Something that 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 one casting decision is so good that it has transcended the fact that every attempt to do something with it has mostly fallen apart. We’re talking about Milana Vayntrub as Doreen Green, a.k.a. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, star of one of Marvel’s best books of the decade.
Vayntrub was initially cast for a New Warriors TV show on Freeform, beating out Anna Kendrick and Shannon Purser (both of whom would’ve also been good), but when that fell apart, she was able to hold onto the role for a series of Marvel Rising animated projects. Now, with Squirrel Girl having still not made her official debut in the MCU, Variety says Marvel is taking Vayntrub to SiriusXM for an official Squirrel Girl podcast.
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Marvel’s Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show launched today on various platforms, and it features Vayntrub’s Squirrel Girl hosting an advice show from the campus of Empire State University (that’s where Spider-Man went to school!) with 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 that wacky friend-group from writer Ryan North’s run on the Squirrel Girl comic (which he talked with The A.V. Club about back in the day), and he’s returning to write this podcast as well.
For those who don’t know the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (how dare you), Doreen Green is a superhero with all of the powers of a squirrel, the ability to talk to squirrels, and a fondness for kicking butt and eating nuts. She has legitimately defeated Thanos and Doctor Doom and Galactus, often just by being a nice person and a good friend, and now she has a podcast. You can hear a trailer for it below, featuring a cameo from another big Marvel character (don’t get too excited, it’s the Vulture):
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