As Sebastian the Crab once said, “life is the bubbles” for Halle Bailey right now as she’s basking in all the love coming her way following the debut of the first trailer for The Little Mermaid remake, in which she stars as Ariel. But now she’s played a Disney princess, it seems like there’s a chance Bailey might get to migrate over to a different branch of the Disney family tree and portray a Marvel superhero.
And, if the MCU did come a-knocking, who might Bailey want to play? The singer/actress was asked this during a red carpet chat with Variety at D23, with Bailey making it known that she wouldn’t say no to playing iconic X-Men member Storm — if the opportunity ever arose.
“Oh, wow…” Bailey reacted, when presented with the idea of joining the MCU. “I think any Marvel superhero [role] would be amazing,” she continued diplomatically, before singling out her favorite. “I mean, I love Storm. I mean, I love so many. That would just be cool.”
You know what, Marvel hiring Bailey as our next Storm wouldn’t be a bad idea. One way of integrating the mutant super-team into the MCU would be to age them down and introduce the heroes as young adults. Sure, X-Men: Apocalypse already took that approach, but Marvel Studios would no doubt handle the concept a lot better. And obviously, there’s the amusing meta angle of having Halle Bailey play a role that was previously inhabited by her near-namesake Halle Berry.
For now, though, embodying Ariel seems to be enough for Bailey, who will star in Rob Marshall’s reboot of the 1989 animation alongside the likes of Jonah Hauer-King, Javier Bardem, and Melissa McCarthy as Ursula. Prepare to return to fathoms below when The Little Mermaid swims into cinemas on May 26, 2023.