All the ways the Marvel movies have already hinted that the X-Men exist

From Professor X to Kamala Khan

Marvel Cinematic Universe fans have been wondering when the long-awaited reunion of Marvel Comics’ two renowned houses, the Avengers and the X-Men, will take place since the Walt Disney Company purchased 20th Century Fox. It may have taken a half-decade, but the mutants appear to be making their presence felt in the MCU.

Marvel films and television series are gradually paving the way to Professor Xavier’s Westchester house. Here’s all we know about mutants and the X-Men in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

KAMALA KHAN IS THE MARVEL MOVIES’ FIRST CONFIRMED MUTANT

In the last minutes of her television series, Kamala Khan’s (Iman Vellani) tech-savvy BFF Bruno revealed some unusual news: She possessed a gene that no one in her immediate family possessed. Something “unusual.” “Like… a mutant.” The scene’s music included an electric guitar playing the opening seven notes of the famed theme song from 1992’s X-Men: The Animated Series, physically emphasizing the significance of the word.

Kamala isn’t a mutant in the comics, thus the announcement took people by surprise, since it was the first time the notion has been addressed in MCU history.

WOLVERINE EXISTS, POSSIBLY?

In a less serious nod to mutantkind, the second episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law included a little Easter egg disguised in a short scene of Jennifer Walters’ futile job hunt. A headline on the page’s linked articles list says, “Man fights with metal claws in bar brawl.” There aren’t many individuals in the real world who get into bar fights with their metal claws, but there are certain Marvel heroes who do it every other Tuesday, most notably Wolverine.

This might indicate that Wolverine is still alive and snikting. It might also be a joke. But we have hope.

PROFESSOR X IN DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS

The Doctor Strange sequel of 2022 provided us glimpses into a number of parallel universes, none more notable than Earth-838, where mutants exist and Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) is the leader of the Illuminati, a gang of strong superheroes. But it’s worth noting that Earth-838 is a parallel world to the one we normally see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This Professor X has no place in “our” reality.

But does this imply that Patrick Stewart will portray Professor Xavier in the MCU’s primary universe? Not at all. Only one of the six Illuminati in Multiverse of Madness has a character and actor match in the main MCU.

However, regardless of how you slice it, this was the first appearance of a key X-Men character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s history.

QUICKSILVER WAS IN WANDAVISION… SORT OF

However, this is not the case with tertiary X-Men characters! In a way. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch began their Marvel Comics careers as mutant characters that hung out with the Avengers, which provided them access to the MCU after they were redesigned as characters who gained their powers from the Infinity Stones.

When the Scarlet Witch’s own TV program, WandaVision, debuted, many fans were anxious to see if Wanda would be able to be a mutant again now that Marvel Studios had reclaimed the X-Men. The unexpected presence of Evan Peters, who played Quicksilver in the 20th Century Fox X-Men films, as Wanda’s super-speedy brother Pietro (i.e., Quicksilver, who perished in Age of Ultron in the MCU), further fueled conjecture.

However, the show’s end showed that Peters’ role was actually a regular human onlooker who had been ensorceled into a resemblance of Wanda’s brother in order to drive her insane. Was the Marvel Cinematic Universe experimenting with mutants? Yes. Was it a genuine mutant character? No.

MUTANTS IN THE FUTURE MCU

Marvel’s Merry Mutants are yet to arrive, but all indicators point to it being soon. So, what do we know about the X-Men and the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s future?

DEADPOOL WILL BE IN THE MCU

Marvel Studios has committed to continue 20th Century Fox’s Deadpool series, starring Ryan Reynolds – and this time, it will be set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe! A new R-rated Deadpool feature is in the works, with Free Guy’s Shawn Levy poised to helm. Given how many X-Men characters appeared in the first two Deadpool films, including the Xavier school and house, none appearing in the third would be a significant change.

AN X-MEN MOVIE IS COMING… SOMETIME

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said in 2019 to a raucous San Diego Comic-Con crowd that the company was working on an MCU-set X-Men film. We haven’t heard anything since. However, Feige has stated that the MCU’s take on the X-Men will be “very different” than that of 20th Century Fox. For the time being, we’ll have to wait until Marvel eventually reveals how it plans to bring some of the most famous Marvel Comics characters of all time to the greatest Marvel cinematic world of all time.