Did Black Widow introduce the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s very first official mutant? Well, it depends entirely on who you ask. Marvel Studios are keeping quiet on the matter, so it may just be a case of a brief wink and a nod towards the character in question, even though we know the X-Men are getting rebooted eventually.
On the other side of the coin, actor Daniel Richters has already been touting his landmark inclusion in the recent box office smash hit as giving him the unique distinction of being the first figure possessing the X-gene to be directly acknowledged in canon.
During Black Widow‘s prison scenes, David Harbour’s Red Guardian arm wrestles a man named Ursa, which is hardly an earth-shattering moment in the grand scheme of things. However, fans will know Ursa Major as a mutant with the powers to turn into a grizzly bear that teamed up with Red Guardian and Crimson Dynamo, who also got a not in the film, as part of Russian super squad The Winter Guard.
It’s entirely up in the air for now, then, but as you can see from the reactions below, the response to Richters’ bold proclamation is poised to generate plenty of discussion and debate among the MCU faithful.
It would certainly be a low key introduction for mutants into the MCU if it came via someone who gets mere seconds of screentime in a standalone prequel, or it may be the long-running superhero series laying the groundwork for much bigger things to come in the future. Maybe one day we’ll look back at Black Widow‘s Ursa as the man who changed everything, or then again, maybe not.