If you were watching the new episode of Marvel’s What If… yesterday and racking your brain trying to remember where in the decades of comic book continuity its central character came from, you can cool it now. The character has never been seen before; she was introduced in the Season 2, Episode 6 episode.
Kahhori is an indigenous woman whose home is attacked by invading Conquistators searching for the fabled Fountain of Youth. In this universe, it exists….in a sense. It’s not the water itself, but the Tesseract buried beneath the pond that teleports anyone who gets near it to a paradise where they never age and gain superpowers. Only problem is, there’s no way out.
But Kahhori is determined to find a way out, and through sheer will, she masters the energies of that strange outer world and returns, not only rescuing her tribe but taking the fight all the way to Queen Isabella. We don’t know yet what happens from there, but the ending implies we haven’t seen the last of her this season.
Devery Jacobs, who you might know already as Elora from Hulu’s Reservation Dogs, supplied Kahhori’s voice, and Collider published an interview where she revealed the process behind making the episode.
“What If…Kahhori Reshaped the World” contains almost no English dialogue, aside from the final line. Most of the words are spoken in the native language of the Mohawk Nation, and it’s all 100% authentic. Jacobs herself is not fluent; she had to learn the language.
“People still speak the language. It’s my niece’s first language. People think of this as ancient history, but it’s a testament to how we’ve survived and endured and have really fought to preserve our way of life,” says Jacobs.
“I have been wanting to see an indigenous superhero for so long, and to have one that speaks the language of my community of my Tóta, my grandmother, I never thought I would be able to see anything like it. So for me, it was really important seeing this character be brought to life, and instilled such a sense of pride for me.”
Jacobs says she first auditioned for the character of Kahhori back in August of 2020, before the first season of What If… was even out, to give you an idea of how long it simmered in development.
Whether Kahhori appears in other media like comic books or live-action movies has yet to be revealed. Jacobs would love to play her again, but points out there’s one problem: she’s already someone else in the MCU. Specifically Bonnie, someone who will appear in the Disney+ series Echo next month. There is precedent, however, for one actor to play more than one MCU character.
