With the Fox and Disney merger pretty much a done deal, even though it won’t be finalized until next summer. Fans are now speculating how they’ll try to introduce the X-Men and mutants in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, despite not having them in over twenty films.
Well, there is a really interesting theory from ComicsExplained about how the comics could see The Eternals film directly giving audiences a real origin for the mutant gene and possibly the X-Men [Namor as well, as he’s the first official mutant].
Basically, explaining how aliens [I’m thinking either The Kree or Celesistals] tinkering with early man to develop Eternals, Deviants, and Humans, with the latter having hidden mutant genes built into their DNA which could later be brought out thousands or millions of years later.
Another theory making the rounds has been that the Quantum Realm introduced in Ant-Man and The Wasp could help unleash mutant powers in the human population. Some are suggesting that Janet and Ghost are possibly mutants as the Quantum Realm/Energy has given them powers.
The main X-Men character said to be a priority for the studio at the moment is Wolverine, which isn’t surprising due to being an Avenger, not unlike Spider-Man.
Here’s what the Russo Brothers had to say about using him in the future teasing him for Secret Wars.
“Hopefully they’re about to get their hands on a few of them. Listen, my second favorite character growing up, and one of my prized possessions in my comic book collection is Incredible Hulk #181, which of course is the first appearance of Wolverine. I feel like the mission of the Marvel Universe is to keep expanding and surprising people. Surprise them with casting choices, surprise them with story choices. If we’re moving into this world of crossover events, certainly that affords opportunity for other large-scale stories from the books like Secret Wars — which was another favorite comic of mine as a kid.”
“There’s big potential moving forward if the Fox/Disney deal closes.”
With talk that Deadpool might be joining the MCU, things established in those movies we think that could transfer over the MCU and might actually connect to things already established concerning mutant characters.
One of the key things from Deadpool is that there is indeed a process that mutants can be created in a lab, like how Wade becomes Deadpool in the brutal Workshop. Where mutants are created on a regular basis through gene therapy and then sold-off to buyers when they develop powers that can be weaponized.
There is a good chance that Wolverine during his Weapon X days [WWII or Cold-War era] is another government created black ops agent and possibly got his healing factor from a similar process that Wade underwent, minus the horrible scars.
Ant-Man and The Wasp clearly establishes that there are plenty of SHIELD secrets that haven’t been revealed to audiences and Wolverine being another secret super-soldier experiment could very well be how he’s added to the universe. Let’s be honest, Fox really never gave Wolverine a proper origin story and Marvel has a chance to dig a bit deeper to explore his military history including WWII and taking a better crack his black ops days.
Deadpool isn’t the only film that suggests mutants can be created.
The two mutants that Marvel Studios has been able to use were Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, and how was their mutant properties revealed in Avengers: Age of Ultron? A HYDRA experiment using an infinity stone [already hints to a cosmic origin] to grant them powers while many others died. Even though they’re not called mutants in those movies, they could easily be retconned to be called that in future films now. Some have also also suggested Scarlet Witch could use her powers to bring mutants into existence by simply altering reality.
It’s possible the Celestials used the infinity stones to tinker with humans creating mutants with them, as the Guardians of The Galaxy establishes them using the stones.
Explaining Logan’s absence from previous films wouldn’t be terribly difficult when he’s usually hiding out in a rural part of the world at any given time and that the MCU is only ten years, which is a tiny amount of time for Logan to be off doing his own thing as he could easily not have been part of the X-Men during this whole time.
Only time will tell what how Marvel Studios will officially tackle mutants.