The Old Guard Star KiKi Layne Wants X-Men's Storm to Be a "Goddess" in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

07/12/2020 05:26 pm EDT

The Old Guard star KiKi Layne, who is among the actresses wanting to play weather-altering mutant Storm in Marvel Studios' forthcoming X-Men reboot, hopes to see the X-Man recognized as a goddess when the character joins the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In Marvel Comics lore, Storm is born Ororo Munroe to non-powered parents — American David Munroe and tribal princess N'Daré — and is descended from a line of African priestesses. Upon reaching her mother's homeland in Kenya, Ororo is worshipped as a goddess due to her omega-level superhuman ability to manipulate the weather.

"Storm is a goddess, and I feel like that has been missing," Layne told Rolling Stone. "We've been downplaying how powerful she actually is."

The fan-favorite superhero was most famously portrayed by Halle Berry across four X-Men films between 2000 and 2014 before Alexandra Shipp inherited the role as a younger Ororo in X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix.

In 2019, Layne said she was "actively plotting" to pursue the role of Storm, telling Variety, "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."

Now appearing opposite Charlize Theron in comic book-based superhero movie The Old Guard, the 28-year-old actress has called for more roles for women and POC actresses in future comic book movies.

"I mean, for me, I just love the genre," Layne told ComicBook.com. "So, I'm just excited for any opportunity to break into that genre and show that women and Black women in particular can lead those types of films. So I'm looking at all these studios like, 'When are you going to make that happen?'"

Disney-owned Marvel Studios has not yet formally announced its X-Men reboot bringing Storm and other mutant characters into the so-far 23-movie Marvel Cinematic Universe. During last year's San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios president and producer Kevin Feige told ComicBook.com the studio is "working towards" introducing the Fantastic Four and X-Men properties acquired in Disney's multi-billion purchase of Fox.

"It'll be a while. It's all just beginning and the five-year plan that we've been working on, we were working on before any of that was set," Feige said about the acquisition in a 2019 interview. "So really it's much more, for us, less about specifics of when and where [the X-Men will appear] right now and more just the comfort factor and how nice it is that they're home. That they're all back. But it will be a very long time."

The Old Guard is now streaming on Netflix.

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