If you don't know Milana Vayntrub's name just yet, you may know her as the helpful AT&T salesperson in about a million commercials. You may also know her as Sloane, the playwright who totally should have been Kevin's (Justin Hartley) endgame romance on season 1 of This Is Us. Now, thanks to the actress' upcoming role, you'll likely know her as something else: a superheroine. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Vayntrub has just been cast as Squirrel Girl in Freeform's upcoming series Marvel's New Warriors, and it couldn't be more fitting.
According to THR, the new show — a half-hour comedy — follows six young people with extraordinary powers... even though the powers aren't quite as powerful the ones certain members of the Avengers possess. Basically, the New Warriors are like C-level superheroes — but that doesn't mean they aren't ready to save the world. Vayntrub will play Doreen Green, a.k.a. Squirrel Girl, who THR states is an "empowered fangirl who has the incredible powers of a ... squirrel." Her strength is her optimism, and her BFF just so happens to be (you guessed it) a squirrel. The series is scheduled to debut in 2018
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Vayntrub, who has also had guest spots on Netflix's Love and HBO's Silicon Valley, is more than just a hilarious presence on every show (or AT&T commercial) she appears in. She recently made headlines for speaking out about the refugee crisis in Syria. The actress, who herself fled the Soviet Union in 1989, made a 14-minute video titled "Can't Do Nothing" about refugees who came ashore in Greece.
"There's this this Somali-British poet [Warsan Shire], and she wrote, 'You have to understand, no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land,'" Vayntrub told AdWeek. "And it's true. No one is coming to Greece because they want to live in Greece. They are doing it because it's their only option. They are desperate people."
Of her short documentary, the This Is Us star told AdWeek:
"Maybe [my video] will make people feel like they are more powerful than they expected or more capable than they thought previously."
Funny, compassionate and optimistic? Sounds like Freeform found the perfect Squirrel Girl.