Having been contractually unable to even say the word during the first dozen years of its existence, it’s going to take a bit of getting used to when mutants finally show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the build towards the franchise’s X-Men reboot begins in earnest.
A clean slate is certainly the best possible scenario for reinventing the characters, who starred in thirteen movies across 20 years that raked in over $6 billion at the box office and varied wildly in quality and consistency. Of course, Deadpool is staying exactly how he is, a foul-mouthed and R-rated superhero played by Ryan Reynolds, but the rest of the team should start afresh.
This being the MCU, Kevin Feige no doubt already knows exactly how he’s going to incorporate the X-Men into his sprawling sandbox, and we’ve heard from our sources this week – the same ones who told us Rachel McAdams would be back for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness long before it was confirmed – that Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch is going to be the key.
Of course, Wanda Maximoff has already been set up as a major player in Phase Four, if not the single most important figure, and given her ties to the X-Men in the pages of Marvel Comics, it would be logical to draw on those connections for inspiration. According to our intel, Wanda’s continued arc will lead to her having a huge presence within the MCU’s X-Men mythos, and the next big screen version of Magneto could even be introduced as her real father, retconning her Age of Ultron origin story to establish that she’s been a mutant all along, and HYDRA weren’t responsible for her abilities after all.
