Is ‘Ms. Marvel’ An MCU Commercial Flop?

ms marvel season 1 episode 2
Nick Davis

Ms. Marvel is the newest hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She’s making her debut in her own solo series on Disney+. Marvel has been leaning heavily on these solo series as a way of fleshing out the universe recently. The Ms. Marvel solo series is the 6th solo series to hit Disney+ just since 2021. They’re establishing new characters and stories for this newest phase of the MCU.

But will Kamala Khan’s presence in the MCU wind up being brief? The numbers are in for viewership on her show, and it’s not looking particularly good. Marvel’s been wary about giving solo titles to female superheroes. Could this be another nail in that coffin?

Ms. Marvel Flops

kamala khan ms marvel suit
Iman Vellani in ‘Ms. Marvel’

The viewership numbers came out recently via Samba TV. They estimate that Ms. Marvel got 775k viewers for the premiere. Those numbers don’t sound too bad, but pale in comparison to the show’s direct competition. The MCU show with the next lowest premiere viewership is Hawkeye. And that show had 1.5 million viewers for its premiere. That’s nearly twice the number Ms. Marvel got. The highest debut of any MCU Disney+ show was for LokiLoki got an impressive 2.5 million viewers on the first episode. Ms. Marvel has just over a quarter of that.

Things aren’t all bad for Marvel’s newest and youngest superheroine. The same report states that Ms. Marvel is doing amazingly well with the Gen Z crowd along with minority viewers. They report that Black, Hispanic, and Asian households are watching at a higher rate than with other MCU shows. Kamala Khan is the MCU’s first Pakistani-American and Muslim hero. It’s clear that diversity is getting a positive reception among minority groups while apparently getting the silent treatment from older white audiences.

The Future Of The MCU

Does this spell the end for Kamala Khan? Not likely. This isn’t the first MCU flop, and Marvel doesn’t typically throw out popular comic characters so easily. Thor, for instance, had a very cold reception in its first two movies. But Marvel stuck with the character and over time built an understanding of what works and what doesn’t. Now Thor: Love And Thunder is one of the most anticipated MCU films in years. It’s certain to break box office records. Whether or not Kamala Khan will ever do the same is yet to be determined. There’s a long way to go before any of that happens. But the potential is there.

New episodes of Ms. Marvel Season 1 will continue premiering on Disney+ until the finale in episode 6. The end of her series will coincide with the premiere of the newest MCU movie. Thor: Love And Thunder, which comes out on July 8th.

8 Comments

  1. “Marvel doesn’t typically throw out popular comic characters so easily”
    Ms Marvel comic books aren’t popular either.
    But they gave Batwoman 3 seasons, so maybe this abomination will get its chance too.

      1. So you are watching it because a Muslim is the lead character? Your rant reveals a lot about your thought process. Did it occur to you that maybe the reviews turned him away?

  2. I’m white, my husband is asian, a lot of his culture is in the show and both of us still hate this show. Maybe because we’re both millennials we don’t get it….but there is something we can’t quite put our finger on for this show……so we just label it dumb and refuse to watch it until the hype about it dies down because we don’t want to give it viewership atm.

  3. More left wing circular nonsense! NO ONE wants to see a character from the koat hated and vile religion on the planet! The Muslim culture is a sess pit much like Christianity was 500 years ago. Just the Muslim culture never evolved! The comics where an absolute dismal flop along with all other diverse comics, why because people get sick of it being rammed down their throats also it seems that this become their only identity! I’m white I’m non religious these things do not identify me or should I say I don’t use these to identify myself. But with these minority series and films etc they seem to use that to solve identify the character, its the same with the whole LGBTIAFGJYXXgh+×%^ community (or however any more nonsensical labels you want to add to that ever growing list of mental health disorders!) It become their sole thing to identify them selves, and instantly become boring, unrelateable and stupid for 99.9% of the viewers!

  4. I loved the Comics so I thought it would be difficult for this show to live up to them. True enough it wasn’t quite all I could hope for but when I gave it a chance it really grew on me!

  5. As a comic book OG i came to comics because of the basic good against evil narrative with great character development. like Havok, jack of heart, Galactus, star jammers, silver surfer and the X-men were out of this world, scientific and void of our social issues. when they brought in our social issues I voided them. basic good vs evil does the best job. Thanos was great evil with no “woke ideology” so would galactus, silver surfer, the living monolith, alpha flight , phoenix and the x-man vs the imperial guard and gladiator also be great. Simple, back to basics.

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