This week, a social media debate was sparked after Wicked actress Cynthia Erivo expressed interest in portraying the Marvel character Storm for her next dream role. Since Erivo’s interview, folks on social media have been floating other strong choices for the Marvel icon, such as DeWanda Wise and Jodie Turner-Smith. So who’s really next in line to play the role, and what do we know so far?
Who is Storm?
Before casting, we need to understand Storm’s character. She was created in 1975 by writer Len Wein at a time when X-Men was considered Marvel’s worst-performing IP with the original run being cancelled just half a decade earlier. Wein and artist David Cockrum were tasked with rebooting X-Men with a more diverse team to draw in readers from different walks of life. One of the new characters was Storm who was originally male but was changed to female as Marvel was looking to break away from the tradition of all-male superhero teams. She was first introduced to fans in Giant Size X-men #1 as a powerful mutant, being worshipped as a goddess by the people of Kenya for her ability to control the weather.
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Despite being initially created by Wein, the rest of her characterization would come from writer Chris Claremont, who was given the reigns of what was seen as a fruitless project. During Claremont’s run, X-Men would morph into a best-selling comic series. Claremont is mainly praised for his progressive development of female characters and is credited for creating fan favorites such as Rogue, Mystique, Emma Frost, and Kitty Pryde. When it came to Storm, Claremont intended to write her into a leadership capacity, with her serving as the field leader after Cyclops left the X-Men.
This was considered huge, as women of color were rarely depicted in strong leadership roles with the Marvel’s only Black heroes at the time being Luke Cage and Black Panther. Storm’s role as a leader was also expanded onto a more personal level as a maternal role model for the younger women on the team. Overall, Storm is considered the least impulsive of the X-Men and acts as a voice of reason and wisdom for the team. Storm is not without her faults: she is considered very prideful and stubborn at times with her having a very strong will and unwavering convictions that often lead her to conflict.
It also can’t be ignored that while Storm is one of the most powerful X-Men, her power is also her greatest weakness. From her introduction, we are shown that people look at her as a Goddess, but Storm is just a regular person like you and me despite her powers. A lot of expectations are placed on her shoulders as a result of this worship, leading to Storm often putting the needs of other people above her own.
One of my favorite things about X-men is how they depict having powers as a disability not only from a social perspective, but from a functionality point as well. Storm is no different, as her abilities are tied to her emotions, meaning she cannot get emotional at all without the risk of causing a natural disaster, leading her to present as more stoic and calm. Of course, bottling your emotions isn’t healthy, and when she does finally snap, she tends to take things too far almost killing certain villains like Callisto. All this context paints Storm as a tragic character, almost on the same level as someone like Doctor Manhattan, and I would honestly love to see a film tackle that aspect of her character, as there was a very well-known story arc in X-Men where Storm does lose her powers and suffers an identity crisis as a result.
Criteria
With that information out of the way, we could speculate that the actress playing Storm will need:
- Black heritage & representation
- The ability to convey a commanding regal presence
- A powerful booming voice, poetic and Shakespearian
- A sense of pain sitting just beneath the surface
- Intense emotional outbursts contrasting her stoicism.
While not a strict list, it will give us things to look out for when comparing each pick starting with.
Cynthia Erivo
For Cynthia Erivo, we need look no further than her acclaimed performance in 2019’s Harriet, which is a dramatic retelling of the story of Harriet Tubman. In this movie, she gives a commanding presence that exudes confidence and intensity, showing us the audience that she is willing to commit physically to action roles. Erivo also has a very distinct voice and the ability to take on complex, multi-layered dramatic roles like her recent portrayal of Wicked‘s Elphaba.
DeWanda Wise
Wise is considered by many to be the strongest contender for many good reasons. She is best known for her role in Jurassic World: Dominion, which showcased her ability to handle herself in an action movie with a commanding presence. She has a rich and powerful voice that is authoritative yet warm.
Jodie Turner-Smith
Jodie Turner-Smith is another great choice, as she is known to excel in stoic performances with simmering emotion just below the surface, like we saw from her in Queen & Slim. Smith has experience handling intense action sequences in Without Remorse.
Final Consensus
So who should play Storm? Ultimately it comes down to how the writer chooses to interpret the character. A good performance isn’t just defined by the actress portraying the character, and any of these actresses could play the character masterfully depending on how they’re written and directed. Stan Lee perhaps put it best when he said: “If I wanted the Thing to win, the Thing would win!”
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