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4 Ways the Mutants Can be Introduced to the MCU


Credit: Marvel Studios, Marvel Comics,

 

Marvel fans never thought they would get here, but we now live in a world where Marvel Studios has control of former Fox properties Fantastic Four and X-Men. Though it looks like there are plans to introduce the Fantastic Four first, everyone is excited to see what can be done with the X-Men in the MCU.

If anything, the X-Men kind of live in their own world, and the introduction of whole mutant conflict in the established MCU would no doubt cause a major shake-up in the canon.  With thousands of Marvel fans being obsessed over details and rules or world-building, Marvel Studios has now been granted the impossible task of introducing mutants into the world in a way that makes sense.

With the Marvel writers still butting heads on how they’re going to pull that off, I’ve decided to compile a list of 4 ways that they can introduce mutants into the MCU that would make sense canonically.

  1. The Mutants Have Been There All Along

    The first solution is probably the laziest, but it’s definitely the simplest. Marvel can just say that mutants have existed in the MCU this whole time, and we just haven’t heard about them before.

    From the get-go, you can already see there are a lot of problems when it comes to this approach. For one, the issue with mutants has always been societal, and the clash with mutants and humans have always been huge. With no mention of mutants in the past 23 movies, it just doesn’t seem realistic that mutants have been there for a long time.

     

     

    Then again, maybe they can say that the mutants are only getting attention now since more of them are starting to surface. I think they can write in a line which says the mutant issue has been largely ignored thanks to the over-the-top antics of the Avengers. I mean, if Wakanda can exist this whole time, only being introduced in Phase 3, then maybe they can do the same with the mutants.

    Again, it’s not the most clever solution, but it’s definitely the simplest.

  2. The Deadpool Movies Already Take Place in the MCU

    If there’s one character that should be salvaged from the Marvel Fox Universe, it’s definitely Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool. With a lot of hope for Reynolds to be brought into the MCU soon, they could very well use the Deadpool movies to establish the mutants in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

    After all, mutants are all over the DP films already, and their connection with the main Fox timeline is kind of blurry. If Marvel doesn’t want to spend all this work re-establishing mutants into their world, the world of Deadpool already gives us the X-Mansion as well as the superhuman prison, The Ice Box. They even have an anti-mutant squad already established with the DMC/Department of Mutant Control.

     

     

    When it comes to the cons of this method, it doesn’t allow Marvel Studios the freedom to really come up with a fresh take on the mutants. There’s also still the question of why SHIELD or the Avengers haven’t been talking about mutants this whole time. Probably the best thing about this move would be the immediate canonization of Deadpool, as well as the fast establishment of mutants into the world without having to explain too much.

  3. Doctor Strange and the Multi-Verse of Madness

    The best thing about establishing a multi-verse in the canon is that it’s able to justify several versions of the same character. Sony had gone ahead with the concept with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and DC has low-key established it with the recent release of Joker. With the next Doctor Strange movie outright dealing with the concept of a multi-verse, then this would be the perfect time to do some reality-bending and bring us to an alternate MCU where mutants have existed this whole time.

    The great thing about this concept is that we’re able to integrate mutants into MCU history with a clear explanation, and we don’t have to fuss about why they haven’t been mentioned in past movies. Maybe we can have mutant characters inserted in previously known stories already; like Logan fighting side-by-side with Captain America or Hank McCoy having worked with Tony Stark or Hank Pym.

     

     

    I admit, it’s a very risky move having to alter the canon of the past 23 movies, but I prefer this way as compared to erasing them outright like what happened with Days of Future Past. Besides that, the inclusion of mutants in the established history could very well lay grounds for why society hates them so much. What if the rest of the world remembers life without mutants, and now that they’re there canon and causing all kinds of mischief, they want them out?

    What if the mutants all came from a failed reality where they have all been hunted down by sentinels, and Doctor Strange takes it up to himself to help them escape to his universe?

    It’s not the cleanest concept right now, but with a bit of polishing from the scribes at Marvel Studios, I think they could come up with a story that makes sense.

  4. Scarlet Witch/House of M

    [WARNING: SPOILERS FOR HOUSE OF M]

    Though Scarlet Witch has basically been degraded to just moving stuff with her mind, we’re going to be exploring more of her reality-altering powers with the upcoming show WandaVision. We don’t really know where the series is going to be when it ends, but it could very well lay the grounds for Wanda Maximoff bringing mutants into existence.

    In the classic comic House of M, Wanda had altered the world so that everyone had ‘gotten what they wanted’ and mutants had become the dominant race with humans living inferior lives. By the end of that comic though, [SPOILER ALERT] Wanda has decided to use her powers to erase mutants from existence, taking away all their abilities [END SPOILER].

    My proposal is that Marvel Studios try to reverse the House of M storyline; rather than have Wanda erase mutants, she will be the one to will them into existence—hence becoming the ‘mother’ of mutants in the MCU.

     

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    The groundwork could be laid in WandaVision and explored further with Doctor Strange and the Multi-Verse of Madness. Then we can follow a full-blown House of M storyline for the next Avengers movie, with Wanda Maximoff acting as the unsuspecting villain. By the end of it, mutants will have existed in a whole new reality that has been altered by the Scarlet Witch. There will be no consistencies to break since Wanda will have broken them all with her powers.

     

     

    This is also just an extra idea, but since Wanda is also using her powers to alleviate her grief, it would make sense that she would bring back more people than just Vision. She could bring back her brother Quicksilver, or more—her dead father Erik Lehnsherr a.k.a. Magneto.

    In my opinion, this is the cleanest way to introduce the mutants, and it would also very well give the audience a version of the Scarlet Witch who is as powerful as she is in the comics.

    We don’t know what Marvel has up their sleeve right now, but I’m hoping it’s something close to my theory. Then again, I’m not a professional screenwriter, so I would be very open to the guys at Marvel coming up with an idea that’s ultimately better.

    We have no idea when the mutants will come to the MCU, but hopefully, we can get them by the time Marvel Phase 5 comes around.

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