My idea for how to bring mutants to the MCU

[Hybrid]

Make the Snap from the Infinity Gauntlet the MCU equivalent of the Atom. This is the massive super-empowering event that awakens the dormant mutant genes around the world. It's also believable, because the Infinity Gauntlet and the Stones have all this power, and they emit some kind of special radiation with each Snap. I think the audience could readily accept that as how mutants started showing up and ties into the established continuity.

However, some mutants could exist beforehand -- as random genetic offshoots so rare that they went unnoticed. These could include Xavier, Magneto, Mystique, Wolverine, Selene, Destiny, Jonas Graymalkin, and so on. You could also retcon Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch as being mutants, who had the dormant genes that enabled them survive the process that gave them their powers (they were miracles, after all). If you want to go even further, make them Magneto's kids, and their parents that "died" were merely adopted with them not knowing.

But the Snap, which I see as the MCU equivalent of the Atom, activated said genes on a massive scale. It takes several years for all of it to take effect, but it does, and then you have the people who see them as unnatural. The Snap is an event that is considered the worst in the history of the Earth (for good reason), and that kind of stigma could extend to people who gained powers from it, as if they were demons or something.

You have bullies picking on these kids, which causes destruction worldwide. Mutant criminals show up, causing more chaos. Magneto then makes his presence known and forms the Brotherhood and orchestrates terrorist attacks in the name of mutantkind, further increasing the stigma. The fact that superpowered beings exist in such in a large quantity and can't be accounted for, creating fear and paranoia and it becomes an issue in all the news and the world's governments.

"It's 2028. Do you know what your children are?"
-- Paid for by citizens in support of the Mutant Registration Act.

Xavier then comes public, forms his school in Westchester, and the X-Men to give mutants a home and tries to bridge the gap between mutant and human, and establish that these abilities can be used for good just like the other heroes. Which is good, because the world is never going to be the same.

What do you think?

[AbnormallyNormal]

It could work, I've also heard others come up with this concept a long time ago (when IW first came out). I don't love it but I understand the thinking.

My main issue is it messes the chronology of mutants in the MU badly because it makes their existence a brand new thing so you'd have to go into the future to have established mutants who are adjusted to their abilities, or the existence of separate mutant cultures like the Morlocks and so on.

I also think it'd be more compelling storytelling to have a slow break between Xavier and Erik or other things like that instead of having them all show up in full costuming and team names going at each other, that's a little... eh for me

[CRaymond]

I think the Marvel Cinematic Universe needs a break from the consequences of the Snapture. The 5 year gap is so mind-boggling weird I'm shocked they decided to go with it as the status quo.

I'd prefer mutants to be something that slipped between the gaps, ACTUAL secret agent strikeforces, who choose to wear yellow spandex only recently.

[teapartyofthedead]

In combination with the Eternals movie, it could work. The theory goes that it will show mutants as the results of Celestial engineering leading into the snap awakening the latent genetics of modern humans who then manifest mutant abilities. Pietro and Wanda were the only ones to survive the Hydra experiments because they were the only mutants among the test subjects. Magda or Magneto place the twins with the Maximoffs. It could absolutely work.

Of course, you can have anomalies like Magneto and Xavier, Selene, Wolverine, Mystique and Destiny. The rare handful out of billions that manifested mutant abilities pre-snap. Perhaps they weren’t as strong as before the snap and now it’s fully unleashed their potential (compare the early first appearance of their powers in the comics to what they can do now).

[Jackraow21]

Feels very 90s in approach. Not that that’s a bad thing, as I think for folks who grew up with the X-men cartoon and whatnot it will feel very familiar. But it also runs the risk of feeling like already tread ground. Say what you will about the FOX films (i.e., they were too grounded, too boring, too much focus on a handful of characters to the detriment of the other X-men, etc.), but that whole Xavier’s School aesthetic was done very well. The hated and feared outcasts aspect was handled well too in X2 and even X3, which wasn’t a great film but covered that topic.

So while I do think it’s a safe approach that weaves the mutants into the MCU using “The Snap,” it’s also not very fresh. That’s why I’d much prefer to see them hit the ground running with the HoX/PoX/DoX concept, while making reference to their past operating out of the school via dialogue and flashbacks. It would immediately feel very different from the FOX-men films while staying true to the X-men at their core and paying homage to their long history in the comics.

Start with the original mission to Krakoa to rescue the O5 by the ANAD X-men, then jump to present day with Jean leading some students through a Krakoan portal at the Xavier School to their new home on the island. She talks about how they operated out of that school for years in secret, until now. Now they need to move to their new home on the island to keep mutants safe because the threats seem to be growing by the day. Also, we get the Illuminati because at some point it is revealed that Xavier worked with that group (Stark, Strange, Richards, Namor, etc.) to keep the existence of mutants from the world as long as they could. But now the cat’s out of the bag and the announcement of the Krakoan nation state is their coming out party. This obviously upsets some of the remaining members of the Illuminati, who let Xavier know this in some scene. He’s basically like “duly noted” and proceeds anyway.

Something like would make for a great and fresh MCU setup IMO. I understand why traditionalists might not like it. But I see a billion dollar franchise on its own with that, easily. It might be a billion dollar franchise regardless, even with the old set up. My only point being, even if the purists don’t like it, I guarantee you most of them will see it and, if done well, ultimately embrace it. I know the mainstream audiences would, as they’ve gobbled up everything Feige has done. Even stuff like Guardians that people thought would flop.

[H-E-D]

I've seen this idea, like, all over the place.


Honestly, I don't want them to explain mutants. Just have them show up, it'll be fine.

[Michael Watkins]

if i had any input on the process, i would suggest using Nightcrawler as the focus character; much in the same way that Rogue (ignoring the Wolverine stuff for a second) was the central figure of the original Fox movie. because it was a movie with no superhuman presence, it made sense to use someone like Rogue who occupied the space between mutants who easily pass for human and obvious mutants. she was human looking but was unable to touch people. this time around, they are working the mutant concept into a world already populated with extraterrestrials and superhumans. Kurt is visually a mutant and that makes him a minority within a minority. he's also relatively sympathetic as someone who has retained faith and love of life despite being discarded at birth. i think it would be helpful to the audience to see things through his eyes. he best represents "good" mutants because all he wants is acceptance/for people to look past their own fear to see his inner light. in the current political climate, you could also play up how Kurt is just as dissimilar from the prettier mutants as he is humans. he's the Spider-man of the group.

[Jackraow21]

Use the Illuminati here.

- Have a flashback to right after the founding of the Avengers which reveals that Xavier, Stark, Strange, Nick Fury and Namora (let’s add a woman to the boy’s club and hold off on introducing Namor for now; instead Namora serves as his advisor on this council) were responsible for hiding the existence of mutants from the world at large. You might also throw in a member of the Externals on the Illuminati too, depending on how their movie does and whether Marvel Studios is intending to make them bigger players in the MCU.

- Basically Xavier gathers the group to ask their help in protecting his species from a humanity which would “hate and fear them.” He has been using his powers to do this on his own for quite some time, with the help of Cerebro, but with the proliferation of technology he now needs help. He can alter someone’s memory/mind but not their smartphone camera. It’s clear that Fury already knows about mutants but has been keeping the “mutant threat” under wraps for now, but he’s concerned about how long he can continue to do that. He and Xavier clearly know one another and are in cahoots on this.

- Essentially the group conspires to use a combination of magic, telepathy and technology to continue keeping mutants “the stuff of urban legends and tabloid fare” for their own protection. Which worked because there were so few of them. During the conversation it is revealed that they did the same for the Atlanteans, keeping them largely off the grid; though Namora warns that King Namor grows impatient and will eventually go to war with the surface dwellers if they do not stop polluting his kingdom. Xavier knew about their deal with Atlantis, and wants the same deal for mutantkind. Basically “Help continue hiding us from the world, and we will continue to police our own and ensure that bad mutants are dealt with.” They ask how he’ll do that and Xavier says, coyly, “The same way we’ve been doing it for years.” It is clear that the X-men have been operating in secret out of his school for awhile.

- Also, as an aside, Strange and Stark share a moment here where the latter says, “This meeting never happened” and the former says, “Agreed. If we meet again, I don’t know you... which suits me just fine.” That explains why they bickered and acted like they didn’t know one another in Avengers: Infinity War. Clearly they rub one another the wrong way, as we saw in that film.

So what changes? Well, Infinity War and End Game. The snap does seem to trigger more mutant power manifestations and births, for one thing; and now with Stark off the board no one is monitoring the technology side of the equation. So, while Strange and Xavier are doing their best to keep mutants a secret, footage of a mutant power manifestation which kills several bystanders leaks out and shocks the world. Suddenly there are more and more videos of mutants popping up, and the cat is now out of the bag.

This would actually work quite well in the Krakoa set up honestly, and explain why they’re now moving to the island after years of operating out of the school in secret. Or, if they choose to stick with the school for the MCU X-men, it still works in that setting too. Either way.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Make the Snap from the Infinity Gauntlet the MCU equivalent of the Atom.

The "atom" has been downplayed signficantly as the empowering moment of mutantkind especially since so many major mutants have shown up who have been activated before Hiroshima, whether it's Apocalypse, Shaw, Selene, Wolverine, Magneto.

And making "the snap" the equivalent implies that some alien force or human force (if we are talking about Thanos' first snap, or Banner's snap to undo Thanos', or Stark's to kill off Thanos and his army) was behind mutantkind. And again how does that work? How does an action to wipe out half of all life in the cosmos activate the mutant gene? Thematically, what does that mean? It doesn't add anything to the X-Men story. The X-Men and mutantkind are existential fears for humans and a challenge to the idea of normality and being "other", whereas now it's them being a stopgap introduced in a huge crisis and then that crisis is undone but the mutants are still here...it's not as simple and pure.


I am not especially interested in how the MCU introduces the mutants. It depends on what team they want, what stories they want, where do they go? The Fox Movies were inconsistent and uneven, with great-to-bad stuff all over, but they more or less put together iconic versions of the X-Men and major beats that there's not a lot of new stuff to introduce. I am pretty sure that Phoenix Saga is off-the-table after two strikes tanking the box-office.

Feige said that MCU will focus on obscure characters and so on. But I think at the same time corporate dictates will insist Wolverine show up, and that means you need to cast the second actor to play that role after Hugh Jackman which is a tall order. Magneto will also be there, and in that case, just bring Michael Fassbender and keep him. He's good, he's young and he can age into that role for a long time. I think the crucial thing for Feige is to get Cyclops and Storm right. Both of them were criminally underserved in the Fox movies, so they need to be emphasized. We need to make "Cyclops is Right" happen and Storm has to be this total leader.

Once they settle on which team and which mutants and what stories, the scaffolding work (i.e. introducing the mutants to the MCU continuity and so on) can proceed.

The best way is simply...Moira X. Just start with Moira X and her ten lives, only this time, each of her previous lives will be say, the Fox X-Men continuity, the Fox TV Shows, and even Deadpool. It would be a great passing the torch and it also acknowledges the Fox X-Men movies still count in some way going forward. The later lives would be "In Lives 1-7, Moira found herself in a world where the X-Men were the only superheroes, but in Life 8 she found herself in a world with superheroes, and this can be a What-If and so on, in one of them Moira would be snapped/unsnapped. But in life 10, she decided to change the rules."

[davetvs]

Use the Illuminati here.

- Have a flashback to right after the founding of the Avengers which reveals that Xavier, Stark, Strange, Nick Fury and Namora (let’s add a woman to the boy’s club and hold off on introducing Namor for now; instead Namora serves as his advisor on this council) were responsible for hiding the existence of mutants from the world at large. You might also throw in a member of the Externals on the Illuminati too, depending on how their movie does and whether Marvel Studios is intending to make them bigger players in the MCU.

- Basically Xavier gathers the group to ask their help in protecting his species from a humanity which would “hate and fear them.” He has been using his powers to do this on his own for quite some time, with the help of Cerebro, but with the proliferation of technology he now needs help. He can alter someone’s memory/mind but not their smartphone camera. It’s clear that Fury already knows about mutants but has been keeping the “mutant threat” under wraps for now, but he’s concerned about how long he can continue to do that. He and Xavier clearly know one another and are in cahoots on this.

- Essentially the group conspires to use a combination of magic, telepathy and technology to continue keeping mutants “the stuff of urban legends and tabloid fare” for their own protection. Which worked because there were so few of them. During the conversation it is revealed that they did the same for the Atlanteans, keeping them largely off the grid; though Namora warns that King Namor grows impatient and will eventually go to war with the surface dwellers if they do not stop polluting his kingdom. Xavier knew about their deal with Atlantis, and wants the same deal for mutantkind. Basically “Help continue hiding us from the world, and we will continue to police our own and ensure that bad mutants are dealt with.” They ask how he’ll do that and Xavier says, coyly, “The same way we’ve been doing it for years.” It is clear that the X-men have been operating in secret out of his school for awhile.

- Also, as an aside, Strange and Stark share a moment here where the latter says, “This meeting never happened” and the former says, “Agreed. If we meet again, I don’t know you... which suits me just fine.” That explains why they bickered and acted like they didn’t know one another in Avengers: Infinity War. Clearly they rub one another the wrong way, as we saw in that film.

So what changes? Well, Infinity War and End Game. The snap does seem to trigger more mutant power manifestations and births, for one thing; and now with Stark off the board no one is monitoring the technology side of the equation. So, while Strange and Xavier are doing their best to keep mutants a secret, footage of a mutant power manifestation which kills several bystanders leaks out and shocks the world. Suddenly there are more and more videos of mutants popping up, and the cat is now out of the bag.

This would actually work quite well in the Krakoa set up honestly, and explain why they’re now moving to the island after years of operating out of the school in secret. Or, if they choose to stick with the school for the MCU X-men, it still works in that setting too. Either way.

I don't necessarily mind this, but I'm tired of everything in the MCU revolving around Iron Man.

[LordAllMIghty]

I've seen this idea, like, all over the place.


Honestly, I don't want them to explain mutants. Just have them show up, it'll be fine.

Right. There no reason to come up with a story. Just say they have always been around.

[davetvs]

Right. There no reason to come up with a story. Just say they have always been around.

That doesn't make any sense.

[pandafarmer]

They've hinted this week that the Eternals "know about the Avengers, but the Avengers know little about the Eternals." Wouldn't shock me if the did something similar with Mutants.

[Jackraow21]

I don't necessarily mind this, but I'm tired of everything in the MCU revolving around Iron Man.

Well, that’s fair. But, then again, he’s dead and it’s just a flashback. It does highlight how important he was to the MCU, yet again, but in some ways I see it as a nice bit of connective tissue, explaining “if mutants have been here all along what changed that outed them?” Well, the mutant births and manifestations at puberty started ramping up, technology advanced in terms of smartphones and cameras everywhere, and without Stark around to help keep a lid on it (from the technology standpoint), the cat got let out of the bag.

Beyond that, I promise, no other Iron Man references in my take. He gone.

Plus the Marvel Illuminati is cool. So with Stark now dead, this is probably the only way to introduce the concept (via flashback). But don’t worry! They can just have Reed Richards replace Stark as technology guy on the Illuminati once the FF get to the MCU.

[phantombassist]

I've been thinking on this since Marvel reacquired the rights, and honestly I'm pretty confident that if they don't do exactly what follows, they won't be far off.

Marvel needs to do 3 things in order to successully integrate mutants into the films:

1. They need to explain their absence up until their appearance.

2. They need to leave their options open as far as using old and new characters, so they need an origin that is similar to the comics, just without the in universe historical precedent.

3. They need to make their take feel sufficiently different from what came before while retaining the structure and style of the stories fans want to see adapted.

I think all of these can be accomplished by doing the following:

Mutants are not created by the x-gene activating naturally. MCU mutants are the product of trace Deviant genetic traits that have been naturally suppressed up until the present. This changed with the testing of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch by Hydra using the Scepter and infinity stone. Using Celestial/Celestial equivalent Tech (Infinity stones/Eternal Tech) the US government begins performing dangerously unsafe covert testing on captive civilians in an attempt to create meta powered assests. These test subjects either escape, are mistakenly released because of apparent testing failures, or intentionally re integrated into the public. This results in a large, sudden influx of mutant powers.

In short, they should use the ultimate universe origin of mutants being engineered rather than naturally occurring, but make the whole point of the testing to active a pre existing, long dormant genetic connection to the deviants.

This solves a number of issues.

Why weren't there mutants before now? They can't naturally occur and the tech needed to manufacture them wasn't available to those with the desire to make them.

Where are the old characters? They could still be out there, just with updated origins to take into account the relatively recent proliferation of mutant abilities.

How do we introduce new characters? This origin means basically anyone could potentially be a mutant. the only limitation is the difficulty of the process needed to cause the change.

It's a perfect fusion of new and old. It even allows for updated takes on characters that would otherwise be unusable since the films cant use the long term take on mutants throughout history. like making Apocalypse the direct descendant of the first Deviant to human birth, making him the legacy of the 'first' genetically possible mutant. Or allowing Mr. Sinister to remain a mutant obsessed geneticist who eventually experiments on himself, but frame him as a modern doctor acting as a higher up or possible director of these mutant creating tests and programs.

Edit: I also personally think they need to go more ultimate universe with how they pick characters. Charles and Erik can be used at some point but I really think they are currently too associated by their FOX film portrayals.

The mutant social group should develop as :
individuals -> friend groups -> loose collectives -> Grass roots social block -> Distinct species identity with its own culture, social issues and causes.

Only when the films reach that final stage should they re introduce established figureheads like Charles, Erik, the 05 or Hellfire club members like Emma.

This is especially important because Charles and Erik are perfect go-to characters for the MCU to use once the mutants have been established in the universe and go from an introduced concept to an actual social group with associated social movements that will inevitably need social movement leaders. Charles and Erik can literally be the people who emerge from an actual modern day civil rights movement to create two divergent social movements in response: one based in activism, one based in militancy. They can then be what they were originally envisioned to be; MCU analogous figures to MLK and Malcolm X. They don't need to be present at the start of or create the movement, the just need to be the first ones to rise up to lead (and ultimately shape) their respective schools of thought.