Dani Moonstar: Cheyenne Valkyrie Appreciation 2022

[Arachne]

Yeah, I think I've seen everything with her in it online already, so I won't bother with it again right now.

New question: If Dani makes it into the MCU should she be introduced as a teen or an adult? Personally, I'd prefer her as an adult at this point. She hasn't been a teen in the comics in decades.

[rf2044]

Yeah, I think I've seen everything with her in it online already, so I won't bother with it again right now.

New question: If Dani makes it into the MCU should she be introduced as a teen or an adult? Personally, I'd prefer her as an adult at this point. She hasn't been a teen in the comics in decades.

Interesting question, Arachne.

We've already seen the teenaged version of the New Mutants in that Sony film, which flopped. If the MCU plans on doing a full-blown origin story for the New Mutants, then maybe we could see a teenaged version. But I think an adult version makes more sense. And to be clear, by "adult" I mean young adult, as in 20 - 22 years old [that seems to be where she's "settled" for the last 10 years or so in comic time / age].

The New Mutants film was pretty disappointing, but I thought that they picked someone to portray Dani who at least looked the part... somewhat. But the way she was portrayed was very un-Dani like, in terms of her being demure, fearful, etc. On that pretty talented cast, Blu Hunt was probably the least talented actor [relatively speaking, to be clear I'm not saying that she's a "bad" actress], which was unfortunate because she was cast in the lead role. And beyond the characterization, there were lots of other missing elements -- most notably, the braids, the lack of regalia [except for a tiny bear necklace], etc. So if it's recast, I think they'd need to find someone who fits the Dani mold a little better.

Now, I propose above that the MCU version of Dani should be in the 20 - 22 year old range, so the actress I'm going to suggest doesn't hit that mark. But if I were in charge of casting, I'd strongly consider Julia Jones. She's been in a bunch of movies / TV shows, including the Mandalorian, Westworld, and the recent Dexter series. She's in her 30's, but she really nails the look with the long hair, height, and slender physique. Plus, she's a natural beauty. Not only is she indigenous, she's a VERY talented actress who has come into her own in recent years.

I've seen people recommend Devery Jaobs, who's another good indigenous actress, but I don't think she is as good of a fit as Jones.

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[Arachne]

Wow, she really does look the part. Not sure she could pull off an early 20's part, though.

I think Dani should be more like 24, now (she had to be at least 21 in New Mutants vol 2, since she 3 years older that Rahne and Rahne was teaching in that run), but they really like to mess with age in the Marvel Universe.

[Havok83]

Making Dani an adult would feel weird bc her age is relative to the senior X-men, whom I think should be young adults when introduced. It would be odd to have her the same age or older than Scott, Jean and Storm. It was weird when they did that with Jubilee in Apocalypse.. Plus I think there is still room for the NMs to be done right and Dani ages herself out of that if she comes in as an adult. I dont want her playing the same role that Storm did on Xmen Evolution

[rf2044]

Wow, she really does look the part. Not sure she could pull off an early 20's part, though.

I think Dani should be more like 24, now (she had to be at least 21 in New Mutants vol 2, since she 3 years older that Rahne and Rahne was teaching in that run), but they really like to mess with age in the Marvel Universe.

She totally does. Here she is sporting some regalia Dani herself would be proud of:

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But to your point, a quick online search showed that she's 41. She's got the right natural look, looks a lot younger than she is, but probably too old to pull of Dani in the MCU.

[Arachne]

Making Dani an adult would feel weird bc her age is relative to the senior X-men, whom I think should be young adults when introduced. It would be odd to have her the same age or older than Scott, Jean and Storm. It was weird when they did that with Jubilee in Apocalypse.. Plus I think there is still room for the NMs to be done right and Dani ages herself out of that if she comes in as an adult. I dont want her playing the same role that Storm did on Xmen Evolution

To me it seems strange to see her as a teen again. I'd rather see them adapt more modern stories where the O5 are the older generation and the new X-men are the teens, with the younger X-men (Colossus, Rogue etc.) and New Mutants/Gen X characters as the active X-men. Won't happen, though. With my luck, they'll start with the O5 as teens.

[rf2044]

Looks like the release date for New Mutants #25 has shifted back to May 18th. Three more weeks...

[Arachne]

Did they say it was going to be June at one point, or am I imagining things?

[norj]

Thought experiment how would an evil Dani use and abuse her powers? I think she would make people addicted to her emphatic illusions, and have them serve her in exchange for letting them experience their deepest, darkest fantasies.

[Havok83]

Thought experiment how would an evil Dani use and abuse her powers? I think she would make people addicted to her emphatic illusions, and have them serve her in exchange for letting them experience their deepest, darkest fantasies.

I think she'd go around lobotomizing people with her psychic arrows

[Arachne]

Thought experiment how would an evil Dani use and abuse her powers? I think she would make people addicted to her emphatic illusions, and have them serve her in exchange for letting them experience their deepest, darkest fantasies.

Had to think about this, but I agree. She could make a fortune that way. Maybe running a club of some kind. I think she'd also twist the fantasies of anyone that displeased her into nightmares, like she did to Empath back in NM vol.1. She be an amazing at torturing people, if she wanted to. That could give her blackmail options, too. She could make quite the crime lord.

[marhawkman]

Had to think about this, but I agree. She could make a fortune that way. Maybe running a club of some kind. I think she'd also twist the fantasies of anyone that displeased her into nightmares, like she did to Empath back in NM vol.1. She be an amazing at torturing people, if she wanted to. That could give her blackmail options, too. She could make quite the crime lord.

Oh yeah, psionic illusions that are nightmarishly horrible would be good torture.

[JudicatorPrime]

I've seen people recommend Devery Jaobs (sic), who's another good indigenous actress, but I don't think she is as good of a fit as Jones.

I saw a blurb somewhere that the MCU has hired Devery Jacobs to portray Echo in an upcoming series. I'm very much looking forward to that.

I also would be totally fine with Julia Jones as Dani. Especially if it means that they introduce the New Mutants as a mixed-age ensemble, with Dani being one of the adults, while someone like Wolfsbane or Bobby representing the mid-to-late teens demographic.

[Arachne]

Alaqua Cox is playing Echo, actually, but there is some speculation that Devery Jacobs has a role in the show.

[rf2044]

Thought experiment how would an evil Dani use and abuse her powers? I think she would make people addicted to her emphatic illusions, and have them serve her in exchange for letting them experience their deepest, darkest fantasies.

Ooh -- what an interesting question, Norj! Evil Dani is a fun concept!

So I see a couple of different options. Back when I watched Avengers: Age of Ultron, I was struck by how much the Scarlet Witch's powers were used in a way that made sense for Dani. In that movie, she used a power to incapacitate the various Avengers by making them experience realistic illusions of traumatic events, or fictionalized versions of frightening events. The affected people were so swept up in the illusions that they couldn't even move / react / fight back. She was also able to control them to a degree, such as turning a mind-affected Hulk loose on a city to wreak havoc. So, the first option I envision for evil Dani would be to use her illusion powers similarly -- to affect people, to control them, or to influence them to do things she wants them to do. Hard not to envision crime on a grand scale that she could orchestrate from afar using her powers like that.

The second alternative would be for her powers to enable her to scare people... to death. Maybe her illusions are so frightening that they induce the victim to suffer a heart attack. Or another option -- if you suspend belief a la the Matrix, but the illusions would be capable of actually harming the target [this was also kind of true about how her powers worked in the NM movie]. Or maybe she could use the illusions to get people to do dangerous things -- i.e., someone who fears they are being chased by a walking corpse tries to run away, unknowingly running onto a busy street with oncoming traffic. I could see this version of evil Dani being a killer for hire -- and there would end up being zero evidence to directly link her to any of the crimes.

The third option would be tied to her "death sense." Maybe that would help her identify victims / targets for attack. I could see her being some kind of ghoulish, psychic vampire kind of villain who feeds on the fear / negative emotions in others -- and maybe uses her powers to torment them, or make them experience pain / suffering / misery, which she "consumes."


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