Ms. Marvel Directors: Kevin Feige Is the “Only One Who Knows” Mutant Master Plan

Warning: this story contains spoilers for the Ms. Marvel finale, “No Normal.” “Mutation.” That’s the “something different” that Bruno (Matt Lintz) discovers in Kamala Khan’s (Iman Vellani) genetic make-up in the final moments of Ms. Marvel, the reveal accompanied by a note from the X-Men ’97 theme. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe has yet to use the word “mutant” — aside from a non-canon deleted scene from 2008’s Iron Man, in which S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) references mutants and Spider-Man in the same breath — “mutation” is just part of the plan. That’s the top-secret master plan of Kevin Feige, the MCU’s chief architect who teased the X-Men when the Ms. Marvel producer name-dropped mutants at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019. 

“[The ‘mutation’ reveal] was the best-kept secret of the whole show. We didn’t even know about it until we suddenly had a script,” Adil El Arbi, who directed the Ms. Marvel finale with Bilall Fallah, told TVLine. “So, when we had it, we asked, ‘What’s that about? What’s going to happen?’ And Kevin Feige would say, ‘Just shoot this, put the little music on and that’s that. Should you be part of the future of Ms. Marvel, then you’ll know a little bit more.’” 

Added Fallah, “Kevin Feige has the master plan. He’s the only one who knows.” 

The reveal was kept secret from most of the Ms. Marvel cast and crew, including Lintz, whose script omitted Bruno’s lines about Kamala’s “mutation.” 

“They sent me, and only me, the draft [of the final episode], and I immediately freaked out,” Vellani told Marvel.com. “I emailed Kevin Feige in all caps. I was like, are you doing this like for real? Are you sure? I’m so honored! I was like yelling at him through an email. I was freaking out. This is the biggest deal in the world, and the fact that it’s happening in our show is crazy.”

Added Lintz, “They didn’t even have it in [the script]. I remember I was having a conversation about it and [the directors] were like, ‘Yeah, you say this crazy thing.’ They wouldn’t even tell me what it was! I was like, ‘What’s the deal here?’ They were very secretive about that whole thing.”

Starring Iman Vellani, Aramis Knight, Saagar Shaikh, Rish Shah, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Matt Lintz, Yasmeen Fletcher, Laith Naki, Azher Usman, Travina Springer and Nimra Bucha, all six episodes of Marvel Studios’ Ms. Marvel are now streaming on Disney+.