Ms. Marvel finale: Who will be the final villain?

Ms. Marvel’s final episode will premiere next week. But there’s a big question: who is going to be the finale’s villain?

The fifth episode of the newest MCU show Ms. Marvel premiered last Wednesday, and with only one episode left, the danger is expected to really build.

The only problem is, at the end of the last episode, everything seemed to be wrapping up. Kamala’s family know about her powers, Kamala closed the gate, and the Clandestine are seemingly dead and gone. So with an entire finale episode left, we’re left without any major antagonist.

Thankfully, Episode 5 managed to leave audiences with just enough information to play with the idea of who could be the show’s final big bad. So who’s it going to be?

Kamran

Kamran (played by Rish Shah) is an interesting case. He initially started out the series as a potential love interest, who was then revealed to be a Djinn, and the son of the villainous leader of the Clandestine, Najma.

Now, you would assume that would automatically make him a villain. However, when the Clandestine attacked Kamala while she was at her brother’s wedding, Kamran actually came to Ms. Marvel’s aid, fighting off the rest of his Djinn group until he was arrested by the D.O.D.C along with them.

After they all managed to escape their prison, the Clandestine, including his own mother, left him behind to chase after Kamala in Karachi, leaving him on the run from the D.O.D.C. In Episode 5, with no Kamala to run to, Kamran visits Bruno, and the pair act friendly – if somewhat awkwardly – but it seems like Kamran is in real trouble. Things go south at the very end when a D.O.D.C drone appears and fires on them.

In this moment, Kamran seems like a scared kid on the run. But this does not necessarily mean that he won’t become a villain. When Najma “dies” in Episode 5 she whispers Kamran’s name, and it seems like her powers – and perhaps even her soul – is transported into him, as he suddenly has powers similar to Ms. Marvel. Perhaps with Najma’s soul inside him, his mind may be taken over by her, leading to him following in her villainous footsteps.

While Kamran doesn’t appear to have changed personalities or anything, the show could potentially be setting up a twist villain, like they did in the comics. In the comics, Kamran happily worked for the story’s bad guys, and manipulated Kamala into trusting him, before kidnapping her.

Ignoring the fact that he may suddenly revert to being like Najma, it is suspicious how easily he switched sides in earlier episodes, despite being close with the Clandestine and his mother. He was so exceedingly into Kamala from the get go, and seemed so perfect and good-natured that it’s almost worrying.

Furthermore, he was still up for Kamala destroying the world by creating a portal if she had wanted to do that herself. And he doesn’t hesitate to fire on the drone from Bruno’s apartment, despite the damage it would inevitably cause.

So this begs the question: will Kamran revert to his comic book self, and be the main villain in the finale?

The D.O.D.C

The D.O.D.C, also known as the Department of Damage Control, have been an antagonistic force through the entire series.

They were first introduced in Episode’s 1 after-credits scene, after they came across a video of Kamala’s powers reeking havoc at AvengerCon.

After this scene, the D.O.D.C, particularly Agent Deever (played by Alysia Reiner) and Agent Cleary (played by Arian Moayed) have been a problem for Kamala and the Jersey Muslim community as a whole. They have been interrogating her friends, trying to search mosque’s without warrants, and even attacking Ms. Marvel with tazers and drones.

MCU major-fans may actually recognise Cleary from Spider-Man: No Way Home, and since he was a ruthless and unemphatic force to Spider-Man, he could very well be that for Ms. Marvel if he catches her.

The D.O.D.C are seemingly on the hunt for young superhumans now. Since Kamala caused a lot of chaos at AvengerCon, viewers can assume that D.O.D.C is bringing her in to either reprimand her, to place her under their watch, or to just imprison her like they did the Clandestine.

Granted, they did save Kamala at one point, as during the fight between her and the Clandestine at her brother’s wedding, the D.O.D.C arrived and arrested the other Djinn before things got too violent. They could simply be an overly authoritarian force, rather than a straight antagonistic one. But considering they blow up Bruno’s home at the end of Episode 5 without question, maybe that’s being too kind. Maybe they could become the full on violent villains of the final episode instead.

Najma and the Clandestine

Najma seemed like she would be the main villain for the whole of the series. Whether or not that will be the case is still up for debate.

Najma, and her group the Clandestine, are Djinn, who originally resided in the magical and light-filled Noor Dimension. After being mysteriously trapped on Earth, they now require Kamala’s bangle and power to open a portal for them to return home. Only thing is, this portal could very much destroy the entire human world, which the Djinn really don’t seem to care about.

Najma makes for a very ruthless villain, as she is willing to destroy the world, kill Kamala’s great grandmother Aisha, and abandon her son Kamran, just to get what she wants. And technically, she does get what she wants, though this raises a lot of questions.

In Episode 5, a portal opens, but when the Clandestine attempt to go through, their bodies crystallize and they become lifeless skeletons. This happens to Najma, though she states determinedly beforehand that this will not kill her, and she willingly walks into the portal, becoming a skeleton herself.

It arguably a bit anti-climatic having the villain go out in the penultimate episode rather than the finale, but this may hint that it’s actually not the end for Najma. Firstly, the Djinn are seemingly immortal beings, so their version of death may not be the same as ours.

Secondly, when Najma “dies” she whispers Kamran’s name, and it seems like her powers – and perhaps even her soul – has been transported into him, since he suddenly has powers similar to Ms. Marvel. Perhaps this means that she will use him to come back to life, or she will simply live through her son, like a puppet master. Though for what purpose we have yet to know.

Asides from Najma, we didn’t see all of the Clandestine walk into the portal, so perhaps any number of them could still be alive to wreak havoc.

So who will be the final villain in Ms. Marvel?

Ultimately, the villain could be any one of these three options. There could even be more than one villain, or a battle between the D.O.D.C, Kamran, and the Clandestine, with Kamala simply caught in the crossfire. Guess we’ll have to watch the finale to find out.

The final episode of Ms. Marvel hits Disney+ next Wednesday, July 13. Read our review of Episode 5.