There is a lot of attention right now on singer and actress Halle Bailey after her appearance in the new teaser trailer for The Little Mermaid, a live-action remake of the animated Disney movie. In the film, Bailey plays a new incarnation of Ariel. The movie is set to be released in theaters on May 26, 2023.
On Friday, Bailey was present at the D23 Expo where the teaser was debuted, and she was fielding a variety of questions from the press. Speaking with Variety, it was noted to Bailey how she’s a part of the Disney family with her role as Ariel in The Little Mermaid. She’s asked if she’d be interested in joining the Marvel family next, and Bailey made it clear she’d be happy to be a part of that world as well. She named Storm as one character in particular she’d love to play, but says that playing any Marvel character would be amazing. From the interview:
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Who Will Be the Next Storm?
Fox
Storm was created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum for Marvel Comics, making her debut in Giant-Size X-Men in 1975. A mutant with superpowers, Storm has the ability to control the weather. For decades, she has remained one of the more prominent and popular characters in the X-Men franchise.
In film, Halle Berry famously played Storm in the original live-action X-Men movie series. Alexandra Shipp would later play a younger version of Storm in subsequent films, last appearing in 2019’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix. The current plan at Marvel Studios is to reboot the X-Men once again for their introduction in the MCU, but it’s not yet clear when those characters will be showing up. There hasn’t been any word yet on who might be playing any of them, though Giancarlo Esposito has recently been campaigning to play the new Professor X.
Halle Bailey isn’t the only one who’d love to play Storm in the next X-Men reboot. Berry has expressed interest in reprising the role in a new X-Men movie. Janelle Monáe also previously referred to the possibility as a dream role.
“I definitely have thrown it out there. One of my dreams has always been to play Storm. ,” Monáe told Empire. “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.”
