In case there were any doubt that the upcoming Disney Plus series would be anything but a showcase for all of Hollywood’s worst creative trends, actress Sasheer Zamata has confirmed that she will be appearing in Marvel’s Agatha: Coven of Chaos as a race-swapped version of the powerful sorceress and long-time Man-Thing ally Jennifer Kale.
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Perhaps best known for her time as a Saturday Night Live cast member and her portrayal of Ayana on the Hulu series Woke, Zamata provided this insight into her upcoming Marvel debut during an interview given to Mashable in promotion of her upcoming comedy special, The First Woman.
Detailing to the outlet’s Karama Horne how The First Woman centers on the topics of “health and womanhood and my personal being”, the actress eventually noted that one of her major influences in producing her special was the book Witches, Sluts and Feminists: Conjuring the Sex Positive.
“[The book] talks about female sexuality and the history around it,” Zamata explained. “Women’s bodies have been demonized for so long, and it’s still happening.”
“Ultimately a witch is an independent woman,” she added. “It’s a woman who is a free thinker, in control of her womanhood, body, and life. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”
It was in light of this newfound ‘witchiness’, said the actress, that she felt particularly excited to join such a magic-centric television production as Agatha: Coven of Chaos.
“I had already written material for [The First Woman] before I went through the audition process, Zamata told Horne. “It felt magical that I got to be in a show about witches. I talk about it so much in my special.”
To this end, the actress then publicly confirmed for the first time that she would be portraying a race-swapped version of the aforementioned Jennifer Kale.
“I definitely did do as much [comic book] research as I could,” Zamata ultimately teased, “but the way we formed this character is very different from what I think people expect.”
The reincarnated form of the ancient Atlantean sorceress Zhered-Na, Kale made her first appearance in the eleventh issue of Marvel’s horror-centered series Fear Vol. 1, her character introduced as the young, occult-obsessed granddaughter of former Cult of Zhered-Na leader Joshua Kale.
One day stealing a magic tome from her grandfather’s shelf, Kale kicks off her life as a practitioner of the mystic arts by attempting to summon and subsequently control the demon known as Thog the Nether-Spawn. However, when her plans unsurprisingly go awry, she is saved only by the intervention of the Man-Thing, whom Kale soon discovers she shares a mysterious psychic link with.
In light of their connection, the pair would spend the next few years adventuring together, their travels finding them wrapped up in such existential crises’ as Thog’s return and the attempted invasion of Earth by a horde of demons.
Notably, Kale’s heroics in preventing the latter event would garner her the attention of the ancient wizard Dakimh, who proceeded to take the young woman under his magical tutelage.
From there, Kale would bounce around the 616, her appearance becoming a staple whenever anything occult-related reared its head.
Over the next few years, the sorceress would be recruited into the short-lived paranatural superteam the Legion of Night, enter into a doomed relationship with the Ghost Rider known as Johnny Blaze, and even offer X-Force her assistance in taking down the succubus Pandemonia.
Unfortunately, her life would only spiral from there, as soon after helping her newfound mutant allies, Kale would find herself recruited into the appropriately named superteam the Witches in order to put an end to the threat of the Cult of Zhered-Na once and for all.
Though she was successful, the team’s final battle would leave her broken, as she would discover in its aftermath that their now-dead opponent was none other than brother, Andrew, who had been possessed by one of the cult’s demonic watch dogs.
Finding herself heartbroken and exhausted by this revelation, Kale would then leave her mystic life behind in favor of something more ‘super heroic’ and join the Florida-based branch of the Avengers’ 50 State Initative, the Command.
But in a cruel twist of irony, one of her first missions would find her not only investigating the stomping grounds of her long-time friend Man-Thing, but also being dragged into the extra-dimensional, magic-prompted events of Marvel Zombies 3.
Though she would survive her initial foray into the publisher’s resident undead universe, Kale would find herself drawn back into the zombie fold when it is discovered that Zombie Deadpool’s head had broken loose into the 616.
Teaming up with a new incarnation of the Midnight Suns and making a dark deal with Dormmamu in exchange for more power, Kale ultimately succeeds in putting the lid back on the infectious jar, locking the virus away within the already-dead body of Simon Garth, aka Zombie.
However, things would never quite take an upturn for Kale, as after being freed from her pact with Dormmamu thanks to the help of Damion Hellstrom, the sorceress is brutally murdered by a Daniel Drumm-possessed-Victoria Hand as part of the ghost-villain’s plans for revenge against his magic-praciticing brother.
Using evil magicks to bring herself back from the dead, Kale has since returned to acting as both a ‘light in the dark’ amongst the 616’s mystics and assisting Man-Thing in his various adventures, most recently helping him take revenge on the demon responsible for his condition, Belasco.
Yet, through out all of these twists, turns, and tribulations, Kale has never been portrayed as anything other than a blonde white woman.
As such, Zamata’s casting as the sorcererss marks yet another race-swap for the MCU.
The confirmation of Zamata’s role as Jennifer Kale also lends credence to a previous rumor regarding the MCU’s future.
Per Geekosity’s Mikey Sutton in 2020, not only will the studio’s upcoming Blade reboot introduce audiences to the Johnny Blaze incarnation of Ghost Rider, but that “the Midnight Sons are being positioned to form in Blade 2.”
According to the noted scooper, the team’s MCU line-up will consist of Blade, Ghost Rider, Jennifer Kale, Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night, and Nadeen “Glyph” Hassan.
Further, it’s possible that Zamata’s Kale will also serve as the next avenue of LGBT representation for Marvel, as the heroine was confirmed as bisexual in both 2004’s Witches Vol. 1 #2 and 2007’s Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Mystic Arcana – The Marvel Book of Magic.
As of writing, the nine-episode Agatha: Coven of Chaos has yet to receive an official release date, but is on track to hit Disney Plus sometime in 2023.