From the moment Disney’s merger with Fox Studios was complete, fans began theorizing about how one of Marvel Comics’ most powerful mutants, Storm, might fit into the story of the Black Panther sequel. Once the wife of T’Challa and the Queen of Wakanda, Storm’s connection to Wakanda remains strong in the present day despite no longer being married to T’Challa. While her duties to the X-Men had her busy on Mars, Ororo still found herself playing a role in current Black Panther writer John Ridley’s series. Even though T’Challa’s relationship with Nakia was clearly prioritized in Black Panther, fans were still adamant that Storm could find her way into the sequel and even as the film was reworked following the death of Chadwick Boseman, the Storm theories never stopped coming.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens this week and, to nobody’s actual surprise, Storm is not in the film. However, with at least one more Wakanda-based streaming series on the way and a third film in the series all but a sure thing, fans are still looking to the future for hope that the character might show up in Wakanda, reflecting the strong connection she has to the nation in the pages of Marvel Comics. In an interview with Screen Rant, Marvel Studios Parliament member and Wakanda Forever Executive Producer Nate Moore may have dashed those hopes. When asked about the chances of Storm showing up in Wakanda down the road, Moore certainly didn’t seem optimistic saying, “Well, Storm’s relationship with Wakanda in publishing is pretty interesting. Obviously, we might be a few years out from the X-Men, so I’m not sure we’re there yet.“
The quote certainly doesn’t inspire confidence that Ororo will find her way to Wakanda any time soon, though it doesn’t completely rule it out of the question. While there are plenty of ways that Storm could be worked into Black Panther 3, the unfortunate reality is that the strength of the character’s connection to Wakanda came from her relationship with T’Challa and that’s sadly not something that the MCU can replicate at the moment. Perhaps down the road after Avengers: Secret Wars, new possibilities for the pair to unite on screen might emerge but until then, it sounds like Storm may not be part of the plans to continue to story of Wakanda.
Source: Screen Rant
