As if millennials aren’t inundated with enough nostalgia franchises, Spy Kids: Armageddon is the next one on the way to make us feel like we’re in the early 2000s in our best JNCO jeans. However, with star Gina Rodriguez potentially being reframed as an action-adventure actress with the reboot, could this mean her DCU or MCU debut is an inevitability?
The Golden Globe-winning Rodriguez is best known for her role in The CW’s Jane the Virgin. However, she has starred in a number of respectable films and TV series outside of that, such as 2018’s cerebral sci-fi flick Annihilation and 2016’s Deepwater Horizon. If those films were the first hints at the actress’ action star destiny, perhaps the Robert Rodriquez-directed Spy Kids reboot will be the final catalyst to launch her to superhero glory. In fact, it is the type of role Rodriguez herself has said she’d love to try (via E! News):
“I would love to be a superhero—that’s all I want to do is play a superhero […] And let’s be real, I could kick some [butt]. We all know I could kick some [butt].”
That interview was way back in 2015, and yet Rodriguez’s star has only continued to shine, as her involvement in Armageddon surely indicates. As our sister site, The Mary Sue, has pointed out, Rodriguez even came up with her own pitch for the setting of a superhero movie she would love to be involved in, taking place in medieval times in pre-colonial South America. As she explained in response to a question about superheroes during the red-carpet premiere of Annihilation:
“I think it would be about Christopher Columbus coming over, the migration of the Spaniards, and the influence of the mixes [of people] in South America and in the Caribbean. That’s were my superhero movies would lay, like the 1400 or 1500s.”
In retrospect, it honestly hits that same flavor of a superhuman dealing with the effects of colonization that we saw with the origin of Tenoch Huerta’s Namor character from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. If anything, that just goes to show how ahead of the curve Rodriguez truly was, considering her remarks were from 2018.
In terms of female Latinx characters she could potentially play in the MCU, that could easily come in the form of one of Professor Xavier’s newest disciples, Tempest, a character that sports insect wings and spits acid. She could also play Spider-Girl, White Tiger, or the healer and force field-wielder Dr. Cecilia Reyes, among many other options listed on Marvel’s website.
In the world of DC, some potential heroes she could play that emphasize her Hispanic heritage include the feline-like mutant Wildcat, the helmet-wielding Aztek, and seasoned police detective Renee Montoya of Batman: The Animated Series fame, as CBR pointed out. Let’s not forget one of the most powerful heroes of all that she could portray: a Green Lantern herself named Jessica Cruz.
In the meantime, we can enjoy seeing Rodriguez in Spy Kids: Armageddon on Netflix on Sept. 22.