Exclusive: Marvel's Wil Moss Talks Squirrel Girl, Reveals His Casting Choice For The Role

10/28/2016 03:46 pm EDT

Squirrel Girl, Doreen Green, has proven o be a true breakout character for Marvel Comics over the past few years. In addition to headlining her own series, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Squirrel Girl has also joined the New Avengers, will be featured in U.S.Avengers, and recently had her own original graphic novel released, Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe.

Squirrel Girl has become such a sensation that multiple actresses have put their own names out there for the role, should Doreen ever get a shot at live-action. ComicBook.com spoke to Unbeatable Squirrel Girl editor Wil Moss about what makes Squirrel Girl so special, and who he would choose to play Squirrel Girl in a live-action role.

You edit The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, and Squirrel Girl has become a real breakout character in recent years. Why do you think that is? Something about the culture and the readers, or is it all about what the creative team of Ryan North and Erica Henderson are bringing to her?

WM: I definitely think a huge part of it is definitely down to the creative team with Ryan and Erica and Rico [Renzi, colorist]. It's their take on this character that's making her resonate so well.

Also, we see a lot of letters for Squirrel Girl from fans that aren't the typical Marvel readers, so there's something where Squirrel Girl managed to also reach an audience that has been there a while, but maybe hasn't had the access to comics or found comics that they'd be interested in. It's something that we're seeing a lot of outside response from, which is great. A lot of the existing fans are super into her as well. She's different just in that, that she's just as confident and capable as every other Marvel superhero, but she just approaches everything about her life differently, in a way that I think is just refreshing, because it's not like a throwback or retro or anything like that. She's a very modern character, but she's got a different style that I think maybe people can't help but like.

Because Squirrel Girl is so unique within the Marvel Universe, it's often really fun to see her interact with other more established Marvel characters. Are there any characters she hasn't teamed up with or fought yet that are at the top of your wishlist?

WM: I don't know. We've covered a lot of ground in the stories to date. She's had interactions with Thor and Odinson. She's doing a story right now The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #12-14, where it's about a story with Ant-Man. It's fun to see a positive interaction in that story. We had the Squirrel Girl graphic novel come out a couple of weeks ago, Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe, where we got to see her interact with Tony Stark, which is a lot of fun because of her first appearance back in '92. It was a story where she and Iron Man teamed up despite him not being real interested in teaming up with her.

In the current series, on the recap pages, we showed Tony and Squirrel Girl interacting on Twitter, but there's never been any on panel interaction between the two in that series. That's something we finally got to do in the OGN. It was something where we were like, "Hey we've got this opportunity for a big story, one of the things we want to do is have Squirrel Girl and Iron Man interact." That was something that was fun.

We did a crossover with Howard the Duck, where it was great seeing those two characters, which are pretty different, bounce off of each other. I don't know, it's fun to see her because every time she interacts with a character it's in a different way. It's fun kind to do with anybody, just anyone.

I'd like to see her team more with Loki, honestly. They had a little bit of interaction and that was a lot of fun. There's cool stuff to come. Her 25th-anniversary issue is in January. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #16, will be 25 years since she had that first appearance, where she had that story with Iron Man. There is some fun stuff in there including some guest stars that I think people will enjoy.

Part of Squirrel Girl's increased profile is some attention from actors. Anna Kendrick and Shannon Purser from Stranger Things have both said they'd like to play Squirrel Girl in live action. Do you have a fantasy casting pick for the role?

WM: I don't know, I'm as curious as everybody else as to what, if anything, will happen. Honestly, I don't really have somebody in mind except one one that can't ever happen. I picture a 25-year-old Amy Poehler, who think would do a great job with Squirrel Girl. Not Amy Poehler now, but Amy Poehler when she was younger and a little crazier. I think she'd make a pretty fun Squirrel Girl, but short of that, I don't know. It's fun seeing all the people throw their hat in the ring. It's also one of those things where I don't know if anybody will ever actually be able to capture the character. Ryan and Erica just made such a real person in these comics. I don't now, it's always going to be tough to beat the source material for whatever they do.

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