#Hey, Marvel Studios: Janelle Monáe Wants to Play Storm, So Don’t Mess This Up

Now that 20th Century Fox falls under the Walt Disney Company banner, the rights to make X-Men movies are squarely in the lap of Marvel Studios. That means the comic book mutants can and will become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point. Whenever that happens, one actress hopes to play one of the key members of the X-Men, and she’s putting that dream out into the universe for everyone to hear.

Janelle Monáe, the chart-topping singer/songwriter who has made a name for herself as an actress by starring in the Oscar-nominated films Hidden Figures and Moonlight, has long dreamed of playing the weather-controlling mutant known as Storm. And she already knows which other Marvel character she’d like to have some screen time with.

In a recent interview with Empire Magazine, Janelle Monáe revealed that while she was working on her album Dirty Computer in Atlanta, she met up with some of the cast of Black Panther while they were shooting down there. When asked if she tried to get herself a role in the sequel, Monáe made it clear that she has her sights set on one specific Marvel movie role. The actress said:

“One of my dreams has always been to play Storm. I don’t know if she comes in Black Panther, but it would be a dream to have her in it. I don’t know where they are with that. A lot of women have played Storm and they’ve done an exceptional job, and I would love to be in that line of artists and get to do Storm justice.”

Though Storm is traditionally found hanging out with the rest of the X-Men, Monáe’s inclinations to have her meet up with Black Panther in Wakanda aren’t unreasonable. Not only does Storm hail from the African nation of Kenya, where she was part of a long line of witch-priestesses with white hair, blue eyes, and a natural gift for sorcery, but in the comics, she also has a romance with T’Challa (played by Chadwick Boseman in the Marvel movies), and she eventually marries him, becoming Queen of Wakanda.

We don’t know how the X-Men will be introduced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet, but bringing a character like Storm in by way of a Black Panther sequel would be a nice way to lay the groundwork for the arrival of the mutants. Marvel Studios still has the tricky task of figuring out how to reconcile the history of characters like Magneto with the timeline in which the Marvel Cinematic Universe exists (due to that character’s backstory involving World War II and the Holocaust), but hopefully Kevin Feige already has that figured out in his head.

Frankly, we’d love to see Janelle Monáe get the role of Storm. But we’re also interested in which version of the mutant she’d like to play. Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing the punk look that Storm had in the 1980s X-Men comics. But seeing her in the more popular white costume that Storm wore in the 1990s would be cool too. Whichever version Monáe wants to play, we’re happy to see.

Janelle Monáe will next be seen in Antebellum, currently slated for release on August 21, 2020, but we’ll see if that release date holds since it’s not clear if theaters will be reopening next month or not.

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