In the upcoming second season of Disney+ and Marvel Studios What if...? we’ll be getting an episode that follows the trajectory of the Tesseract had it crashed in America before it’s colonization.
Marvel has revealed a first look at Kahhori, before their television debut in an episode that will be fully in the Mohawk language. Like the Predator universe release Prey, in which the alien encounters Comanche warriors before returning to Earth in the future, the release shared that this episode centers on the sovereign Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Mohawk people, as the Tesseract transforms a lake into a gateway that leads Kahhori on a quest to unlock her powers.
What if...? writer Ryan Little and director Bryan Andrews worked on the episode with members of the Mohawk Nation alongside Marvel creative to help design Kahhori’s look, world, and to create a score infused with traditional Mohawk music. Little said in the announcement, “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. 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.”
Mohawk historian Doug George provided history of the Akwesasne region in what is now upstate New York—a fixed point in our MCU universe things originally go down. He shared, “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. The story is dramatic, the characters fully realized, and the action sequences are breathtaking,” says George. “The episode is exceptional in another sense—it is done with the complete cooperation of the Mohawk people from dialogue to adornment.”
Here’s the full look at Kahhori, we’re excited to see their inclusion, expanding on the idea that “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” could have been and can be anyone.
Stay tuned to io9 for more What if...? season 2 developments!
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