Iman Vellani is an avid fan of Marvel, just like her character Kamala Khan in the upcoming Disney+ original Ms. Marvel. In preparation for her role, the actress, who holds a Letterboxd account, gave her honest feedback regarding MCU films to Kamala Khan creator, Sana Amanat. Now, Vellani is at work with her knowledge of the lore to give some insight into a detail from the film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
In a recent interview (via The Direct), Iman Vellani said she doesn’t believe that the MCU is set in Earth-616 as suggested in the movie Multiverse of Madness. She said,
No, I mean, I’d like to say, [the comics are] 616. I don’t believe that the MCU is 616. As much as Kevin Feige can make us think that it’s 616, it is 199999.
In the movie Multiverse of Madness, Strange finds himself in the captivity of the Illuminati at the behest of Sorcerer Supreme, Karl Mordo. A variant Christine Palmer tells him that her world’s scientists have researched well on the concept of the multiverse and alternate realities. He learns that he is on Earth-838, and the original MCU timeline sets in Earth-616.
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But Vellani believes that isn’t the case. The official MCU timeline was called Earth-616 in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Beck, in that movie, suggested that he comes from another reality named Earth-833, claiming “this one” to be 616, but that turned out to be a ruse. Multiverse of Madness, however, confirmed that to be accurate, suggesting Beck somehow made the right guess. Iman Vellani, however, has a different number for it, which she is assertive about.
Related: Comic Book 101: Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, Explained
Is Iman Vellani Right?
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The statement misses the crux of her theory. In 2008, Marvel Comics published the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z. In Vol. 5 of that book, Marvel designated the core reality in the comic books as Earth-616. At the time, the handbook assigned the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Earth-199999. Not just for Vellani, but for several fans out there, Earth-616 has been the name for the comics book lore, which runs on a vastly different continuity than the films. But, Multiverse of Madness turned things the other way and separated the live-action and the comic book universes, giving them the same name.
However, Vellani could be right. It’s possible that this particular designation was assigned to the main MCU timeline by researchers of Earth-838 only, thus, making that information relevant to just that specific reality. Furthermore, Multiverse of Madness featured a sequence where Strange and Chavez traverse through several alternate realities, one of which seems to be animated like the comics’ artwork. It could hint that there is a place for the comics’ universe among all those timelines, meaning the comics’ Earth-616 co-exists with the MarveCinematicc Universe. That would require both timelines to be given two different names. So, maybe, Iman Vellani is right in her own theory.
On the contrary, MCU got the name Earth-199999 in that handbook when Marvel Studios’ leadership was different. Ever since Kevin Feige took complete creative control over the franchise, he took the adaptations and the future of the franchise differently, which became critically successful and commercially valuable. Probably, down the line, Feige would have wanted the franchise named per the comics the films are directly adapted from.
The statements from Vellani clearly show how thorough she is in her research on the shared continuity, which makes her portrayal in Ms. Marvel much more exciting. Whether Marvel Studios will make the name change again or not isn’t known, but Iman Vellani has undoubtedly got the fans thinking.
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