We’re getting closer to The Marvels, and the latest teaser has piqued our interest. I’m excited about Brie Larson coming back as Captain Marvel, and especially seeing her work with Iman Vellani as Ms Marvel. Now, I’m also wondering if we’re not about to see Xavier’s mutants.
As far as the MCU‘s future prospects go, the X-Men characters pose one of the most exciting possibilities. Since Disney acquired Fox, we’ve known it’ll happen eventually, the only question was when. The Marvel series Ms Marvel hinted at them, actually using the word “mutant”, and then we had Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness with Patrick Stewart’s Professor X in the Illuminati.
But those were nods, really. A new teaser for The Marvels might just suggest the X-Men are closer than we think. If you look at the ten second mark, when the words “come next” appear, the “x” lingers longer than the rest. Likewise, you have Samuel L Jackson’s Nick Fury proclaiming, “They’re here”. He’s probably not referencing Marvel characters like Cyclops and Storm, but he could be thinking about someone in their vicinity.
Even the music sounds a little bit like the X-Men ’90s TV show (one of the best animated series ever, and I won’t entertain arguments otherwise). Before I get too ahead of myself, this is a short sting designed for social media less than two weeks before an upcoming Marvel movie, if the X-Men were coming, it’d almost certainly be more of an event.
But it really does seem like Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios are doing a gradual build up, and given that Ms Marvel has already established the young hero as a mutant, it makes sense to elaborate on that notion. The multiverse will play a part in the story of The Marvels, and the big theory around how mutants will become commonplace in the franchise is timeline shenanigans.
So perhaps a small group of X-Men wind up in the sacred timeline temporarily? Or only one, like perhaps Bishop, who travels through time in the comics. All I’m saying is it’s possible, and I’m suddenly way more jazzed about The Marvels, and as someone who has a first print issue of Kamala Khan’s debut, I was already very pumped for this thing.
Now, there was a suggestion of something like this with a brief visual cue in Loki season 2 that went nowhere, so keep expectations in check (I say that for my own benefit as much as yours). But, remember Deadpool 3 was slated to be the next installment after The Marvels, and that’s all about mutants, bringing back Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine alongside Ryan Reynolds. Coincidence? I’m choosing to think not!
Nia DaCosta directs The Marvels, from a script she co-write with Megan McDonnell and Elissa Karasik. Check out our Marvel movies in order guide for a recap on the entire saga to date, and we have guides on the Captain America 4 release date and the Thunderbolts release date so you can see what else is coming up.