As expected, Marvel has now revealed the cast – or at least some of them – for its long-awaited X-Men movie. But while there are some major names in there, including Adam Driver and Kit Connor, arguably the one you’ll want to know the most about is Maya Boyd.
The 23-year-old actor is making her movie debut as Storm in the MCU reboot, taking on a role previously played by Halle Berry in the original X-Men movies and then Alexandra Shipp in X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix.
It’s a huge first movie role for Boyd, but it seems she’ll be up for the challenge, having previously made her Broadway debut in Merrily We Roll Along while she was finishing her senior year at University of Michigan.
“I did both Merrily We Roll Along as an onstage swing and I understudied Gussie. I was able to get credit for it, but it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” she told Theatrely in April 2026.
“I think it was one of the best decisions I could have made because it allowed me to stay in this student mindset to really take in what I was learning. Having my first professional gig in musical theatre at all be on Broadway with that cast, my first example of how to conduct yourself as an artist and a professional was a great example.”
Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney
She then went on to play the lead role of Juliet in & Juliet, before taking on her first role in a play as Molly Cunningham in the revival of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone which ran from April to July this year.
We can actually thank the director of that revival, Debbie Allen, for giving Boyd the acting bug that has eventually led her to take on the role of Storm.
“When I was 13, I’m 23 now, I did a summer intensive at her dance academy in LA. When I was 13, I just danced, I never even thought about musical theatre or acting and or really singing. I did [Allen’s] dance program, and I remember meeting her in the flesh. She came to one of our classes, and that was a big deal,” she recalled to Theatrely.
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Disney
“I’ve never sang in front of anyone that weren’t my sisters who maybe heard me on Photobooth. [Allen] was the first woman, or person besides my family, that I had to sing in front of. I remember being so nervous. I’m like, ‘I don’t sing like that.’ I remember her telling me something about me being very quiet, and that comes in later.
“Thinking about myself now as a 23-year-old, a decade later, having life take its course and not seeing her sense that summer, I sing and act and dance for a living, which is such a crazy thing to think about… She planted a seed; I had no idea I would end up doing musical theatre for a living.”
And it’s fair to say that the 13-year-old Boyd had no idea she’d end up playing Storm in the MCU, but now we’re excited to see what she brings to the role. If you want to know more about her, you can follow Boyd on Instagram.
She currently has just over 80,000 followers at the time of writing, but we have a feeling that’s about to climb dramatically.
X-Men is released in cinemas on 5 May 2028.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.