Janelle Monáe has her eye on playing Storm in the MCU

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Janelle Monáe has had quite the career as an accomplished musician and actress but she wants to add superhero to her growing list of accomplishments. The actress revealed that she would love to play X-Men's Storm if the character is introduced again in the MCU.

While doing an interview with "Empire", Monáe was discussing her creative process in regard to her most recent album "Dirty Computer." The album was being produced in Atlanta at the same time Ryan Coogler and his cast was hard at work shooting BLACK PANTHER. Lupita Nyong'o, Chadwick Boseman, and Michael B. Jordan visited her Wondaland studio and this sparked the question whether she's spoken to Coogler about possibly joining BLACK PANTHER 2. The actress addressed that she threw it out there and even though she's not sure if this character makes an appearance in the "Black Panther" comics, she would love to take on the character of Storm:

"I definitely have thrown it out there. 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."

Having Ororo Munroe, aka Storm, re-appear in BLACK PANTHER 2 wouldn't be all that far fetched. Marvel Comics readers are aware that T'Challa, aka Black Panther, and Storm have been romantically linked and married on the page. Mainstream audiences may not know this tidbit but it could be a fun way to link BLACK PANTHER with the X-Men now that the brand is free of 20th Century Fox and is now at home with Disney and Marvel. It's unknown how the X-Men will be introduced into the MCU but this provides an interesting option for at least one of the characters.

Halle Berry gave the character the live-action treatment across four X-MEN films (X-MEN, X2: X-MEN UNITED, X-MEN: THE LAST STAND and X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST). Depending on who you ask, she either did a serviceable job or another actress should've been given the opportunity to play the character in the earlier X-MEN movies with Angela Bassett being a name that was frequently tossed around as a better choice. After the franchise took things back to the past in X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, Alexandra Shipp took on the role in 2016's X-MEN: APOCALYPSE and 2019's X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX. Shipp was actually pretty well-received but it was acknowledged that the character didn't have a lot to do in the two films she appeared in. Storm does require an actress with a strong presence to take on the role so whatever route they go next, they really need to pick an actress that can command the screen.

So what do YOU think? Could we get a Janelle Monáe Storm in a future X-MEN movie?