stephanie beatriz america chavez

Obviously with the Marvel Cinematic Universe dominating the box office the way it does, this is a sweet gig for any actor.  A hefty paycheck, a recurring role in sequels and other spin-offs and nine times out of ten, you get your own action figure!  But sometimes it means more than that and that may be the reason why ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ star Stephanie Beatriz wants to play Marvel’s America Chavez.

Stephanie Beatriz
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Beatriz is of Colombian and Bolivian descent and was born in Argentina.  Though she is best known for playing Officer Rosa Diaz on the sitcom ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’, she made her feature film debut in the taught indie drama ‘The Light of the Moon’ this year, indicating that she is interested in and capable of tackling weightier subject matters.

America Chavez, a Latina character created by Joe Casey and Nick Dragotta (NOT Otto Binder and Al Gabriele as has been reported elsewhere), first appeared in 2011 and went on to co-star in ‘Young Avengers’, ‘A-Force’ and ‘The Ultimates’ before receiving her own comic series this year.  America was born of two mothers as a blinding flash of light, in the Utopian Parallel.  After time spent travelling through dimensions, she settles in the 616-universe where she has functioned as a member of several teams.  While she had a romantic involvement with male hero Ultimate Nullifier, she later chalks that up to experimentation and reveals she is strictly a lesbian.

Beatriz earlier expressed a desire to portray America in a film, with a script by Gabby Rivera, the writer of the ongoing ‘America’ comic book.  Beatriz even dressed up as the super hero for Halloween, complete with star tee shirt and red, white and blue jean jacket:

She has since posted an additional message to reinforce her desire for the role, showing her posing similarly to the comic book character:

A post shared by Stephanie Beatriz (@iamstephbeatz) on

In response to the first Halloween image, Marvel Entertainment replied, “She is beauty, she is grace… #nailedit.”

Since America Chavez is a newer, younger character, it’s unclear how she could fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Upcoming stars like ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Captain Marvel’ have been around for decades in the comics and are just now getting their films.  But with the TV shows, more recent creations, like Hulu’s ‘Runaways’ are getting their shot at exposure.  So maybe she could go that route.

Miss America, Marvel’s first female headliner.

America Chavez has super strength and invulnerability.  She can fly at close to light speed, kick open holes in reality and generates star-shape bursts of energy when she throws a punch.  In a way, she is a modernized version of the character Miss America, who first appeared in 1944.  (This is the character created by Binder and Gabriele.)  But it has also been indicated that Chavez chose the name Miss America at random and wasn’t actually familiar with the Golden Age character.  Nowadays, she’s lost the “Miss” anyway and just goes by her real name.

In a possible future, she operates as Captain America.  With Chris Evans possibly hanging up the shield for good in the movies, there could be an opening.  Of course, America would have to go through Bucky and Falcon first.

Speaking of fighting for a role, in March, ‘Jane the Virgin’ star Gina Rodriguez also announced she wanted a crack at playing America Chavez.  For a character that doesn’t actually have an outside media project in the works (that we know of), America has some pretty big names lobbying to play her.

Would you like to see America Chavez brought to life?  Should she star in her own movie, a Netflix series or a series on network TV?

Source: Comic Book Resources