Geraldine Viswanathan reveals what impact the fan campaign to get her cast as Ms. Marvel led to her casting in Marvel’s Thunderbolts.
“I don’t know. Who knows what goes on behind the scenes, but I’ve always wanted to join the universe in whatever capacity, and this just came up,” Viswanathan said in an interview with ComicBook.com while promoting her latest movie, Drive-Away Dolls. “There’s a lot of . . . It was destiny. Destiny called me on the phone and I picked up and I said, ‘I’ll be there.’ Very excited.”
Who is Geraldine Viswanathan?
The Australian star made a name for herself in 2018’s Blockers starring John Cena and the TBS series Miracle Workers. Viswanathan previously told ScreenRant that she had an interest in playing Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel in the MCU until Iman Vellani was chosen by Marvel instead. Instead, the star was cast in Thunderbolts as the assistant to Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) after Ayo Edebiri departed the role due to a scheduling conflict.
Directed by Jake Schreier with a script by Beef writer Lee Sung Jin, Thunderbolts will see Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova from 2021’s Black Widow join forces with fellow MCU stars Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr/Ghost, Wyatt Russell as John Walker/U.S. Agent, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, and Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster. Additionally, Harrison Ford replaces the late William Hurt as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross.
Thunderbolts opens in theaters on the new release date of May 2, 2025.