The Marvel Studios bosses have repeatedly gone on record reaffirming their commitment to improve the level of diversity in their upcoming releases, and with the X-Men franchise soon to come under Disney’s ownership, it sounds like Kevin Feige and his team are taking the opportunity to put their words into action.
According to sources close to We Got This Covered, Marvel intends for the rebooted X-Men line-up to have a very diverse cast, with a big focus on female mutants. And while the studio has yet to officially confirm this claim, it would honestly be surprising if Marvel didn’t end up going this route. After all, Feige himself said last year that the majority of MCU heroes will soon be female. Similarly, back in November, executive vice president of production Victoria Alonso declared the studio’s commitment to better represent a variety of communities, including Latin, Asian, and LGBTQ.
No doubt certain corners of the internet won’t care much for the change in approach – as if the X-Men weren’t always intended to allegorize various marginalized groups – but nonetheless, it looks like a more diverse array of mutants will be just one part of a larger shift within the MCU. As well bringing us the female-led Captain Marvel and Black Widow films in the next two years, it was reported last December that Marvel is developing a Shang-Chi movie, which would serve as the studio’s first release led by an Asian character.
In any case, it’s unlikely that Marvel will be making any official X-Men announcements at least until the Fox deal closes later this month, but in the meantime, Captain Marvel is set to bring the MCU its first female solo lead when it arrives in theaters on March 8th.
