Introduce the X-Men to the MCU

[Gnostic]

Reed was greying at the temples in the '60's from jump, when the X-Men were teens. Reed works as an older gentleman, especially if they bring in Franklin and Valeria.

Mister Fantastic is more of a middle aged man/dad kind of figure though, complete with greying hair, befitting the family dynamic of the team. As such Pascal's age is perfectly applicable, but can't be used as reference to the age expected of the X-men.

Infact he is generaly on par with Professor Xavier in terms of age and role on the team. Whereas the majority of X-men are either remembered or supposed to be young or youngish adults.

Nothing suggests that Marvel wants to do teen/young adult X-Men though.

Which is not true actually. X-Men, X2 (ESPECIALLY!), Days of Future Past, First Class, Apocalypse....are really well-done ensemble movies. Every time people are complaining about Wolverine's overexposure, I think they have X3 in mind (done by Ratner and ruined by the studio!). Before that, we had a very well balanced cast and screen-time for a large group of characters.

The problem is that Fox has concentrated predominantly on characters, fans did not wanted them to concentrate on (e.g. Wolverine, Magneto, Xavier, Mystique, & Beast...and Jean in later movies).

I would argue that Apocalypse wasn't a good ensemble. That didn't know how to balance it's characters.

[Android 17]

Which is not true actually. X-Men, X2 (ESPECIALLY!), Days of Future Past, First Class, Apocalypse....are really well-done ensemble movies. Every time people are complaining about Wolverine's overexposure, I think they have X3 in mind (done by Ratner and ruined by the studio!). Before that, we had a very well balanced cast and screen-time for a large group of characters.

The problem is that Fox has concentrated predominantly on characters, fans did not wanted them to concentrate on (e.g. Wolverine, Magneto, Xavier, Mystique, & Beast...and Jean in later movies).

X2, First Class and DOFP are the exceptions, not the rule though. If the Fox regime could handle ensembles well, then why has there never been any kind of character development or growth for Rogue? Why is Storm regulated to VFX and saying the occasional line? Let's not even get into the problems with Scott, I could dissect the mishandling of the Fox-Men all day. But I'm just more at ease that these characters are now in the careful hands of someone like Feige.

[Jackraow21]

Nothing suggests that Marvel wants to do teen/young adult X-Men though.

I could actually see a scenario where they have both, meaning older middle-aged X-men in their 40s -- the older, more established characters (O5, ANAD, etc.) -- and lean into some newer characters that get spun off into other projects like the New Mutants/Gen X/New X-men characters.

[Gnostic]

I could actually see a scenario where they have both, meaning older middle-aged X-men in their 40s -- the older, more established characters (O5, ANAD, etc.) -- and lean into some newer characters that get spun off into other projects like the New Mutants/Gen X/New X-men characters.

I think that is a good idea. I don't know why Fox didn't do that instead of expanding on the prequel series. Should have made X4 and X5 like it was originally planned.

[yogaflame]

The main X-Men are barely in their 30's in the comics. I think it would be foolish to age them up in the films. We may be getting older, but they remain the same. I would start the X-Men at Spider-Man's age and let them age up from there(like they were in the comics). So, college-aged to begin with(with actors in their 20s). Xavier can be contemporaries with Reed, as he is in the comics, both being in the Illuminati(though I would not be adverse to starting Xavier even younger than Pedro, with an actor in his 30's, which, if you do the math is about the age comics Xavier would have been at the start, only 10 years after the war where Cain was lost in Cytorrak temple). Foxmen casted Xavier too old to line up with Magneto(even though even in 2000 their math was off for a Holocaust survivor), when in the comics Magneto and Xavier met much earlier(the story was published in the early 80's) and were both much younger(not even including cloned bodies and de-aging/re-aging to prime).

[Gnostic]

spoilers:

Rumor is that Storm is going to appear in What if...? season 3.

end of spoilers

[Jackraow21]

I think that is a good idea. I don't know why Fox didn't that instead of expanding on the prequel series. Should have made X4 and X5 like it was originally planned.

Yeah, agreed. Makes perfect sense to me.

[Agent Z]

People are already used to the X-Men being adults and most successful adaptations focus on them as adults. There is no need to make all of them teenagers when introduced to the MCU.

[Omega Alpha]

Except if they are all adults, you have to explain where they were before.

[Android 17]

Except if they are all adults, you have to explain where they were before.

Maybe they were always around except we just didn’t pay attention to them.

[Jackraow21]

Except if they are all adults, you have to explain where they were before.

Global mindwipe to make the world forget them. When it gets out, the world freaks that their minds were violated in this way, making mutants even more hated than they were before the mindwipe. That could be a cool way to introduce them, explaining both where they were and why the public hates and fears them so damn much at the same time. Just thinking out loud here. Perhaps in the MCU this leads to Xavier and not Magneto being the most feared mutant, and maybe even him being put on trial, which is how/why Magneto ends up leading the team. Like in the cartoon revival. That could be fun.

That's just one idea. There's lots of ways to explain away where they've been IMO. Wanda of course being another one.

[Android 17]

Global mindwipe to make the world forget them. When it gets out, the world freaks that their minds were violated in this way, making mutants even more hated than they were before the mindwipe. That could be a cool way to introduce them, explaining both where they were and why the public hates and fears them so damn much at the same time. Just thinking out loud here. Perhaps in the MCU this leads to Xavier and not Magneto being the most feared mutant, and maybe even him being put on trial, which is how/why Magneto ends up leading the team. Like in the cartoon revival. That could be fun.

That's just one idea. There's lots of ways to explain away where they've been IMO. Wanda of course being another one.

See, I don't like that global mindwiping idea.

To establish X-Men and get them right, Charles Xavier should be noble and genuinely want peace between mutants and humans. Having him mindwipe people to not see mutants is a gross violation and would just paint him in a super negative light. If anything, I think using Hulk's snapping people back into existence helped to unlock the dormant X-gene in the MCU population.

[Jackraow21]

That could work, but doesn’t solve the problem of where they’ve been and thus allow for shared history with the other MCU characters. Which is not very comic accurate, but the MCU is its own universe anyway. Like the Ultimate universe. So I suppose that could work too.

[Grunty]

See, I don't like that global mindwiping idea.

To establish X-Men and get them right, Charles Xavier should be noble and genuinely want peace between mutants and humans. Having him mindwipe people to not see mutants is a gross violation and would just paint him in a super negative light. If anything, I think using Hulk's snapping people back into existence helped to unlock the dormant X-gene in the MCU population.

While that would be a viable explanation for young people becomming mutants in the core MCU, which would be an interesting premise in it's own right, it would still restrict the presence of older mutant heros and villains.

So perhaps there also needs to be a second explanation that the MCU was unique in the multiverse in how something stopped the creation of mutants from happening, with the TVA and He Who Remains merely being the people who enforced said event to always happen.

Thinking about it. Maybe the perfect explanation would be a House of M based prequel movie weirdly enough.

Like the TVA eventualy reveals that the reason why the multiverse seems so divided between universes in which the only super powered humans are mutants and those in which they have all kinds of origins was an Endgame like scenario they allowed to happen.

Essentialy on the sacred timeline the X-men and Avengers existed at the same time, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were mutants and raised by Magneto who had been hiding in Sokovia, with Wanda also falling in love with Vision, who then got killed by Thanos, breaking her heart and making her go mad with grief.

However because of being raised by Magneto, rather than growing up watching old US sitcoms with her brother, she didn't just turn a small town into a seemingly perfect sitcom utopia, but the whole world into one for her father. Hence House of M.

But just like the comics some of the heros figured out that something was wrong and tried to restore the world back to normal. So when the fake world beginns to crumble Wanda confronted Magneto over the fact that he actualy appeared during the invasion of Wakanda but then withdrew because he came to the conclusion that if Thanos wipes out 50% of all humans, mutants will grow faster in number and become more dominant. Essentialy being indirectly responcible for Visions death, just because of his mutant superiority ideology.

And then "No More Mutants!".

But rather than Decimation, this actualy caused a complete divide into mutant and non-mutant timelines, with only Wanda and Quicksilver being allowed to exist in either, with the TVA then neatly pruning all the undesired ones.

So when Hulk used the infinity gauntlet he actualy lifted the OG Wandas "curse", allowing mutants to appear again, with the events of Loki preventing the TVA from pruning them

Considering that Olson said she would love to play the "No More Mutants" moment, this might be the one scenario where that could be done without having to deal with the stupendous Decimination status quo of the comics.

[Gnostic]

Global mindwipe to make the world forget them. When it gets out, the world freaks that their minds were violated in this way, making mutants even more hated than they were before the mindwipe. That could be a cool way to introduce them, explaining both where they were and why the public hates and fears them so damn much at the same time. Just thinking out loud here. Perhaps in the MCU this leads to Xavier and not Magneto being the most feared mutant, and maybe even him being put on trial, which is how/why Magneto ends up leading the team. Like in the cartoon revival. That could be fun.

That's just one idea. There's lots of ways to explain away where they've been IMO. Wanda of course being another one.

People already know about mutants in the 616 MCU. So that wouldn't make sense.