This post is taken from a transcript of my Youtube video of the same name. The video can be seen at the bottom of the page.
Welcome to Multiversatile. My name is Jake Long, and with all of the excitement over the Deadpool movie bringing back Wolverine and possibly other X-men, I thought I would weigh in on a few different ways that the X-men can be officially introduced into the MCU. It was great to see Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier in Dr. Strange 2 (although I don’t like how he was so easily defeated), and I am excited of course to see Hugh Jackman come back as Wolverine, and I’ll be excited to see many others come back, but the X-men will eventually need to find their solid ground in the MCU and that is what this video is all about.
The X-men canon alone contains enough stories for its own cinematic universe so it will be fun to see what the MCU comes up with. Fox did quite a bit with it but they only barely tapped into the potential. They had a lot of ups and downs and during their last outing which wasn’t super great, they did manage to introduce the cosmic side of the X-men universe. Of course the X-men universe is truly meant to be a part of the Marvel universe so it will be nice to have them interacting with the other heroes of the MCU. But their introduction does pose a challenge so here are some ways that they can be introduced into the MCU.
X-men Assemble
So, the first way is to have them meet up for the first time to form a team. Some of them could already know each other, but they need to team up to stop a greater threat, probably Magneto. Now this could be done by starting out with an X-men movie, or with a few movies about individual members that lead up to a team up X-men movie. I’ll talk more about those options in a separate video. Either way, this direction implies that mutants have already been in the MCU (which technically they have been because of Namor and now Ms. Marvel, but anyway, this direction would mean that our favorite mutants are in the MCU and they just haven’t teamed up yet. They could team up in time to help out in Secret Wars which would be nice so that we can see them out there fighting with and/or alongside the Fox X-men Universe characters, but that could also be detrimental if we’re not ready to accept new actors such as a new Wolverine actor.
X-men and the Wolverine Collection
Anyway, though, if we have the X-men coming together for the first time, we probably won’t see the classic roster of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Archangel (Angel), and Iceman but instead probably something more similar to the X-men the Animated Series roster of Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey, Beast, Wolverine, Rogue, Gambit, and Jubilee. And maybe Colossus and Nightcrawler, and there are so many good ones, but if we get too many we might run into a similar problem as The Eternals.
Anyway, as a comic book fan, I want to see the classic roster happen first, but a more popular roster could work right off the bat, and would very likely be better. After all, I believe the MCU Guardians of the Galaxy is a different team than the original comic book team but it has worked out. However, having a different initial team up can potentially change things vastly from the comics, and there are a lot of classic X-men comics that can provide wonderful story lines for MCU projects. And to counterpoint that, X-men the Animated Series did manage to include a lot of great comic book story lines even though the series started out with an X-men team that had probably been around for nearly a decade.
This way of introducing the MCU X-men provides a reason for the X-men not helping out in any of the world ending threats that happened during the events of the Avengers movies because they simply wouldn’t have been a team yet. They didn’t have Xavier to unite them and send them on missions. Xavier would have been around and was possibly helping in secret using his telepathy to take down Ch’tauri soldiers in the attack on New York, but he didn’t have a team to send. Jean Grey would be his student but she would be too young to go and fight (although that doesn’t stop Ms Marvel and Spiderman), but anyway the other X-men are off doing their own thing during those events as well. Cyclops, and Beast would be just developing their powers like Jean if they team up later as teenagers or a little older. Wolverine could have been half way around the world a long with everyone else. There are a few other questions though. Like, what have Xavier and Magneto been doing if not gathering teams of mutants to fight each other? However, maybe there just haven’t been many mutants in the world until now.
Hidden in Plain Sight
The second way to bring the X-men into the MCU that I want to list today is for the X-men team to already be a team and to have them come out of some sort of hiding. The team could have had only a few missions, and Professor Xavier could have potentially wiped the minds of anyone knowing about these missions. Of course, if these missions caught public attention, it would get exhausting and probably very unhealthy for the Professor to wipe so many minds so many times. Strange things happen even in the world that we live in today, so Xavier could potentially cover everything up, except for possibly some big foot sightings that were actually Sabretooth or something but there needs to be a good reason for the cover up. If he truly wants humans and mutants to coexist in peace, he would realize the necessity to allow the knowledge of mutant’s existence to the world eventually. Especially since he’s not going to be around forever to wipe the slate clean.
X-men: The Hidden Years Omnibus – Hardcover
I think this can work, but it presents another similar challenge as the Eternals because we need to know why this team hasn’t been involved until now. The Eternals were told not to get involved in human affairs past defeating the Deviants, and the X-men could remain hidden until Professor Xavier gets sick or injured and his telepathy is compromised so he can’t wipe clean so many minds any more. This way definitely needs some more development, but I think it could work.
X-men MIA
Now if the X-men haven’t been hiding behind Professor X’s mega mind, they could have been lost to the world. This is the third way and there are many ways to do this. In the comics, the original 5 members of the X-men get captured on a living island known as Krakoa. Xavier recruits some new X-men including Storm, Wolverine, Thunderbird, and Sunfire to go and save them.
In the MCU the new team and the old team could get stuck there and perhaps the island of Krakoa is discovered when people go to investigate the giant Celestial that came up out of the ocean during the events of the Eternals, or Xavier somehow finds a way to telepathically contact other people for help. The island could potentially slow down their aging process allowing the X-men to have actually been around for a while, but for the story’s sake, do we really need to have them being around for a while if they haven’t been involved in any of the major MCU events? I mean, the rumor for The Fantastic 4 is that they have been trapped in the Quantum Realm. This gives them a connection to the Multiverse saga, and provides an interesting way for them to enter into the MCU.
I suppose in a similar way the X-men could have stopped Magneto during the Cuban Missile Crisis and then shortly after go to Krakoa and get trapped. If Magneto goes to the island as well, this would allow him to be involved in the story without having to go up against the X-men as a 90 something year old man. However, I have a different solution for Magneto’s age problem that you can check out here. The Savage Land (a hidden tropical land in Antarctica that has dinosaurs and other crazy things) could also be used in place of Krakoa. Having dinosaurs in the MCU would be a lot of fun, but they could always bring in the Savage Land later too I suppose.
Avengers vs X-men
Major Reboot
The fourth and final way that I have for the X-men entering the MCU is the one that I’ve seen going around the internet and that is to essentially reboot the franchise after Phase 6 when the Multiverse Saga ends. All of these ways sound fun to me, but I think I currently like this one the most, and that is because we could be able to see the X-men interacting with characters like Tony Stark Iron Man, Steve Rogers Captain America, and Natalia Romanov Black Widow. There are so many story lines in Marvel Comics that they can do a sort of reboot where many of the past events have occurred but they just played out differently and now we can move on with new stories.
Since the X-men and The Fantastic Four would be the new comers for the MCU at least, the stories can focus heavily on them, but there are a lot of crossover stories that can utilize those teams as well as the Avengers and other heroes. I’m not sure what this will mean though for characters like Iron Heart and Sam Wilson Captain America. There is definitely a place for those characters, and having two or even more Captain Americas around will be great for the Multiverse Saga, but once that is all over, having two Captain Americas around could be confusing. Of course, who knows if those original actors would come back so that is another issue to deal with. And I don’t want to take a way from Sam Wilson’s time to shine as Captain America either. I’m hoping they get him involved more in phases 5 and 6. And Iron Heart as well.
Anyway, that is all for me today. Let me know what you think about these ways to introduce the X-men into the MCU and please click that like button if you liked the video. Subscribe for more similar videos, and thanks for watching. Take care.
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