MANILA, Philippines — Award-winning actress Dolly de Leon has expressed interest in joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), specifically as part of the X-Men.
Dolly sat down for an interview with broadcast journalist Rico Hizon on ANC’s “Beyond the Exchange,” where they discussed the actress’ recently concluded show “Nine Perfect Strangers” and her upcoming projects.
Primary among these projects is Netflix’s live-action series adaptation of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” with Filipino-Canadian Gordon Cormier, where Dolly will take on the dual role of Lo and Li take on the dual role of Lo and Li, the non-firebending twin advisors of Elizabeth Yu’s Princess Azula.
Toward the end of the interview, Rico asked Dolly what major franchises she would next like to be a part of like “Game of Thrones,” “Star Wars,” and “Lord of the Rings,” and Dolly zeroed in on the MCU.
“Of course, who doesn’t want to do Marvel?! That’s a given,” Dolly said, adding that what matters more is collaborating with filmmakers she admires like Christopher Nolan, Daniel Day-Lewis and Meryl Streep. “But yeah, [the] Marvel franchise would not hurt at all.”
Rico then asked which particular character Dolly wanted, and the actress admitted her dream to be in an “X-Men” project.
“That’s my favorite franchise, I love ‘X-Men’ so much. I would love to play Nightcrawler, ‘yun nga lang I’m too old to play Nightcrawler, but Nightcrawler is my favorite of all the X-Men. Happy na ako doon,” Dolly said, pointing to Nightcrawler’s teleportation powers.
Nightcrawler is mainly Kurt Wagner in the comics, but there are female versions of the character in different universes, plus Nightcrawler sometimes has a daughter bearing his powers.
In terms of pure characterization, Dolly said she’d love to play someone “totally insane and crazy,” with lots of tattoos and a nose ring, something very different from past portrayals.
Currently, the MCU is nearing the end of its Multiverse Saga, which will culminate with two new “Avengers” movies in 2026 and 2027.
Alan Cumming is set to reprise his role of Nightcrawler from 2003’s “X2” for the two movies. Kodi Smit-McPhee portrayed the character in “X-Men: Apocalypse” and “Dark Phoenix,” while Adrien Hough and Brad Swaile have voiced Nightcrawler in animated projects.
An “X-Men” film is in development with “Thunderbolts*” director Jake Schreier and screenwriter Michael Lesslie attached, a significant move as it would be the first “X-Men” movie since Disney’s 2019 acquisition of Fox, which saw Marvel get back film rights.
Since the acquisition, a number of past Fox “X-Men” characters have reprised their roles, like Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.
Evan Peters subverted expectations when he played Ralph Bohner in “WandaVision,” pretending to be Quicksilver, while Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel was teased to be a mutant.
RELATED: Disney reveals ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ cast including original ‘X-Men’ actors
Be the first to comment