Fan Concepts: Casting Kimura For a Live Action X-23 Film

I've discussed at length all the reasons why I've made my choice for X-23, but one I've barely scratched the surface on is Kimura.  She's the Sabretooth to X-23's Wolverine.  The natural opposite of her character.  Kimura is the woman with the impenetrable skin that constantly torments Laura and during X-Force v3's story Not Forgotten, swears a vendetta against X-23 to kill everyone Laura has ever known, helped, or loved.

Of course if an origin film is ever made, Kimura will need to be in it.  Her antagonistic relationship with X-23 has been there from the start as we're shown in Target X.  So a film that adapts Target X or Not Forgotten will most assuredly have to have her in it too.

So that raises the big question: Who should portray Kimura in a live action adaptation of these stories?

Personally, I've narrowed it down to three potentials that could do wonders in the role along with why.  There is no particular order to these choices.  All three present strong possibilities if cast in the role and bring their own unique talents to the character to help evoke an eerily haunting performance that would be remembered long after the film ended.

Mila Kunis

Many might remember her from her role as Jackie in That '70s Show as well as her voice work as Meg in Family Guy.  She's got that perfect rumble to her voice that would give Kimura that bite to every line as needed.  She's also got the acting capacity to display the cold disbelief and anger in a simple look.  She presents an air of a slightly older-than-X-23 Kimura as shown in the origin, and an extremely terrifying one with how well she emotes on screen.  Her previous action work in Max Payne also gives us a slight preview in how her onscreen presence could work in such a role. Her work in The Black Swan shows us just how eerily haunting her performance could be, just as her role in American Psycho 2: All American Girl reflects that she can carry the perfect kind of bite to such a portrayal. Her role as Rachel in American Psycho 2: All American Girl makes me want to lean heavily on her for Kimura outright. The line delivery she does in that film as well as the subtle irritation that can go to explosive anger and back really carries strong potential for her portrayal of Kimura.

Naya Rivera

She's been my leaning on choice for awhile now per her role in Glee as Santana.  A character, until we saw the softer sides of, was quite a high school Kimura herself.  She's portrayed the aggression onscreen that Kimura would need in this role quite routinely and even displayed the bite to the sarcasm with the lines that would need to be delivered.  She's also an avid spokesperson on helping youths deal with their troubles, and has been a quite heavy speaker on being authentic, confident, and true to yourself.  She's a young woman admired by many that constantly displays a large range in all her roles.  Kimura presents an interesting point with her involved as it displays a kind of 'what if Santana was never redeemed' type counter point.  She's definitely a strong contender for the role in my opinion as she has already well proven her capabilities for the role with her portrayal of Santana alone.

Demi Lovato

This is one I hadn't quite thought about from this perspective before.  I'd mentioned her before as a contender for Megan Kinney, but the thought of Kimura didn't really cross my mind at first.  She presents interesting concepts to the role though.  Herself having been through many of the topics the X-23 story entails, she makes for the perfect spokesperson on those outright.  She has a natural capacity to roar at life and carries that to the screen well in all her roles, yet she can also display it in a more subdued fashion too.  She could be an advocate of hope off screen that can help with promotion and discussion of the topics that could arise from this film.  Plus she's already a hero to many not being afraid to stand up to even Disney themselves when they make poor choices in humor aimed at various disorders, and she's already well proven herself on her range from the various shows and movies she's been in as I'm sure we'll see again with her upcoming role on Glee.  Between how quickly she's shown she can go from a playful smile to full on roar, she is definitely an actress that could make the character quite hauntingly scary as needed.   This isn't anything anywhere near any kind of role that she's done before whatsoever as yet, but is also one that could be quite fun to add to her resume.  It gives her a chance to show off her full acting range and capabilities with how varied and immediate she can emote onscreen.

I've disregarded the age aspect as that could also be negated by a simple one line admission that Kimura's impenetrable skin as given to her by the Facility could have halted the aging process.  So as a story point, the age factor is moot so long as the onscreen presence with the flippant unbridled abusive hatred Kimura carries can be emoted.  So all three of these women could do wonders in the role.  I'm not sure if any others could quite carry this character as they could.(Besides one of the original contenders for the role of X-23 herself!  KP may be diving into that potential someday!)  They all bring their own unique attributes and style to the delivery of the character that would work quite magnificently onscreen.

Who would you pick to portray Kimura if a live action film were to happen?  Let us know in the comments!