Casting Squirrel Girl For The MCU

Casting the beloved character of Squirrel Girl for the MCU will be no easy feat, with a laundry list of potential actors put forward for the part. The clamor to include Squirrel Girl within phase 4 of the MCU has increased exponentially after leaked footage of ABC’s canceled New Warriors TV pilot teased the furry mutant’s introduction. The series, planned in conjunction with Marvel, was set to be a first live-action look at a Squirrel Girl character who has gallingly waited over 20 years to make it into any permanent Marvel television or film project targets.

Squirrel Girl, aka Doreen Green, features prominently across Marvel Comics canon, frequently fighting alongside beloved Marvel entities such as Iron Man, The Hulk, and The Thing. Squirrel Girl, predictably, can commune with all manner of furry fauna while also sporting a bushy prehensile tail of her own, which grants her the potent combination of superspeed and strength. Doreen’s quirky and perpetually sunny disposition foreshadows her uncanny ability to overcome even the bleakest of challenges canonically, with the bubbly character’s infectious charm ordinarily acting as a catalyst for her superhero team’s victories.

Given the furor surrounding Squirrel Girl’s MCU inclusion, whoever portrays Doreen Green has to be a perfect casting decision. Finding the right talent that can embody Green’s disposition and spirit while also ensuring Squirrel Girl does not become another Marvel caricature is not a straightforward task. Here are five hypothetical candidates to play Squirrel Girl in the MCU based on their current popularity and suitability for this most coveted of roles.

Milana Vayntrub

In any conversation concerning a potential MCU Squirrel Girl casting, Milana Vayntrub tops the list simply due to her continued proximity to the role. Vayntrub is already intimately familiar with what it takes to portray Doreen Green, having suited up with a complete prehensile tail to play the character in the canceled New Warriors pilot. The brief footage leaked from New Warriors displays Vayntrub excelling in her role as Squirrel Girl, with a considerable number of MCU audiences taking to Twitter to voice their displeasure at the show’s cancellation, and taking particular issue with the fact Vayntrub would not get any more screen time as New Warriors‘ Squirrel Girl.

This public outcry is telling, with few pilot performances so noteworthy as to permanently cement an actor’s name next to a previously unseen character. Yet this is exactly what Vayntrub’s Squirrel Girl cameo has done, with many bookmakers taking very short odds on Milana seamlessly stepping back into familiar territory. Indeed, few heads would turn if Vayntrub reprised her role as Doreen Green within the MCU phase 4, given she has also impressively voiced the character in no less than five Marvel Rising television series installments, including Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors, Marvel Rising: Initiation, Marvel Rising: Chasing Ghosts, Marvel Rising: Heart of Iron, and Disney+’s new show Marvel Rising: Battle of the Bands.

Mae Whitman

If Milana Vayntrub is the name now almost synonymous with the role of Squirrel Girl, then her supposedly nailed-onto-the-role predecessor is Arrested Development star, Mae Whitman. It was not so long ago that Whitman was one of only two candidates considered for New Warriors‘ Squirrel Girl as casting began for the doomed ABC pilot. Whitman’s proactive agency is what propelled her to the front of the Squirrel Girl queue in 2017 after she was quoted via Twitter in a Hollywood Reporter article that she was desperate to play Doreen Green.

Previous collective consensus aside, Whitman embodies every characteristic Squirrel Girl could bring to the MCU table. Previous roles in movies like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Good Girls, and The Duff show Whitman can blend Doreen Green’s awkward teenage angst with the sassy and comedic disposition that personifies the effervescent Squirrel Girl. In particular, her work as Annie Marks in the NBC dramedy Good Girls proves she can add comedy to a high-stakes and often serious narrative, which is an arena the MCU’s phase 4 is fast becoming due to the introductions of omnipotent beings such as The Celestials and Gorr, The God Butcher.

Imogen Poots

If the MCU phase 4’s narrative decides to take a purportedly darker turn within the multiverse of madness, Imogen Poots may begin to look more and more of a natural fit for Squirrel Girl. While Poot’s comedy outings in She’s Funny That Way and Andy Samberg’s cameo-ridden movie Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping align with the typically breezy disposition of Squirrel Girl, it is the English-born actresses’ darker roles that have best prepared her to be part of a superhero team. Gritty thrillers such as Green Room and Vivarium do a much better job of displaying Poot’s depth as a leading character, which is something Doreen Green undeniably represents in every one of her Marvel incarnations to date.

Anna Kendrick

Just as with Mae Whitman, Anna Kendrick’s will-she-won’t she affair with Squirrel Girl’s character casting has raged since 2017 after the actor stated that she would love to play Doreen Green. At the time, the internet consumed this admission with a similar fervor to Milana Vayntrub’s leaked New Warriors footage, a role that Kendrick herself reportedly auditioned for, and ensured that Kendrick will always be close to the MCU Squirrel Girl casting conversation. It must be said that Kendrick presents as the real-life version of Doreen Green, with her constant smile and effortlessly bright mannerisms translating into every acting performance she gives, whether serious or otherwise. The idea that life imitates art is a powerful concept for casting directors, who may feel Kendrick’s utter embodiment of Doreen Green’s innate qualities supersedes the court of public opinion regarding who should be the next Squirrel Girl.

Alison Brie

Another contender for the real-life version of Squirrel Girl arrives in the form of Happiest Season‘s Alison Brie, whose prior roles perhaps more than any other on this list set her up perfectly to play Green. For Brie’s experience and suitability for the role, there is no need to look further than her beloved performance as the studious yet loveable Annie Edison in Community. Much of Annie’s dialogue feels as if it could also dovetail with Squirrel Girl’s speech bubbles from Marvel Comics, with both characters sharing a relentlessly positive outlook on almost every situation they encounter. As with Squirrel Girl canonically, Annie’s infectious positivity ends up enhancing those around her at community college, making her potential transition into the MCU perhaps the most seamless of all Squirrel Girl candidates to date.