Could the X-Men appear in ‘The Marvels?’ The rumors, explained

The Marvels, Marvel Studios’ third movie of Phase Five, is doing everything in its power to hype fans up in preparation for the film’s Nov. 10 theatrical release. That includes a healthy sprinkling of Easter eggs in its promotional materials, and one of those eggs involves the X-Men.

The MCU has hinted at the arrival of the X-Men for quite some time now: Ms. Marvel confirmed the Earth-616 version of Kamala Khan to be a mutant, Wolverine’s MCU debut is right around the corner in Deadpool 3, and a new X-Men movie is officially in development. Be that as it may, aside from a variant version of Professor Xavier in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, there’s been little in the way of X-Men content that we can carry into the remainder of Phases Five and Six.

That said, if Marvel’s subtle hints are any indication, then Earth-616 could finally be getting its first wave of mutants in The Marvels.

The X-Men rumors in The Marvels, explained

Easter eggs come in all shapes and sizes, but the sneaky editing trick Marvel employed in a recent promo for The Marvels ⏤ titled “What Comes Next” ⏤ is anything but subtle. Using the attention-grabbing sentence “Be there for what comes next” to whet our appetites, the trailer broke the sentence into three equal parts, with the last two words fading in and out within the final four seconds. As “comes next” fades, the “X” in “next” lingers on the screen for a fraction of a second longer than the rest of the word, becoming clearly visible in subsequent screenshots. That was all the fandom needed to grab the theory by the horns and begin speculating.

As mentioned, Kamala Khan is already a mutant, so The Marvels technically checked that box as soon as her character became involved in the film. She’s not necessarily an X-Man, though, so in addition to introducing a new character (or characters), the movie could also serve as fertile ground for delving deeper into her mutant origins.

With Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine starring in Deadpool 3, it’s clear that 20th Century Fox’s X-Men are ripe for a revival. Some fans are still convinced that the notion of the X-Men in The Marvels will simply be Fox’s iteration of the characters, which is not entirely off-base considering what lies ahead in Phase Five. 

This X-Men tease comes just weeks after the Loki season 2 premiere included a not-so-subtle shot that screamed Cerebro, even if the show’s director ardently denied any knowledge of doing so (sure, Kasra). 

Given that the Loki season 2 finale and The Marvels theatrical premiere come just one day apart from each other, the belief — or hope — is that the latter will play off of the former, and these twin X-Men Easter eggs imply the throughline between the two.

The longer we look at the current slate of Marvel projects (Loki, The Marvels, and Deadpool 3), the more we get the sense that Marvel may finally be connecting the dots between projects. Recent rumors even suggest that Deadpool 3 will be home to the TVA.

As of now, all three projects contain connections to mutants in some shape or form, but whether or not any of them actually follows through on it remains to be seen. Stay tuned for updates.