Tony-Award-winning actress/singer Cynthia Erivo may still be making headlines for her talented performance as the misunderstood Elphaba Thropp (the character who becomes the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz) in Wicked (which just took home the 2025 Golden Globe award for Cinematic and Box Office achievement this past Sunday), but she already has her sights set on another character who she feels hasn’t been represented to her fullest potential yet on the big screen: Storm, the iconic X-Men character with the ability to control and manipulate weather.
“I really want to play Storm. I know it sounds frivolous, but I think we haven’t uncovered how grand she is and all of the inner turmoil that she has. So I think there’s a world in which we could do something like that,” Erivo said when asked what her dream role would be by The National Board of Review.
Marvel Studios has been slowly integrating mutants and characters from the X-Men universe in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after parent company Disney acquired the rights to the characters in their purchase of Fox in 2019 for $71.3 billion. Thus far, the MCU’s X-Men related projects include the animated X-Men ’97 on Disney+ and the box-office record breaking Deadpool & Wolverine, with more to follow.
“When we were preparing for Avengers: Endgame years ago, it was a matter of getting to the grand finale of our narrative, and then we had to start all over again after that. This time, on the road to Secret Wars, we already know very well what’s going to happen. be the story until then and beyond. The X-Men are an important part of that future,” Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige announced at D23 Brazil in 2024.
“I think you will see that continues in our next few movies with some X-Men players that you might recognize,” Feige added to that sentiment during a live virtual appearance at the Disney APAC Content Showcase Right after that, the whole story of Secret Wars really leads us into a new age of mutants and of the X-Men. Again, [it’s] one of those dreams come true. We finally have the X-Men back.”
Storm, whose real name is Ororo Monroe, was created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum, first appearing in Giant-Size X-Men #1 in 1975. She is a prominent member of the X-Men and has been sole leader of the team on multiple occasions in the comics, the first time being in 1980’s The Uncanny X-Men #139 when Cyclops takes a leave of absence following the events of the Dark Phoenix storyline. The character has previously been portrayed by actress Halle Berry in the Fox X-Men films.
What do you think of the fact that Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo says playing Storm in MCU’s X-Men would be ‘her dream role’? Could you see Erivo sporting a silver mohawk, studded accessories and leather from head-to-toe? Do you think Erivo could add a sense of depth to the character of Storm that we haven’t yet seen on the big screen? If not, which actress would you like to see play the character? Let us know in the comments.
