Kiki Layne Wants to Play the X-Men’s Storm

Kiki Layne has been wowing audiences with her role in If Beale Street Could Talk, and it sounds like she would be more than willing to bring another impactful character to life.

While speaking to Variety during the Critics’ Choice Awards, Layne expressed an interest in portraying Marvel’s Ororo Munroe/Storm in some sort of context.

“She was an image of myself, of a powerful chocolate black woman, and I just think that’s an amazing image to have and I really want to play Storm,” Layne explained.

As Layne revealed, her agents and managers are already working on potentially making the role happen.

“Oh, yeah,” Layne said. “We are actively plotting, actively plotting.”

“I’m just feeling thankful that right out of the gate,” Layne explained, “I get to let audiences know that this is the type of work that really matters to me, and that I recognize that I have the ability to say something with my art, with the projects I choose.”

Storm was previously brought to life by Halle Berry in the original X-Men films, as well as Alexandra Shipp in X-Men: Apocalypse. Shipp is set to reprise the role in the forthcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and is aiming to bring a new take on the character in the process.

“Lots of new powers, lots and lots of new powers.” Shipp explained during a recent convention appearance. “It’s pretty cool. Obviously not new to Storm, but new to us as an audience, visually. She really does mess some people up. It’s pretty cool.”

“For me, when I first got Apocalypse, I wanted to make it so that you could kind of see a little bit of a continuity throughline between my version of Storm and Halle’s version of Storm.” Shipp revealed. “And Dark Phoenix is set in the ’90s, and so it’s a little bit closer to the early 2000s Storm.”

Of course, with the Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox in the process of becoming a reality, the future of the X-Men on the big screen is currently in a state of flux. Dark Phoenix and New Mutants are set to be the final films in Fox’s Marvel universe, with some already assuming that a lot of the characters will be recast if and when they enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Whether or not Layne ends up being the one to next bring Storm to life remains to be seen.

Would you want to see Kiki Layne play Storm? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!