Marvel Theory Time: Where Are The X-Men?
Is the MCU’s long-awaited mutant debut coming sooner than we think?
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Warning: Spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Ms. Marvel, and other MCU stories.
Marvel just set out their plans for the MCU for Phase 5 and Phase 6; while we don’t know every project that will be released in The Multiverse Saga, we at least now know some important stepping stones that are coming, including The Fantastic Four and two Avengers movies coming in 2025.
But we still don’t have any idea where — or when — the X-Men will show up. Ever since Disney bought 20th Century Fox, we knew it was only a matter of time before the mutants arrived in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but while we’ve gotten a few teases, we’ve gotten nothing concrete, except for a continuation of the classic 90’s animated series in next year’s X-Men 97.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m thrilled to see that classic series return, but I’m itching to know how the mutants will be incorporated into the MCU. But what if X-Men 97 is their introduction?
In the last few months, we’ve been given two very prominent teases for mutants in the MCU. First, Professor Charles Xavier himself — played wonderfully as always by Patrick Stewart who is even sitting in the iconic, yellow chair from the animated series— made an appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as a part of Earth 838’s Illuminati. Sadly, he didn’t last too long in that universe after encountering the Scarlet Witch, but he got to leave Stephen Strange with some wisdom before he was killed.
When Professor X appeared, we got a nice little nod to the classic theme song from the X-Men animated series. And at that time, I thought that’s all it was; they just as easily could have used John Ottman’s theme from the three movies he scored or even his “Hope” theme written specifically for Charles Xavier in Days of Future Past, which would have been fitting since Xavier quotes the same line from that scene to…
