Ms. Marvel Joins the Avengers in Doomsday Podcast

With Avengers: Doomsday just four months away, excitement is building as Marvel and Disney ramp up their promotional activities for the first Avengers film in seven years. Doctor Doom is making his presence felt in Marvel video games, while Marvel Comics is revisiting the lead-up to the 2015 Secret Wars event, which serves as inspiration for both Doomsday and the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027.

The next four months provide ample opportunity to catch up on the era-spanning films featured on Marvel’s official Doomsday watchlist, starting with 2000’s X-Men and concluding with last year’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. In keeping with the trend of companion podcasts, Marvel is launching the Countdown to Avengers: Doomsday Official Podcast on August 27, hosted by Ms. Marvel herself, Iman Vellani.

Vellani will team up with Frank Alvarez to revisit “all the major moments leading up to Doomsday,” as noted in Marvel’s announcement. The duo will explore fan-favorite scenes and discuss the broader impact of the films. The podcast will run for five weeks, with the final episode coinciding with the rerelease of Avengers: Endgame in theaters, featuring an additional four minutes of new footage.

While it’s great to see Vellani still involved with Marvel, her role in the podcast rather than in Doomsday itself may not be the comeback Ms. Marvel fans were hoping for. After her debut as Kamala Khan in the 2022 series Ms. Marvel, Vellani appeared in 2023’s The Marvels, which ended with a meta moment where Ms. Marvel attempts to recruit Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop for a new superhero team.

Since then, Vellani’s Ms. Marvel hasn’t appeared in the main Marvel Cinematic Universe, possibly due to The Marvels’ disappointing box office performance or simply because the MCU is currently overflowing with characters. For instance, Shang-Chi’s appearance in Doomsday will come five years after his solo film. It’s unfortunate, as Vellani is an excellent fit for Kamala Khan, and her solo series has received critical acclaim, boasting a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Ms. Marvel is the kind of versatile superhero who can fit into various narratives. She shines as a street-level hero like Spider-Man, defending her home turf in Jersey City. Given the proximity of Jersey City to New York City, it would be exciting to see her team up with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. If Spidey can share the screen with Frank Castle, he can certainly work alongside anyone. Ms. Marvel has also ventured into space and played a pivotal role in the Civil War-like event comic Outlawed.

Although Vellani didn’t get a spotlight during the Avengers: Doomsday cast reveal stream last year, there’s still hope for her return in Avengers: Secret Wars or the MCU’s future beyond that. The X-Men are set to take center stage, and thanks to a controversial retcon, Vellani’s character is now a mutant. It would be fantastic to see her don yellow spandex in a future X-Men film.

In the meantime, fans can catch Vellani on the Countdown to Avengers: Doomsday Official Podcast, available in video format on Disney Plus and YouTube, with an audio-only version accessible on various podcast platforms.

Marvel enthusiasts are eagerly speculating about how the new Avengers will navigate Doom’s identity.