Marvel's What If...? Went Above And Beyond To Create Its New Indigenous Superhero
When Marvel's "What If...?" season 2 premieres later this month, fans will be taking another look at some other pockets of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Like last season, the Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) observes (and sometimes takes part in) some alternate versions of the lives of our villains and heroes. This time around, we're also getting a brand new hero named Kahhori, a First Nations woman of the Mohawk tribe. Kahhori was created for the animated series with a lot of influence and input from the Mohawk people. The episode is done completely in the Mohawk language with subtitles, and the people running the show are very excited about it.
I recently got a chance to watch the first two episodes (neither of which were Kahhori's) of the second season, and attend a Q&A with executive producer Bryan Andrews, writer Matthew Chauncey, and writer and executive producer A.C. Bradley. They spoke about Kahhori and gave us some information about the episode, which was written by Ryan Little.
The episode is described by Marvel this way: "'What If...?' asks what would happen if the Tesseract fell to Earth and landed in the sovereign Haudenosaunee Confederacy before the colonization of America."
Creating Kahhori for What If...?
Bradley said that when they were working on the episode all the way back in April 2020, Disney Diversity told them they were going to call the Smithsonian, which houses the National Museum of the American Indian, to get their assistance and involvement. She explained:
"So from day one, we were talking to [native] people. We brought them in for everything from design, story, costuming, music. It was really a collaborative effort and we were so lucky to get all the help. It was really kind of amazing and beautiful and I'm very, very proud that we're able to pull that episode off."
Andrews said the questions they asked were, "What if colonization didn't happen? What if the Europeans didn't come here?" He said that was a guiding force for him to start. He explained, "[W]hen talking with the consultants and getting into their belief system and the rest, we were able to totally find an 'in' that was solid and worked."
The big focus here was making sure this was as accurate as it could be for the series. The consultants were involved in all of it, from the visual development team to the art team. These consultants, Andrews said, "Wrote us a letter saying that they felt for the first time that their people were honestly being represented in media. And that was huge for us to hear."
Even cooler? They are holding a screening for the First Nations people and "the various Mohawk tribes that were all around the area, like Montreal and [the] east coast. They're coming togther and we're showing it to them before this airs."
Celebrating the Mohawk language and culture in What If...?
As I mentioned, this entire episode is subtitled in the Mohawk language, and Andrews revealed that the First Nations community told them, "'This hasn't been done for us before." And so they're beyond the moon for it. So we're very proud of that." When he was asked by the moderator about whether or not they were concerned about being told that wasn't possible, Andrews said, "From the very beginning, I was like, 'It's going to be in their language, and I'm not budging.' And Brad and everyone else in the studio at Marvel was, 'Hells to the yeah,' about that. 'Yes, absolutely.' They were straight-up supportive in every way."
The character of Kahhori is trying to discover her powers, and in an article on Marvel.com about the character, writer Ryan Little said he had a mentor from the "Indigenous community in upstate New York" that worked with him to create her "from a place of respect for past generations and optimism for future ones." Of the character, he said:
"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."
"What If...?" season 2 will premiere on December 22, 2023, with a new episode daily through nine days of the holiday season.