DeWanda Wise Has One Very Specific Marvel Dream Role, and She’s Not Being Subtle About It

Marvel’s mutant rollout has turned into one of the most anticipated waiting games in the studio’s history, with fans spending years cycling through fan casts for every major X-Men role long before the studio has confirmed a single actor.

Storm in particular has become something of a fan casting battleground, with names like Cynthia Erivo and Jodi Turner-Smith regularly floated as top contenders for the weather-manipulating mutant once Marvel finally reveals its plans.

Some of that speculation has intensified thanks to a resurgence of fan art circulating online, positioning DeWanda Wise as one of the more popular picks for the role, even as insiders have cautioned there is no confirmation she is actually in the running. That hasn’t stopped the actress herself from openly campaigning for the part at every opportunity she gets.

CoveredGeekly resurfaced comments from Wise this week confirming just how badly she wants to play Storm, sharing a clip of the actress declaring that Storm is the only Marvel character she is interested in playing. Wise told The Movie Dweeb it is the only Marvel character she has ever been interested in, adding that she thinks they are going to single-handedly make it happen.

Wise’s history with the MCU actually predates that comment by several years, since she was originally cast as Maria Rambeau in 2019’s Captain Marvel before scheduling conflicts with Spike Lee’s Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It forced her to exit the project, with Lashana Lynch eventually taking over the role. Wise later clarified in a separate interview with Cinemablend that she did not choose to leave the project, explaining she was contractually obligated to prioritize her television commitment at the time.

Her interest in Storm specifically dates back even further, with an Instagram post from 2018 where she publicly asked fans to help spam Marvel accounts on her behalf, joking that it wasn’t technically a real casting possibility at the time but that she would love the role anyway. Since then her profile has only grown, with breakout roles in Netflix’s The Harder They Fall, a memorable turn in Jurassic World Dominion as Kayla, and a starring and executive producing role in the horror film Imaginary.

Storm has previously been played on screen by Halle Berry across four of Fox’s original X-Men films, with Alexandra Shipp portraying a younger version of the character in X-Men Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix. Fan reaction to Wise’s renewed comments has been largely positive, with commenters praising her look and action background as strong fits for the regal, commanding presence the character requires.

Marvel has yet to confirm any casting for its version of Storm or provide a firm timeline for when the X-Men will formally enter the MCU, though Kevin Feige has recently indicated mutants will begin appearing once ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’ concludes. Until an official announcement arrives, it looks like Wise plans to keep making her case publicly, one interview at a time, in hopes that persistence eventually pays off with the role she has wanted for years.

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