Marvel Studios has invented plenty of characters we’ve never seen before in comics books for its movies and Disney Plus shows, but we are about to meet its first original superhero. On Thursday, Marvel revealed that the all-new superhero Kahhori will debut in an episode of What If…? season 2. Kahhori is a young Mohawk woman with cosmic powers.
Meet the new hero Kahhori in What If…? season 2
According to Marvel’s blog post, Kahhori’s episodes of What If…? will ask “what would happen if the Tesseract fell to Earth and landed in the sovereign Haudenosaunee Confederacy before the colonization of America.” The cube we knew as the container for the Space Stone transforms a lake into a gateway of stars that Kahhori ascends to discover her powers.
Marvel says that Ryan Little (I Am Groot, Runaways) worked in close collaboration with members of the Mohawk Nation, such as historian Doug George and the Mohawk language expert Cecelia King, to ensure authenticity and accuracy. The characters will speak in the Mohawk language in the episode, which takes place in the Akwesasne region (now upstate New York).
“It tells a remarkable story from a Native-Mohawk perspective which is truly unique and historical, and will give the viewers a new, challenging and entertaining perspective on this land’s first peoples,” said Doug George. “The story is dramatic, the characters fully realized, and the action sequences are breathtaking. The episode is exceptional in another sense–it is done with the complete cooperation of the Mohawk people from dialogue to adornment.”
“I had a wonderful writing mentor who worked extensively with the Indigenous community in upstate New York, and I was excited to draw on that experience to build an entirely original corner of the MCU with storylines for new Indigenous heroes written from a place of respect for past generations and optimism for future ones,” added writer Ryan Little. “Kahhori, pronounced ‘KAH-HORTI,’ is a real, Wolf Clan name, meaning ‘she stirs the forest’ or is someone who motivates those around her. In her debut adventure, Kahhori will have to live up to her name to recruit powerful allies into the fight to save her people and change the course of history forever.”
Marvel still hasn’t announced a release date for What If…? season 2, but Funko is releasing a special Funko Vinyl Soda teasing her powers on March 29.
