Vanessa Kirby Wants To Play Evil Invisible Woman, Malice, In The MCU

Vanessa Kirby already has her sights set on playing an evil Invisible Woman (better known as Malice) in a future MCU project. Kirby is about to make her Marvel Studios debut as Sue Storm, leading Marvel’s First Family in the studio‘s 37th movie, The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Looking ahead, she is visualizing paths her character could take as the story evolves.

Vanessa Kirby spoke about aspects of Sue Storm that she would like to explore in future MCU projects featuring the Fantastic Four. Marvel Studios is taking steps to differentiate Kirby’s version of Sue, having her give birth to Franklin Richards on screen for the first time. However, outside of Sue taking on motherhood, Kirby has her hopes up to dive even further into Sue's comic history.

Speaking with Josh Horowitz on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, Kirby discussed the Malice version of Sue Storm, saying how it's "a part of her" that makes the actress "so happy." She discussed the team members getting their powers and deciding "to do different things with their powers as a family" after the accident in the MCU movie, with Sue creating the Future Foundation as a result:

"Oh, it’s Malice, definitely Malice. I just love that that’s a part of her. It just makes me so happy. It makes me so happy because she is…I try to understand, right? They all come back from this accident, and they all decided to do different things with their powers as a family, right? And Reed goes heavy into massive scientific and technological advancement. You know, I think he feels guilty for what happened, and he is trying to improve the world in that way. And Sue creates this Future Foundation, which, literally, she goes around to every county leader, as mentioned at the beginning of the movie, and she gets them to disarm and to get rid of all their armies, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that is the hardest thing that anyone could try and persuade our current world to do. And so, I thought she must have a really, such a high emotional intelligence to be able to do that. And she’s made a choice, right?" 

For her character, Kirby relies on the idea of Sue being so powerful that she could "give [someone] an aneurysm in a second" if they cross her the wrong way but chooses not to, even with characters as powerful as Doctor Doom:

"There was one line, I don’t think it was in the film, where she says, there was one line at one point she says to Mole Man, ‘If you’re not careful, I could give you an aneurysm in a second. And that was so useful for me, that was a real touchstone, because it’s true. She could put a forcefield, and there’s lots of images of her in the comics doing it to Doom and her doing it to all these enemies where she threatens to do it, because she can, but she chooses not to. And it’s someone that chooses not to, but still could."

For Malice specifically, Kirby calls it "a part of her that needs to come out" and "be expressed," even while committed to serving her world as a leader. Teasing that the Fantastic Four leader "also has a shadow side," she looks at how Sue grows into a woman through this during her run in the comics:

"I always love Malice because it’s almost like a part of her that needs to come out, to be expressed, that, while she is committed to being altruistic and being a leader and doing good in the world, she also has a shadow side, like we all do, which has to come out in order for her then, in the comics, to become Invisible Woman. She renames herself from Invisible Girl. So she becomes a woman by going through a dark time, and I always loved that journey. I thought it felt very true."

In the comics, Malice is a manifestation of Sue Storm's inverted emotions, caused by the supervillain Psycho-Man after Sue tragically miscarried during her second pregnancy. Using her vulnerable state and his Hate-Monger android, he twisted her love for Reed and her family into murderous rage, leading Reed to have to treat her horribly for her to love him again.

Kirby stars alongside Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach in Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the MCU's first Phase 6 movie. Leading the team four years into their operations, Sue and co. are faced with the threat of their world being destroyed after the Silver Surfer heralds the arrival of Galactus. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is playing in theaters.

Will Malice Manifest in the MCU After The Fantastic Four?

Through the first four live-action Fantastic Four movies, Malice has never been adapted for the big screen, leaving one of Sue's darkest stories from the comics still on the table. There could be a chance for this storyline to be adapted at some point after the Multiverse Saga ends.

Sue's next chapter will come in 2026's Avengers: Doomsday, where the Fantastic Four will finally team up with the Avengers as they fight Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom. Considering this will likely bring together the biggest cast of actors in any MCU movie to date, Sue will almost assuredly keep her good-hearted nature as she learns to work with so many new heroes.

Additionally, it is still unclear whether Sue and Reed will try to have their second child after Franklin Richards makes his live-action debut in The Fantastic Four. With the duo expected to be in another universe and team up with new heroes soon, it is difficult to predict whether they will be in a place where a second pregnancy is possible.