Ms Marvel finale explained: That word, that cameo and those powers

Has one word ever had so much significance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the one uttered at the end of the Ms Marvel finale last night?

In a scene between Kamala and Bruno, her brainy friend reveals there’s something in her genetic make-up that makes her distinct from her family – it’s why she’s the one who was able to unlock the power of the bracelet, or maybe the bracelet unlocked her innate powers.

“When I compared you to the rest of your family, something still seemed off. There’s something different in your genes,” Bruno said with gravity. “Like a… mutation.”

What followed was what some people call a “pregnant pause”, really letting the implication sink in. And just to really ram home the point, a snippet of the theme song from the 1990s animated X-Men series can be heard in the background.

Get it? Get it? Kamala is a mutant. As in, an X-Men mutant.

As fans know, the word “mutation” is a big deal because it signals that X-Men will officially be folded into the MCU for the first time.

Ms Marvel lead and self-professed Marvel fangirl Iman Vellani said in an interview with Marvel’s official website, “They sent me, and only me, the draft and I immediately freaked out. I emailed [Marvel boss] Kevin Feige in all caps.

“I was like, ‘Are you doing this for real? Are you sure? I’m so honoured!’. 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.

“People are going to lose their minds. They’re going to lose everything. I did. It’s truly a really big deal.”

The move has been on the cards – but unconfirmed – since Disney, which owns Marvel Studios, acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019. Previously, the onscreen rights to X-Men characters were owned by Fox, so couldn’t be used in MCU movies or TV shows.

The MCU has teased the inclusion of X-Men a couple of times since the 2019 studio deal, once in WandaVision and the other in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

In WandaVision, fans lost their minds when Evan Peters, who had played the character of Quicksilver in the Fox X-Men movies, showed up in the MCU streaming series as seemingly same character. But it was a cheeky misdirect and he turned out to be a nobody recast in a role that wasn’t what it seemed.

In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Patrick Stewart reprised his role as Professor X but that entire sequence takes place in a different universe to the regular MCU one (Earth-616) so there is a strong argument that it’s not canonical.

That same Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness scene featured another character, Black Bolt (Anson Mount), an Inhuman, another race of superpowered beings. In the comic books, Kamala Khan is actually an Inhuman but it looks the MCU is taking the character in a different director.

Elsewhere in the finale, Kamala’s full comic book powers realised – we finally see her “embiggen” which in the comics is her largening and stretching herself. In the series, it manifests as an extension of the organic matter she creates with her powers.

But it’s the mid-credits sting that really has fans pumped, with a special appearance from Brie Larson as Captain Marvel – or is it?

A Larson cameo was pretty much a foregone conclusion given Kamala’s worship of the MCU’s most powerful superhero, and Ms Marvel’s billing in the upcoming The Marvels movie, which is set to star Larson, Vellani, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.

In the mid-credits scene, Kamala is on her bed when her bracelet starts to glow and she is thrown by an invisible force into her wardrobe. When she re-emerges, it’s not her anymore but Captain Marvel looking confused at her surroundings, especially the copious posters and merchandise bearing her likeness.

What’s not clear is whether Captain Marvel and Kamala have swapped bodies and the teenager is now off somewhere off-world facing off against aliens or if she has transmogrified into Carol Danvers.

We’ll find out when The Marvels is released on July 28, 2023. Only one year and two weeks to go.

Originally published as Ms Marvel finale explained: That word, that cameo and those powers