The future of the X-Men on the big screen

[Killerbee911]

I don't see an issue with adding mutants to the MCU the Avengers, FF, Spider-Man, and Dr. Strange all predated the X-Men in the actual Marvel Universe.

In the Marvel Universe for centuries the mutant population was extremely small like only a handful at a time so most lived in the shadows either thinking they were unique or knowing there weren't enough mutants to fight back if persecuted. It wasn't until around the time of the formation of the X-Men that the mutant population blew up and the general public went from thinking mutants were the occasional "freak" to a race and possibly next step in human evolution. I don't see why this wouldn't work for the MCU and I mean heck they could use the snap as a reason saying that some of the people returned had a dormant X-Gene activated by their return.

I agree with this the Ultimate X-men stuff put a pretty good guideline for mutants in modern era ,Only handful of Mutants like Apocalypse, Wolverine, Selene, Namor, Magneto, Professor X,Mystique and couple other need deeper explaining. Otherwise it is just explaining why mutant population suddenly is expanding/exploding over 20 to 30 year period which isn't real that hard. Almost no old history of the X-men is "needed" in the late 80s and 90s mutant population exploded(but still low enough to not be noticed as big thing plus other superhuman are going in world as well) and today this year the X-men are coming out of shadows. It is simple as that.

Before 70's only a couple in world
70's like 10 or 20
80's like 50 or 60(Magneto and Professor X discover they are mutants)
90's like 100
Early 2000's like 500 (mutant phenomenon announced to world)
today 1,000 and growing(X-men and Magneto revealed themselves to the world)

Every X-men story that is need to be told will happen from now on. Like the Ultimate X-men you are adapting old X-men stories to fit the modern era. Changes that have to made Magneto isn't Holocaust survivor but his parents were he gets tattoo like their own as symbol never to forget what happened and I can't think of anything else really. Why didn't we see mutants in the MCU before? They weren't really that much then. Why are mutants something to fear? Because every generation of mutants seem to get stronger than the next. The longer mutants are around more likely one turns into a ticking time bomb and destroy the world. That is what makes them different from Spiderman or Captain America. I think that is how I would do it.

[Kurolegacy]

Heck there’s even the prospect of combining established information such as that the Infinity Stones can result in the empowerment of others with things like how in the Ultimate Universe, mutantkind was created in an attempt to recreate Captain America. The tesseract was in the hands of SHIELD and Project Pegasus for decades all while Hydra was secretly a part of SHIELD. In fact, Hydra held the tesseract for who knows how long before Captain America. Who’s to say that they didn’t run experiments on innocent people in secret to test the limits of what it was capable of, possibly creating the X-gene in the process?

[Grey]

I think most people can agree that the angle of mutants somehow being created or developed or whatever is easily possible within the existing mcu canon.

The issue is some folks feel that being created/developed/a result of something is fundamentally against them being “born that way.”

It’s a difficult line to toe. Disney has proven capable of fitting new canon into existing, so I have no doubts they will handle it well regardless of which route they decide to go. I personally do think being born as mutants is a critical piece of xmen lore- but I’m open to other interpretations as I’m more of a realistic than an idealist.

Edited to add: perhaps the best compromise would be to make the x-gene having always been present in some humans but some outside factor (the results of endgame, human experimentation, or something else) is the trigger for them to begin activating.

[Snoop Dogg]

In the last act of Endgame, Ant-Man goes into Thanos' pants and finds the X-Mansion.

[Grey]

In the last act of Endgame, Ant-Man goes into Thanos' pants and finds the X-Mansion.

Maybe you’re not that far off:

D0289D23-7689-446D-9A85-9AFF29A32582.jpg

[Kurolegacy]

In the last act of Endgame, Ant-Man goes into Thanos' pants and finds the X-Mansion.

And suddenly Thanos felt a great expansion inside his pants... No not like that you sick freaks.

[MarvelMaster616]

I think most people can agree that the angle of mutants somehow being created or developed or whatever is easily possible within the existing mcu canon.

The issue is some folks feel that being created/developed/a result of something is fundamentally against them being “born that way.”

It’s a difficult line to toe. Disney has proven capable of fitting new canon into existing, so I have no doubts they will handle it well regardless of which route they decide to go. I personally do think being born as mutants is a critical piece of xmen lore- but I’m open to other interpretations as I’m more of a realistic than an idealist.

Edited to add: perhaps the best compromise would be to make the x-gene having always been present in some humans but some outside factor (the results of endgame, human experimentation, or something else) is the trigger for them to begin activating.

That is a major concern, especially if mutants are still going to be a metaphor for minorities. Them just being genetically altered science experiments, like they were in Ultimate, essentially makes them no different than the Inhumans. And that's a problem because it means mutants were never "born that way." They were made that way by artificial means. That sends the message that being a minority is somehow a failure of science or nature, which sends a terrible message.

I have a feeling the upcoming Eternals movie will set the stage. In the comics, the Celestials created the Eternals at the same time they laid the foundation for mutants. They didn't create them like the Kree created the Inhumans. They tweaked the entire human genome so that technically, mutants are still born that way. It's just a matter of humans having their evolution guided by an outside force. Perhaps the Eternals movie will hint at that, but we've seen the MCU tweak details before. Chances are they'll try to do something different this time.

[Kurolegacy]

That is a major concern, especially if mutants are still going to be a metaphor for minorities. Them just being genetically altered science experiments, like they were in Ultimate, essentially makes them no different than the Inhumans. And that's a problem because it means mutants were never "born that way." They were made that way by artificial means. That sends the message that being a minority is somehow a failure of science or nature, which sends a terrible message.

I have a feeling the upcoming Eternals movie will set the stage. In the comics, the Celestials created the Eternals at the same time they laid the foundation for mutants. They didn't create them like the Kree created the Inhumans. They tweaked the entire human genome so that technically, mutants are still born that way. It's just a matter of humans having their evolution guided by an outside force. Perhaps the Eternals movie will hint at that, but we've seen the MCU tweak details before. Chances are they'll try to do something different this time.

To it’s credit, the Ultimate Universe only simplified the creation of mutantkind changing it from Celestials having created them to humans. Beyond that point, the X-gene did become a naturally occurring thing as shown by just how many mutants existed despite Wolverine having been patient zero basically. So at that point, it’s kinda akin to hybridization.

[Sutekh]

To it’s credit, the Ultimate Universe only simplified the creation of mutantkind changing it from Celestials having created them to humans. Beyond that point, the X-gene did become a naturally occurring thing as shown by just how many mutants existed despite Wolverine having been patient zero basically. So at that point, it’s kinda akin to hybridization.

for the comics, I prefer the Celestials origin, because it allows one to go way back and show mutants during WW2, or even way, way earlier, before some government weapons program developed the technology. (Also allows for more racial / cultural diversity, as the mutant gene can be spread way beyond inhabitants of whichever countries military developed said tech.)

For the MCU? An Infinity Stone based 'mutant origin' is fine. Handles the diversity angle, and there aren't likely to be a ton of period set films set in WW2 or whatever coming up anyway (and the Time Stone makes it possible for whatever Infinity Stone based origin to affect a few people in the distant past anyway, if they really want to introduce really old mutants like Selene or Apocalypse).

[CRaymond]

Not only would I prefer mutantkind to not be the result of wonky Infinity Stones, but I think the MCU needs to get beyond the primacy of the Infinity Stones.

I can see Celestials being brought in as a potential reason, what with Ego, Knowhere, Vibranium, and Eternals, all being introduced, but even that I think is way too much.

I think the mutants work best just above street level. Stretching their origin to cosmic heights kills a lot of the mystery, uncertainty, and ambiguity of the threat posed by wild mutations.

[BishopsJuice91]

Not only would I prefer mutantkind to not be the result of wonky Infinity Stones, but I think the MCU needs to get beyond the primacy of the Infinity Stones.

I can see Celestials being brought in as a potential reason, what with Ego, Knowhere, Vibranium, and Eternals, all being introduced, but even that I think is way too much.

I think the mutants work best just above street level. Stretching their origin to cosmic heights kills a lot of the mystery, uncertainty, and ambiguity of the threat posed by wild mutations.

I totally agree with this, the infinity stone trope is old now and should stay in the confines of the avengers. Mutants should be what they’ve always been, a natural occurrence, the next step in evolution. The X gene should be shown to have always been around in some way shape or form...

[CRaymond]

I totally agree with this, the infinity stone trope is old now and should stay in the confines of the avengers. Mutants should be what they’ve always been, a natural occurrence, the next step in evolution. The X gene should be shown to have always been around in some way shape or form...

In the past I'd advocated for Mutants being a random, "naturally occurring" expression of Inhumanity. With S.H.I.E.L.D.'s focus on the descendants of Inhumans being hidden all over the globe, it would make sense that "mutant" Inhumans popping up everywhere on the globe without a Terrigenesis trigger could be a reason for national panic.

I'm not sure that's the best solution anymore, but I still like it. If we acknowledge the MCU's cross-breeding of Hydra & SHIELD's science, it makes sense that some MCU billionaires would have proprietary Inhuman(mutant)-tracking technologies that could be turned into MCU Sentinels and MCU Cerebro. The Trasks could be Hydra/Hellfire members, for instance.

[MarvelMaster616]

In my opinion, I think the best way to explain the absence of mutants in the MCU to date is to use the same approach that X-Men Evolution used. In the first couple seasons of that show, mutants were secret and kept hidden. It wasn't due to manipulations from Charles Xavier. They were just rumors discounted as tabloid fodder. While the show didn't explain how mutants stayed hidden for so long, perhaps there was some big House of M style event that wiped memory of mutants from every mind on Earth, possibly using a device similar to the one we saw in X2. After the events of Endgame, some of those latent memories return and the X-Men emerge from hiding. I think that would work, regardless of their origins.

[CRaymond]

They were just rumors discounted as tabloid fodder.

Yep. SO FEW that no one could've or would've believed it. But now, after significant population booms of the 20th century, the reveals of superhumans like the Avengers, Inhumans, aliens and such, people put the clues together... so X-Men choose to get in front of the hysteria. It fits KB's decade jumps.

I'd STILL like the Phoenix to be a past event though, so we get a traumatized X-Men roster with Storm leading.

[U.N. Owen]

Just show a scene where the Celestials rain down on Earth to create their pet projects. Then you can say the x-gene activated later than it should have compared to their Eternal and Deviant sister species, resulting in the mutants.