And now, the actor-musician approached director Ryan Coogler about the possibility of being the next person to play the iconic silver-haired mutant. In an excerpt from a new interview with Empire, Monáe recounts the time a few years back when she was working on her Grammy-nominated album, Dirty Computer, in Atlanta and received a visit from Black Panther stars Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong’o and Michael B. Jordan.

She somehow wound up crossing paths with director Ryan Coogler, who helmed the billion-dollar grossing film. When Empire asked her if she’d spoken to Coogler about the possibility of joining the upcoming Black Panther sequel, Monáe revealed that she did indeed take that opportunity to shoot her shot. “I definitely have thrown it out there. One of my dreams has always been to play Storm.

I don’t know if she comes in Black Panther, but it would be a dream to have her in it,” she said of her desire to appear in the sequel. “I don’t know where they are with that. A lot of women have played Storm and they’ve done an exceptional job, and I would love to be in that line of artists and get to do Storm justice.”  There has been much speculation about Storm making an appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) given the character’s connection to T’Challa in the comic series. Rumors were further fueled after Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019.

So far, Disney hasn’t revealed any of its plans or criss-cross of characters beyond its slate of upcoming Marvel releases over the next few years with an anticipated March 6, 2022 release date for Black Panther 2. For fans looking forward to Monae’s next big screen appearance, she will appear in Antebellum which is slated to hit theaters on August 21, 2020.