She has risked her life piloting a semi on harsh terrain alongside Liam Neeson in Netflix’s The Ice Road, survived a bank robbery in the 2016 Oscar nominee, Hell or High Water, and took on The Predator itself — circa 1719 — as the lead of the Prey cast, most recently. These are only just a few examples of movies starring Amber Midthunder that prove she is one of the strongest and most promising action stars of her generation. Furthermore, I believe these roles should be enough to convince Kevin Feige and co. that she is ready to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Admittedly, if the Native American actor (and descendant of the Fort Peck Sioux tribe, according to The New York Times) did land a role in any upcoming Marvel movies, it would not be her first comic book adaptation. She had a recurring role on Legion as Kerry Loudermilk — a mutant with exceptional martial skills who shares a body with male scientist Cary Loudermilk (Bill Irwin) and was originally created for FX’s trippy, X-Men-inspired series. However, I think it is time to give Midthunder the chance to bring a hero (or another villain) ripped straight from the comic book pages to life in any upcoming superhero movies (or even upcoming Marvel TV shows) and I have a few Marvel characters in mind — starting with one who is also of Indigenous descent.
Silver Fox
Some Marvel fans may recall (whether they would like to or not) when, in 2008, X-Men Origins: Wolverine was released and revealed the past of Hugh Jackman’s Adamantium-clawed, Canadian mutant, Logan, including his relationship with a woman named Kayla Silverfox. Played by 13 Going On 30 cast member Lynn Collins, the descendant of Canada’s Indigenous Blackfoot tribe turned out to be another mutant with powers of hypnotic manipulation via physical contact and was keeping tabs on Logan for the Weapon X project’s overseer, William Stryker (Danny Huston), but only because he was holding her sister, Emma Frost (Tahyna Tozzi), captive.
While it is true that she was once in a relationship with Wolverine and a member of Weapon X in the comics, Silver Fox is a character many would claim the X-Men movies did not do justice as they left out the fact that she is also a leading HYDRA terrorist and is not telekinetic, but has powers more similar to her one-time lover — including retractable claws and suppressed aging. With an MCU-canon reboot to the franchise inevitably on its way, it seems like there is a good opportunity for a more faithful interpretation on the horizon. I cannot think of anyone better to portray the character this time then Amber Midthunder, being one of the most badass Indigenous actors working today…despite not being Canadian.
Risque
If having no ties to the Great White North would be a deal breaker, I do have another Indigenous X-Men character in mind for Amber Midthunder. While the character is also of Cuban descent on her father’s side, her mother belonged to the North American Seminole tribe, which developed in Florida during the 18th Century. The role in question is Gloria Dolores Muñoz — who is better known as Risque and was created by iconic writer Jeph Loeb with artist Luciano Lima in 1995.
Risque’s mutant ability allows her to generate gravity fields that she can manipulate into whatever size she chooses and, then, launch them at her enemies. She has used this ability when fighting alongside the X-Corporation, X-Force, and S.W.O.R.D. — a counterterrorism organization that specializes in especially strange and otherworldly threats that was officially introduced into the MCU in WandaVision. Therefore, the character’s own introduction to the canon is more likely now than ever before, and would be an even more celebrated affair with Midthunder in the role.
Lady Hellbender
I really admired how Amber Midthunder’s character in director Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey, Naru — a young Comanche seeking to prove her worth as a hunter to her tribe — held her own against such a famously vicious and highly intelligent beast like The Predator (played by basketball player Dane DiLiegro this time). It initially gave me the idea to cast her as one of the many characters from Marvel Comics who specialize in hunting and killing creatures of a similar nature and have a good chance of being adapted for the MCU now that it is bringing in more horror-based properties, such as Blade. However, I then decided that, at risk of repeating herself, I would recommend a hunter whose intentions are a little different.
Better known as Lady Hellbender, Marguerite Hellbender is, herself, an alien from an unidentified planet in the Milky Way whose pet monster, Beez, was unwillingly taken from her by her gambling-addict father and submitted into a deadly gladiatorial arena in which he was killed. This traumatizing event inspired her take up a career searching the galaxy for rare monsters that she could take back to her sanctuary — including Fin Fang Foom, Venom, and even Hulk. So, I guess we can consider her and her barbaric minions, Gnasher and Gasher, anti-heroes, and ones that I would watch in a movie or TV show in a heartbeat.
Lyja
Actually, Lady Hellbender is not the only alien warrior I had in mind for Amber Midthunder to play, and to give her an opportunity to see things from a perspective quite different from Naru in Prey. In fact, this character has an even better chance to be easily inserted into MCU canon, considering her involvement in the comic that would inspire the upcoming TV show, Secret Invasion, and affiliation with a group of characters whose debut to the Universe is hotly anticipated.
Lyja is part of the shapeshifting alien race known as Skrulls and spent her first several years as part of the Marvel Universe in disguise as Ben “The Thing” Grimm’s lover, Alicia Masters, in order to infiltrate the Fantastic Four. However, after later falling for and marrying Johnny “Human Torch” Storm, she would come to form a close bond with him (thanks, in part, to her ability to withstand high temperatures, and even fought alongside him on later occasions. This is an interesting redemption arc I would also love to see played out when the superhero family is officially introduced into the MCU.
Polaris
One of Amber Midthunder’s more underrated roles is Rosa Ortecho on the CW’s sci-fi series Roswell, New Mexico. The character is a young woman who was resurrected from death by a man with extra-terrestrial powers, coming back with abilities of her own, including manipulation of electromagnetic energy. That kind of reminds me of another X-Men character she could play.
The power of magnetism, and electromagnetism, is a specialty of green-haired mutant Lorna Dane, who is better know Polaris. However, she has also gone by other aliases, such as Magneta — which is both a reference to her abilities and the fact that her father is none other than Magneto. That is one complicated family dynamic that I would be interested in seeing played out in a future installment.
While all of the Marvel characters I have listed above have some connection to Amber Midthunder, either through other roles she has played or her own cultural identity, the possibilities of what she could do in the MCU is endless, as far as I am concerned. Hell, if she would rather apply her talent to starring in any upcoming DC movies instead, she would have my full support.
