Mercedes Varnado — also known as WWE's Sasha Banks — wants to star in a live-action Sailor Moon project.
"I think the next on my bucket list has to be something with Sailor Moon. Then I'm going to be like, 'Oh, what?," Varnado said in an interview with ComicBook.com. "Oh my God. Sailor Jupiter. I can play that. That would be so crazy. Let's put that out there. It has to be awesome though."
Varnado went on to explain how much the series impacted her as a child, instilling in her the confidence to believe in herself and follow her dreams.
"When I was maybe like five years old, I started watching Sailor Moon, and I had no idea of what time was or anything. It always came on at 6:00 AM in the morning, but I would stay up all night just because I would know it would come out sometimes dark, sometimes in the morning, I had no idea. But I had to stay up and watch my Sailor Moon because I thought I was just like Serena. I was a meatball head, I was clumsy, I was always late for school, and she really taught me how to believe in myself, my own powers, and the powers of the universe and the moon. So still to this day, she is my favorite and I can't believe how much she's played a role in my life."
Varnado just finished her first live-action acting gig, having guest-starred in two episodes of Season 2 of The Mandalorian as the Mandalorian warrior Koska Reeves. In the series, Reeves is a close confidant Bo-Katan Kryze, another warrior from the planet Mandalore who is seeking the Mandalorian throne. The Season 2 finale left that storyline unresolved, meaning Varnado could reprise the role when the series returns for Season 3 in December 2021.
Written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi, Sailor Moon started out as a manga series, lasting from 1991 to 1997 for a total of 60 chapters. It follows schoolgirl Usagi Tsukino, who leads the Sailor Soldiers against various evils that seek to destroy the solar system. The manga was adapted into an anime series by Toei Animation in 1992, running for 200 episodes and spawning three animated movies. Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, a live-action drama, aired from 2003-2004 for 49 episodes. In 2014, the anime was rebooted as a more faithful adaptation of the original manga. It lasted until 2016.
Source: ComicBook.com