X-Men 2’s Kelly Hu has recently opened up about the possibility of her returning to her character Lady Deathstrike in future MCU installments. Hu, who was a former model and beauty queen, began her acting career on the 80s family sitcom Growing Pains and has since gone on to accrue an impressive list of screen credits including 2002’s The Scorpion King and the hit teen drama The Vampire Diaries. In 2003, she made her comic-book movie debut as the supervillain Yuriko Oyama aka Lady Deathstrike in X-Men 2, or X2 as it was also marketed.

In the original comics, Lady Deathstrike is portrayed as a cyborg who had adamantium bonded to her skeleton in addition to other cybernetic enhancements, including 12-inch adamantium claws adorning each of her fingers. In 2003’s X-Men sequel, however, the character’s backstory was changed to make her another mutant with healing abilities similar to Wolverine’s own. When Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and the rest of the X-Men infiltrated William Stryker’s base in the film’s final act, Jackman’s fan-favorite mutant found himself evenly matched when he was forced to face off against Hu’s Lady Deathstrike. It was only by injecting her with liquid adamantium that Wolverine was able to subdue, and presumably kill her.

SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY

Now, nearly 20 years since Hu made her debut as the Marvel villain, the actress has spoken about the possibility of returning to the role for a future appearance in the MCU. In a recent interview with ComicBookMovie, Hu was asked if there was any potential for her to reprise the role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Joking that she would love an opportunity to “have some dialogue this time”, Hu seemed keen about the prospect of returning to her iconic villain. Check out her full response below:

Yeah, it would be awesome to bring Lady Deathstrike back and actually have some dialogue this time [Laughs]. It would be a lot more fun with dialogue.

While the concept of the multiverse has certainly opened up the possibilities for integrating previous Marvel films into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, exactly how the X-Men will be introduced remains to be seen. While Spider-Man: No Way Home was able to successfully reintroduce characters from two different iterations of Sony’s Spider-Man franchise, it is still unknown whether Kevin Feige and the folks at Marvel Studios will seek to do the same thing with the X-Men franchise. Early last year fans thought they had made the first steps toward integrating Fox’s former mutant superheroes by casting Evan Peters as an alternate Pietro Maximoff in WandaVision, but they quickly had the rug pulled out from their feet when he was revealed to be nothing more than another Westview resident named Ralph Bohner.

With the implications of the Marvel multiverse destined to be explored again in this year’s Doctor Strange sequel, fans are already busy theorizing what other Marvel characters may appear. Some rumors have already pointed at Jackman’s possible return as Wolverine, and if this does happen, having him face off against one of his best adversaries would certainly be a memorable way to reintroduce him back into the MCU. Of course, until more comes to light these rumors amount to little more than random gossip, and X-Men 2 fans will have to keep their fingers crossed concerning Lady Deathstrike’s own MCU return.

Source: ComicBookMovie

Key Release Dates
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  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)Release date: May 06, 2022
  • Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)Release date: Jul 08, 2022
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever/Black Panther 2 (2022)Release date: Nov 11, 2022
  • The Marvels/Captain Marvel 2 (2023)Release date: Feb 17, 2023
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)Release date: May 05, 2023
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)Release date: Jul 28, 2023
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TC Phillips
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TC Phillips is a scribbler, mess maker, and storyteller by nature. He is also a publisher and an author of his own special brand of warped fiction, and he revels in delving headfirst into all things strange, bizarre, and fantastical. A self-proclaimed nerd of the highest order, the vibrational energy generated by his constant state of fanboy excitement should probably be harnessed to power a small city. When his pancreas is not screaming under the pressure of his dietary habits, he is constantly befuddled by his three children and amazed that his long-suffering wife has not yet taken it upon herself to murder him in his sleep. He Tweets at @T_C_Phillips

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