So yesterday afternoon, I found out online that the amazingly-talented Milana Vayntrub will become one of Marvel's newest live-action superheroes in the 2018 TV series New Warriors. Milana will play Doreen Green, a.k.a. the all-powerful Squirrel Girl...who in the comic books defeated none other than Thanos himself, and bested other characters such as Deadpool in combat. With Tippy-Toe, her buddy squirrel at her side, Squirrel Girl will be joined by Mister Immortal (Derek Theler), Night Thrasher (Jeremy Tardy), Speedball (Calum Worthy), Debrii (Kate Comer) and Microbe (Matthew Moy...who cracked me up as diner owner Han Lee on the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls) on New Warriors. It will debut on Freeform—formerly Disney's ABC Family channel—next year.
As someone who's followed her career since she delighted audiences as the adorable Lily Adams on AT&T's TV commercials, I am stoked that Milana is getting roles in projects as huge as a new Marvel TV show. From her funny Let's Talk About Something More Interesting YouTube videos, Paul Feig's hilarious but sadly short-lived 2015 sci-fi web series Other Space (plus a cameo on Feig's Ghostbusters reboot last summer) to a Season One stint on NBC's hit show This Is Us, Milana is going places. This is both literally and figuratively... Milana went to Greece and Jordan over the past two years to personally help Syrian refugees (and created her charity organization CantDoNothing.org as a result). Ms. Vayntrub herself was a refugee who emigrated here from Uzbekistan when it was once a Soviet republic 30 years ago.
In regards to Other Space, it's so interesting that Milana is the second cast member on that series to land a role on a Marvel show. The first cast member being Karan Soni...who went from playing Captain Stewart Lipinski on Other Space's UMP Cruiser to Deadpool's trusty cab driver Dopinder in the movies. With Milana as Squirrel Girl and Soni's Dopinder set to get more bad but hilarious dating advice by Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) in next year's Deadpool 2, it's clearly obvious that the alternate universe the UMP Cruiser stumbled into happened to be the Marvel Universe itself! I wouldn't be surprised if other Other Space alumni Neil Casey and/or Eugene Cordero join Brie Larson in 2019's Captain Marvel...
So yea, I can't wait to see Milana charm TV audiences and Marvel fans as Doreen Green next year. I'd ask if she'll appear at the D23 Expo [where Disney promotes its plans for its theme parks, movies, TV shows (Disney owns Marvel, remember?) and other properties] in Anaheim or San Diego Comic-Con this month, but it doesn't really matter to me. I've had the pleasure of meeting Milana a few times at her comedy shows and other places over the past two years. The first time was in early 2015, and I worked on an amazing short film called Brief last September... Milana and I both donated money to this project through Kickstarter, and I got to be an extra on it (yes, Milana was on set; she helped out as an assistant director since Brief was written and produced by some of her closest friends). Ms. Vayntrub is one of the coolest and nicest folks you'll ever meet in person—and considering how big of a star she's becoming by the day, that is something to be proud of. Anyways, time to end this Blog entry (unless of course, Milana is actually reading this and can't get enough of my crazy and incessant flattery)... Bring on the New Warriors next year! And Happy Tuesday.
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