Milana VayntrubPhoto: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Comedy Central
Something Marvel Studios has traditionally been good at is casting, which is why Disney was able to hang so much of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on the appeal of Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, but a casting decision is so good it has it beyond the fact that every attempt to do something with it has mostly failed. We’re talking about Milana Vayntrub as Doreen Green, aka The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, star of one of the best Marvel books of the decade.
Vayntrub was originally cast for a New Warriors TV show on Freeform, beating out Anna Kendrick and Shannon Purser (both of whom would have been good too), but when that fell apart she was able to keep the role for a number of Marvel Rising animated projects. Now that Squirrel Girl still hasn’t made her official debut in the MCU, Variety says Marvel is bringing Vayntrub to SiriusXM for an official Squirrel Girl podcast.
Marvel’s Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show launched today across multiple platforms and features Vayntrub’s Squirrel Girl as she joins her friends Nancy Whitehead (Crystal Lucas Perry), Koi Boi (Leo Sheng), Chipmunk Hunk (Davied Morales), Tippy T. Squirrel (Erica Schroeder), Rachel Oskar (Tina Benko) and Brain Drain (Peter Hermann). Squirrel Girl fans will recognize this crazy group of friends from author Ryan North’s run on the Squirrel Girl comic (which he spoke to The AV Club about at the time), and he’s returning to write this podcast, too.
For those who don’t know the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (how dare you), Doreen Green is a superheroine with all the powers of a squirrel, the ability to talk to squirrels, and a penchant for kicking butt and kicking nuts eat. She rightfully defeated Thanos and Doctor Doom and Galactus, often just because she was a nice person and a good friend, and now she has a podcast. You can hear a trailer for it below, which includes a cameo from another major Marvel character (don’t get too excited, it’s the Vulture):