Originally Posted by
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.