposed to the Terrigen Cloud that spread across the world after the Terrigen Bomb was detonated in Earth’s atmosphere during the Inhumans’ fight with Thanos in the “Infinity” storyline. This exposure triggers her latent Inhuman genes and is what leads her to develop her polymorph powers and, ultimately, become the hero Ms. Marvel.

That’s right, Kamala Khan is a descendant of an Inhuman and because of that, it would technically create a scenario where the Ms. Marvel series could refer to Marvel’s Inhumans, the 2017 television series that starred Anson Mount as Black Bolt and Serinda Swan as Medusa and was technically set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the series was not well-received and was quietly cancelled in May 2018. If Ms. Marvel acknowledges the Inhuman element of Kamala’s origin story, it could be seen as a nod to the now-defunct series.

However, what is more likely is that Ms. Marvel creates an opportunity for Marvel to sort of “reboot” the Inhumans, for lack of a better term. While the non-Disney+ slate of television shows was technically set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, their connections to the larger story playing out in the movies was limited at best. Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige has already made clear that will not be the case with the Disney+ shows, telling ComicBook.com that the shows coming to Disney+ will directly connect to the larger universe.

“These will be Marvel Studios productions,” Feige said. “They will be entirely interwoven with both the current MCU, the past MCU, and the future of the MCU.”

With that in mind, it offers a chance for the concept of Inhumans to get a reintroduction without necessarily needing to reference what may go down as the only real flop in the general franchise.

Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall of 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, What If…? In Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021. Other MCU properties without release dates include Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk.