Alexandra Shipp doesn't want Storm to have a romantic relationship with T'Challa in the MCU. The actress, who is playing the powerful mutant popularized by Halle Berry, is currently busy promoting Dark Phoenix. Debuting in the X-Men film saga in 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse, Storm is officially with the good guys as she becomes one of Professor X's (James McAvoy) trusted mutant heroes.
Storm's story in the ongoing X-Men timeline is just in its early stages, but with Disney acquiring Fox, Dark Phoenix will more likely be the final movie where she'll play Storm. Character rights to the mutants, Fantastic Four and Deadpool are now officially back with Marvel, allowing Marvel Studios to use these characters in the MCU. Initial reports claim that only Ryan Reynolds' antihero will be carried over with the rest supposedly rebooted, hence recasting will be in order. But in the event that Shipp and her castmates are allowed to continue playing their current characters in the MCU, she says that she's not exactly interested in a pair-up with Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa.
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Speaking with LRM Online during WonderCon over the weekend, Shipp was asked about her thoughts on the possibility of fleshing out Storm and T'Challa's romance on the big screen via an MCU film. Unfortunately for fans who are rooting for this to happen, the actress isn't on board, saying that her character doesn't need T'Challa, instead she needs her own film regardless of who's playing the character.
“No! No, I don’t think Storm needs T’Challa, and I think she needs her own movie! It doesn’t have to be me, it just needs to be made. A woman does not need a man in order to give her validity and she has also been around longer than him.”
Shipp also pointed out that Storm has been around longer than Black Panther, which caused a bit of confusion considering that the latter was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1966, while the former debuted in 1975 on the pages of the comics via Giant-Size X-Men #1. However, the actress may have been pertaining to the characters' on-screen presence. Berry debuted Storm in 2000 with X-Men while Boseman's T'Challa arrived in the MCU 16 years later with Captain America: Civil War. Despite this, one can argue that Black Panther has had a bigger impact than Storm primarily because of how Marvel Studios utilized the character. Not has he already starred in his own extremely successful standalone film, Black Panther, directed by Ryan Coogler, he and the people of Wakanda are properly integrated into the overall MCU narrative. Meanwhile, Storm continues to be a piece of an ensemble flick - which should not be the case considering how prominent she is in the comics, not to mention her unique power set.
Based on Shipp's comments, it seems like she's genuinely invested in Storm - not just because she's playing the character in Dark Phoenix. Despite rampant rumors that she, alongside the rest of the current X-Men iteration will be rebooted, she's still pushing for Storm's long-overdue prominence once she finally debuts in the MCU. And while it'll be nice to see her interact with T'Challa, it might be better to establish the superheroine first instead of just throwing her into the mix of the already established Wakanda. That said, there might still be a way to adapt T'Challa and Storm's romance in the MCU down the road, after all, Storm will fit perfectly in Wakanda with a slew of powerful women in the African nation.
More: Dark Phoenix's Simon Kinberg Wants Iron Man In An X-Men Movie
Source: LRM Online
