For some time now, one of the most prominent romances at Marvel Comics has been that between Ororo Munroe/Storm of the X-Men and T'Challa/Black Panther of Wakanda. However, according to Alexandra Shipp, who currently plays Storm in 20th Century Fox's Dark Phoenix, it is not a romance that should necessarily be transferred to the big screen, even now that Disney has successfully acquired Fox (and, by extension, the X-Men.)
"No!" Shipp told LRMonline at WonderCon 2019 upon being asked if she'd like to portray the romance between Storm and Black Panther on the big screen. "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."
To Shipp's point, while Black Panther predates Storm in the Marvel comic books by just under a decade, Storm has been around longer than T'Challa as far as movie audiences are concerned. Played by Halle Berry, Storm made her big screen debut nearly two decades ago in 2000's X-Men. Berry subsequently returned as Storm for an additional three films before the role was taken over by Shipp for 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse and the upcoming Dark Phoenix.
Meanwhile, played by Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther made his very first cinematic appearance in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, before returning for both his own solo film and Avengers: Infinity War one year later.
All that being said, Shipp also has apprehensions about Storm joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general, feeling as though jumping from one massive cast of characters to another won't do much to help the character.
"I would and wouldn't [like it], because Storm barely has anything to say as it is," she explained in the interview. "I don't know about you all [other actors] but like, we never talk. So it would be really nice if we weren't piled into yet another jam-packed cast, in which you can only see me in the back of the shot like f-cking sasquatch."
Written and directed by Simon Kinberg, Dark Phoenix stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters and Jessica Chastain. The film is scheduled to be released on June 7.