Marvel may retcon the MCU to accommodate the X-Men

The X-Men are on their way into the MCU, but how will Marvel explain that when there haven’t (technically) been any mutants in the movies so far?

The characters of Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) Maximoff were introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Avengers: Age of Ultron, with only Wanda making it out alive. Since then, she’s gone on to have an important role in the franchise and is even getting her own show, WandaVision. But there’s always been something weird about her.

You see, Wanda and Pietro are technically from the X-Men comics: they’re mutants, with Pietro having the mutant ability to run really fast and Wanda the ability to control probability (sort of, her powers are pretty slippery). But so far, Marvel could never say they were mutants in the movies, because 20th Century Fox had the film rights to the X-Men. But now, Disney owns 20th Century Fox, so it’s only a matter of time between Wolverine and Cyclops and Jean Grey are introduced into the MCU.

So where will that leave Wanda? Will she have been a mutant this whole time, or will Marvel stick with their original explanation: that she and Pietro gained their powers after being exposed to the Mind Stone in Loki’s scepter? Well, it looks like the studio may have found a middle path.

There’s a new in-universe book out: The Wakanda Files: A Technological Exploration of the Avengers and Beyond. It’s comprised of notes on all things Marvel lore compiled by Black Panther’s sister Shuri, and it has some interesting notes about the siblings Maximoff.

One such note comes from Baron von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann), who did experiments involving the Mind Stone on human test subjects, although Wanda and Pietro were the only ones who survived. Strucker notes that the twins had the “appropriate genetic markers [that] make them conducive for human trial volunteers.”

Appropriate genetic markers, huh? That certainly sounds like something from X-Men, where genetic evolution is at the root of most of the characters’ superpowered abilities. Screen Rant theories that this is a subtle retcon to quietly fold the idea of mutants into the MCU. Maybe the fights against Thanos activated such latent powers in lots of people around the world…?

Maybe we’ll learn something when WandaVision drops on Disney+ in December.

However Marvel does it, mutants are definitely getting introduced into the MCU sooner or later. They’re too popular to pass up. Even X-Men: The Animated Series is popular today, 28 years after it started airing on TV.

And if you don’t believe me, just ask the cast members, who recently reunited for an online panel. “It took years before we found out really what a success the show was,” said Lenore Zann, who played Rogue. “And now, just having done a few Comic-Cons over the last year before Covid, it’s so heartwarming and emotionally overwhelming really to see the love that the fans have for our show and the characters.”

George Buza, who played Beast, agreed: “[It’s] a really elevating experience to know your work has survived that amount of time and to know that people still remembered it almost 30 years later.”

Fans who grew up on the show tell these actors how important the series was to their childhoods, and more and more, the show is finding newer fans. “Original fans are bringing [their] children to meet as at Comic-Cons,” said Chris Britton, who played the villain Mr. Sinister. “And they’re watching [the show] together now thanks to Disney+, and sort of introducing a whole new generation of fans.”

Clearly, the world is clamoring for the X-Men. It’s just a question of how soon Marvel can get them up on the big screen.

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h/t SyFy Wire