Many X-Men fans have clamored for years about how they want the mutant superheroes to be brought into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and now it looks like they'll finally have their wish granted. Earlier this week, Disney officially announced its purchase of 21st Century Fox's entertainment holdings, which would mean that after nearly 20 years of the X-Men properties being a self-contained superhero franchise, these characters would finally be able to team up with the likes of Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and more, just like they do in the comics. For Alexandra Ship, a.k.a. the current Storm, joining the MCU is an exciting prospect, as she relayed below.
It's still far too soon to tell what Disney's exact plans will be for the X-Men characters will be outside of simply incorporating them into the MCU, but if the current X-Men cast is kept for this transition, Alexandra Shipp relayed to her Twitter followers that not only would she be game for making that jump, she'd also be down for a team-up with Thor, a fellow hero who has a talent for conjuring lightning. There is a time period complication with making this work, as Shipp's Storm and her fellow "First Class" characters are operating decades before the modern MCU. It seems more likely that Disney will cast new actors to play the X-Men heroes and villains, but that doesn't mean the studio couldn't find a way to incorporate the existing lineup into the MCU, such as having the X-Men characters live in an alternate reality. And hey, even if Shipp doesn't get to play Storm in the MCU, that doesn't mean she couldn't join as a different character, just like Human Torches Chris Evans and Michael B. Jordan did.
Alexandra Shipp debuted as Storm in X-Men: Apocalypse last year, inheriting the role from Halle Berry, who delivered her last Storm performance in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Storm, a.k.a. Orono Munroe, was recruited by Apocalypse to be one of his Four Horsemen, but seeing her master abandon Angel, her fellow Horseman, and nearly kill the X-Men, she switched sides and helped the mutant superheroes defeat the ancient Egyptian powerhouse. By the end of the movie, she was an official X-Man, and we'll reunite with her and her teammates late next year in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which is set a decade later and will see Jean Grey succumbing to the Phoenix Force... again.
You can see Alexandra Shipp back in action as Storm when X-Men: Dark Phoenix comes out on November 2, 2018. Don't forget to look through our 2018 premiere guide to see what other movies will be released next year, and stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more news on how this Disney and Fox deal will affect the X-Men franchise.
