A Comic-Con @ Home panel on Thursday introduced fans to the world of Marvels 616, the upcoming Disney Plus anthology series that explores the Marvel universe.
Each episode is staged by a different filmmaker, and two have previewed their episodes on the panel. Director Gillian Jacobs discussed her episode Higher, Further, Faster: Groundbreaking Women from Marvel Comics, in which women are introduced to Marvel's story. And director Paul Scheer spoke about Lost and Found, which will focus on characters who were ahead of their time, like Black Panther, as well as eclectic, sometimes ridiculous characters like Doctor Druid and The Whizzer.
Jacobs said her episode would not only focus on female heroes, but also on real women who have contributed to Marvel's story. The episode includes interviews with Sana Amanat, a vice president of Marvel Entertainment, who talks about how her own life as a Muslim helped inspire Kamala Khan, a Muslim teen who takes over Ms. Marvel's coat Carol Danvers.
Amanat said her boss was inspired to create a Muslim superhero by stories Amanat told about her own childhood, but she was surprised that the concept could be turned into a comic.
"I thought, 'May we do this?'" Amanat said in an interview for the episode. "I didn't think anyone would care."
Novelist and comic writer G. Willow Wilson, herself a Muslim, was asked to write the comic and says she is not sure at first.
"I didn't say yes immediately," Wilson admits in an interview for the episode. "I thought you had to hire an intern to open all this hate mail."
Scheer's Lost and Found episode mixes the serious with the stupid. The meaning of Black Panther is subsequently discussed in an interview. But it's about the background stories of almost forgotten characters like The Whizzer, whose story of origin includes an injection of mongoose blood, and a villain named Typeface, who literally has letters on his skin.
The use of "616" in the title refers to Earth-616, the universe where most of the Marvel comics stories take place. Marvel's 616 will be streamed to Disney Plus this fall.
