Chloe Bailey Wants To Play The Most Iconic X-Men Member
Swarm star Chloe Bailey would like to play X-Men's Storm for the MCU.
Move over, Halle Berry there’s a new Storm in town. At least, there will be if Chloe Bailey has her way. The actress recently told Collider that she would love to play the weather-controlling mutant in a future X-Men movie if Disney will have her.
Bailey dropped the revelation when asked if there were an animated Disney character she would like to portray in live-action.”I don’t know about a live-action,” the Swarm star replied, “but I want to be Storm in Marvel and Disney owns Marvel, so ….” Sounds like Chloe Bailey is ready to join her sister in the family business.
Specifically the “starring in popular Disney franchises” business. Chloe’s sister Halle Bailey plays Ariel in Disney’s upcoming live-action version of The Little Mermaid. Halle’s casting caused a lot of controversy over whether a mythical race of half-human, half-fish can be a POC.
Luckily, Chloe Bailey playing Storm wouldn’t prompt the same heated internet discourse. Ororo Munroe (Storm) is already a woman of color, not that that should matter anyway. The sometimes leader of the X-Men was even worshipped as an African weather goddess at one point.
If Marvel does come calling, Storm would make a welcome addition to Bailey’s already impressive filmography. But what’s the probability that Kevin Feige sees the interview and offers Chloe Bailey the job? Higher than one might think.
Several actors have gotten parts in movies after lobbying for them publicly. Samuel L. Jackson was chosen to play Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequels because he mentioned his love of the franchise in an interview. Jackson even famously got George Lucas to give him a purple lightsaber despite there only being two colors for every other Jedi to choose from.
Another example, albeit slightly less successful, is Donald Glover. The Solo star very publicly campaigned to become Marvel’s next Spider-Man after Andrew Garfield. While the role ultimately went to Tom Holland, Glover’s efforts didn’t go unnoticed.
The Community star was cast in Spider-Man: Homecoming as Aaron Davis, alter ego of the Prowler and uncle to Miles Morales. If Chloe Bailey isn’t chosen for Storm, she could still be offered a similarly minor role in the X-Men universe. The actress would be perfect as M or Tempest, two of the lesser-known mutants.
It might be a while, however, before we see Chloe Bailey play any mutants in the MCU. Marvel really hasn’t said much about the introduction of the X-Men into the MCU other than it will happen eventually. So far, the only mutant mayhem going on at Disney has been the revelation that Ms. Marvel is a mutant and a small cameo from Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Then again, the X-Men ’97 animated series is set to premiere on Disney+ this summer. Could Marvel offer Chloe Bailey the animated version of her dream role? The chance is slim, given that the project is probably well past the casting phase, but when it comes to Marvel, anything is possible.
Hopefully, if Chloe Bailey does get cast as Storm, the writers will give her better jokes than the infamous “Do you know what happens to a toad when it’s struck by lightning?” spoken by Halle Berry in 2000’s X-Men. They couldn’t do much worse.
