Warning: this story contains spoilers for Ms. Marvel Episode 4, “Seeing Red.” Kamala Khan co-creator Sana Amanat hopes to take another stab at unmasking the Order of the Red Daggers. Wednesday’s “Seeing Red” introduces Ms. Marvel ally Kareem (Aramis Knight) to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the latest in a line of Pakistani superhero warriors whose identities have been kept secret by a red scarf for hundreds of years. “Our function is simple: to protect our people from threats of the unseen,” Waleed (Farhan Akhtar) explains to Kamala (Iman Vellani), the Jersey City superhero on a family trip to Karachi, Pakistan.
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In her first superhero team-up, Episode 4 partners Kamala and the dagger-wielding Kareem against Najma (Nimra Bucha) and The Clandestines. The enemy group of exiled Djinn wants Kamala’s bangle to return to their home in the Noor Dimension — a trip that risks destroying the world.
The episode pulls from Ms. Marvel #12 (2016), where rookie superhero Kamala first encounters the mysterious Kareem on a trip to Pakistan. And like their comic counterparts, who eventually reunite in the U.S., there could be more Red Dagger in Ms. Marvel’s future.
“I’m a huge fan of the Red Daggers. I love making them an order. The only thing is, if you asked me what I wish that we had more time for, it would be delving into the backstory of The Order of the Red Daggers,” the Kamala Khan co-creator and Ms. Marvel producer told EW. “There’s a lot more that we were percolating on that we just didn’t have time to shoot, frankly. But I love their team-up.”
Supervising producer and “Seeing Red” writer Sabir Pirzada is “just a huge fan of Red Dagger,” Amanat added of the lesser-known Marvel hero created by G. Willow Wilson and Mirka Andolfo. “He came in like, ‘yo, Red Dagger’s so cool.’ We made fun of him a little bit. I love Sabir so much, but he’s just like, ‘yeah, this is the guy.’ I completely agree, I think Red Dagger is super awesome.”
With just six episodes in Ms. Marvel Season 1, it came as an exciting surprise when the writers’ room wanted to send Kamala to Karachi to learn more about the bangle that belonged to the disappeared Aisha (Mehwish Hayat), Kamala’s great-grandmother.
“I was very excited when the writers were like, ‘oh, we’re going to tell a Pakistan episode.’ Going to Pakistan feels like a season 2 thing, and we did it in one season,” Amanat said. “Great aggressive move on the writers. I know Kevin [Feige, Marvel Studios president and producer] was very excited about that in particular.”
New episodes of Ms. Marvel are streaming Wednesdays on Disney+.
