In the years following Avengers: Endgame’s release, it has been an up-and-down road for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The massive franchise still churned out several successful films and shows, but there also seemed to be just as many disappointing releases critically, commercially, or both.
The last few years saw the releases of Eternals, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and Secret Invasion, all three of which sit as three of the worst received releases in MCU history.
Despite the valley, the MCU appeared to have turn a corner with the release of Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024. The first outing in the MCU for the titular characters, which also doubled as the MCU debuts for actors Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, was generally well-received by fans and critics and also delivered at the box office. From there, the following year of releases have seen the MCU seemingly get back on track. Agatha All Along was a surprise hit on Disney+, viewers welcomed back Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio for Daredevil: Born Again, and the “one-two punch” of Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps continued the strong critical resurgence in theaters.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars will look to continue the upward trend for the MCU in theaters but a question still remains – where will the MCU go next after Secret Wars?
While Marvel Studios’ head Kevin Feige has hinted at what the next MCU saga’s narrative arc will be, he has made it clear one group will be playing a big part regardless – mutants and the X-Men.
Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2017 immediately had fans wondering how and when mutants would start making their presence known in the MCU. Despite mutants being such a central part of Marvel Comics, 20th Century Fox held a tight grip on the X-Men’s film and TV rights for years and blocked Marvel Studios from being able to use any related characters for years. The only exceptions were Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, better known as the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. The two characters had such a long association with the Avengers in the comics that Marvel Studios was able to use the characters, though they had to retcon their origins from being mutants to gaining their powers from one of the Infinity Stones.
Scarlet Witch’s origin would be reworked further in the series WandaVision, though some of the changes brought the MCU iteration closer to her modern comics counterpart.
With the acquisition’s closing in 2019, it was now “jump ball” for when audiences would get their first hint at mutants in the MCU. The first reference appeared to catch many fans by surprise as Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, was confirmed as the first mutant in the MCU. Outside of her subsequent appearance in The Marvels, mutants remained a fairly quiet topic in the MCU until Deadpool & Wolverine It didn’t waste time sending audiences into the deep end of the mutant pool, either, with the powerful mutant psychic and Charles Xavier sister, Cassandra Nova, serving as the film’s central villain. Viewers were also treated to the big screen debut of the popular X-Man Gambit, portrayed by Channing Tatum in direct reference to Fox’s planned Gambit standalone film Tatum was set to star in before it was canceled.
A willingness to lead off with a villain like Cassandra Nova hints that Marvel Studios isn’t going to have any problem digging around X-Men’s dense history. Fans could be treated to some surprise “one-off” villains for a specific film or series while saving the bigger, more widely known characters for bigger projects.
I say all this to say this one thing – sometimes the obvious choice is the right one and mutants are the right direction for the MCU. Mutants and the X-Men has such an expansive history on the comic page that Marvel Studios could make multiple MCU Sagas mutant- or X-Men-centric for years before even having to think about potential resets to the universe.
Its possible that Marvel Studios may have already planted the first seeds of what’s to come for mutantkind in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Aside from finally bringing Marvel’s First Family into the MCU, First Steps didn’t waste time in setting some big narrative gears in motion for the team in the form of Franklin Richards. He is still a small child by the film’s post-credit scene, but the scope of his powers have already been teased with him bringing his mother, Susan Storm, back to life after the Fantastic Four’s climactic battle against Galactus. Some fans have even speculated the reason the Fantastic Four’s ship appears in Thunderbolts* own post-credit scene is because of Franklin’s potentially reality-altering powers.
Franklin isn’t just an important character for the Fantastic Four, he’s important to X-Men history as well. While his roots have since been retconned, he was originally considered one of the most powerful mutants to ever be born. This would lead to him having a central role in X-Men’s Onslaught comic arc in the 90s when he is kidnapped by Onslaught, a psychic entity created during a massive battle between Professor Xavier and Magneto and is the manifestation’s of both characters’ darkest thoughts and emotions. Onslaught sought to use Franklin’s powers to reshape reality before it was stopped by the combined efforts of the X-Men, Avengers, and Fantastic Four.
But this is just one of the possible directions the MCU could go with mutants following Secret Wars and there are already rumors circulating online about where else the MCU may go with the introduction of mutants. One unconfirmed rumor suggested Mr. Sinister may be one of the first major mutant villains the MCU will have to contend with and opens the door to various other possibilities in its own right, namely the introduction of Apocalypse to the MCU due to Sinister serving Apocalypse at multiple points in the comics.
There is also Magneto, the Phoenix Force, Nate Grey, and more just waiting for Marvel Studios to dig in to and bring to theaters and streaming in the coming years.
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