Ms. Marvel was a fun ride, and one that ended with a reveal that was bigger than we could have ever anticipated. However, if it dropped the ball anywhere, it's with the Clandestines.
We know the villains wanted to return to their home in the Noor Dimension and that the only way to do so was by taking that bangle from Kamala Khan. But almost as quickly as they appeared, they turned on the teenager, got imprisoned, and then broke out and died in quick succession. It was underwhelming to say the least, but we may now have a better idea as to why.
Talking to Variety, Ms. Marvel Head Writer Bisha K. Ali admitted that a lot of the Clandestines' scenes and backstory were cut from the show, which is a surprise seeing as those middle chapters were relatively short.
"It’s worth saying that they aren’t djinn. In Episode 4, they overtly say they aren’t djinn," she explains. "The other piece as well is in Episode 3, when Najma tells her that people call us the djinn - it’s the worst possible thing [Kamala] could be. It is, emotionally, a nightmare. That’s what takes her to the point where she says,'“Well, I can’t be a superhero.'"
"I would say that a lot is missing. There are, like, essays we’ve written about the Clandestines, the Noor dimension, the Red Daggers and about how it’s all connected to everything else. There are huge swathes of character arcs that for the purpose of being able to make this in the time that we had, with the situation that changed [due to] COVID - I think we miss out a lot on some of the parallels between the two different kinds of families. I think we’ve missed out a lot on some of the character development for the Clandestines."
"We’re a six-hour television show. We’re never going to be able to have a universe completely subsumed by another," Ali continues. "But the key function of that for me, emotionally for Kamala’s character, was figuring out how she’s going to deal with these difficult situations when things get spicy when she comes home."
The writer also addressed Damage Control's role in the series, explaining that they wanted to show Agent Deever going rogue and use a fictional government agency to "put the analogy in clearer light in terms of the over-policing, the profiling and the surveillance of Muslims." However, Ali added that this doesn't necessarily mean the organisation is all bad.
This makes sense seeing as they'll appear in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, but Ms. Marvel has raised some very interesting questions. Unfortunately, Marvel Studios has yet to release any deleted scenes for its Disney+ TV shows, so if there is more to the Clandestines, we'll have to just imagine what that is because the show ultimately struggled to do them justice.
All six episodes of Ms. Marvel are now streaming on Disney+.