Chill Out on Our Radar

The hottest things in pop culture and entertainment this week

- By Kim Abrahams

ON OUR RADAR

1 XOCHITL GOMEZ IS READY FOR SOMETHING STRANGE

Xochitl (pronounced Soh-Chee) plays America Chavez, a queer Latin-American superhero in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The actress (15) is best known for her roles in the Netflix series Gentefied and The Baby-Sitters Club.

America, who also goes by the superhero name Miss America, has powers which include super-speed and strength and she can kick star-shaped holes in reality - handy for traversing the multiverse.

Director Sam Raimi, who previously helmed the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man films, said the Doctor Strange sequel will take us on a journey through different realities in the multiverse The multiverse is infinite parallel universes, each universe home to everything that already exists, but in a different reality. Some are only slightly different from our own and others are virtually unrecognisable.

Because Strange - played by Benedict Cumberbatch - has limited knowledge of the multiverse after his misadventures in Spider-Man No Way Home, he needs a guide - America Chavez.

Placing America in a Doctor Strange film is the ideal introduction for the character in the Marvel movie universe, Xochitl says.

I loved how they put her in a Doctor Strange film because she has this amazing ability to travel the multiverse. It doesn't feel forced. It just works. I love how young she is, because we haven't really seen that. I think people are going to really like that! Xochitl wanted to be an actress for as long as she could remember.

The Los Angeles-born teen started acting in musicals when she was five and she's never looked back.