Southeast Michigan is home to a new Marvel superhero, a multi-talented young actress who already has made her mark on Broadway.
Maya Boyd will play Storm in the upcoming, yet-to-be-titled “X-Men” movie, which is set to reach multiplexes on May 5, 2028.
Her casting was announced at the D23 Expo, a Disney fan fan event held in mid-August. The latest team of big-screen mutants also will include Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Kit Connor as Cyclops, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette as Rogue, Christopher Abbott as Professor Charles Xavier and Adam Driver as Nathaniel Milbury.
Boyd, who grew up in Ann Arbor, is a graduate of Ann Arbor’s Pioneer High School and the University of Michigan. She made her Broadway debut while she was finishing her senior
year of college.
As a young girl, Boyd, who has four sisters (including her twin), was interested in becoming a professional dancer. As she told Playbill in 2024: "That's all I did. Professional Russian classical ballet. And I was with Alvin Ailey, the San Francisco Ballet, Complexions. ... I had such a narrow idea of what I could do. I was either going to be a ballerina, or I was going to pursue something 'pragmatic and academic.'"
Instead, she chose to explore other ways of expressing her creativity by applying to U-M's Department of Musical Theatre within the School of Music, Theatre & Dance. Boyd was a standout in a program that receives around 1,500 applications for about two dozen spots, according to Caroline Helton, a professor of music in the department who was her voice coach.
“She’s one of the smartest students I’ve ever taught. She’s so thoughtful and analytical and very, very disciplined," says Helton.
U-M's nationally acclaimed Department of Musical Theatre has become a pipeline for Broadway. It has a number of well-known actors and composers among its alums. They include Detroit native Celia Keenan-Bolger, a Tony winner for "To Kill a Mockingbird" who's currently in HBO's "The Gilded Age"; the award-winning theater and film composing duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul ("La La Land," "The Greatest Showman"); and Ashley Park of Netflix's “Emily in Paris."
Boyd, who appeared in several productions during her time at U-M, including "Sophisticated Ladies," devoted herself to learning all aspects of performing in musicals. “She trained all that discipline onto her acting and singing,” says Helton. “There was never a time that I would give her an instruction that she didn’t come back with it completely internalized”
Adds Helton, “Everything she does is to learn more about the craft.
Boyd made her Broadway debut in 2023 in a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” while she was in her senior year at U-M. The acclaimed production starring Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez won four Tonys, including best musical revival.
In 2024, she moved from there to the lead role in Broadway’s “& Juliet.” Boyd replaced the star of the musical takeoff on “Romeo & Juliet,” Lorna Courtney, another U-M Musical Theatre Department alum who received a Tony nomination for her performance.
Boyd told the University of Michigan News website that she worked remotely to finish her degree on time while rehearsing for “& Juliet” at the Stephen Sondheim Theater in New York City. “One thing that I experienced with my professors is that they are incredibly supportive,” she said. “They worked with me to make school work in addition to the show. They were completely willing.”
Earlier this year, Boyd tackled her first role in a Broadway drama. She appeared alongside Taraji P. Henson, Cedric the Entertainer and Ruben Santiago-Hudson (who earned his master's degree at Detroit's Wayne State University) in a revival of August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.” The production was directed by actress and choreographer Debbie Allen.
Helton's reaction to hearing that Boyd had been cast in a major Marvel movie was, "Well, of course!" Praising Boyd for qualities like her versality, humility, joy in performing and kindness, Helton says, "It’s really nice when someone deserving gets the success that she has worked so hard for.”
The upcoming X-Men film will be the first big-screen saga about the mutant superheroes since 2019’s “Dark Phoenix” from Fox, which featured Alexandra Shipp as a young Storm, along with James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Beast and Sophie Turner as Jean Grey.
Shipp also played Storm in 2016’s “X-Men: Apocalypse” and 2018’s “Deadpool 2.”
The original big-screen Storm, Halle Berry, starred in 2000’s “X-Men,” 2003’s “X2,” 2006’s “X-Men: The Last Stand and 2014’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past.”
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ann Arbor native will play superhero Storm in next 'X-Men' movie
