Meg Ryan is an absolute icon, and if you’re watching a rom-com with her in it you just know it’s going to be quality. And, when she’s alongside frequent co-star Tom Hanks… well, there’s absolutely no doubt that it’s a classic.
We are, of course, thinking of Meg Ryan‘s Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail: two of the best movies of all time, regardless of genre. Co-starring Tom Hanks, the two charming rom-coms came off the back of the success of Ryan’s When Harry Met Sally… which is rightly considered to be the greatest rom-com ever made, defining the genre.
But beyond helping to create the best Tom Hanks movies, Ryan also has a surprising – and unnoticed – connection to the MCU thanks to You’ve Got Mail in particular. As reported by the New York Times, You’ve Got Mail was produced by Lauren Shuler Donner, who at the time had an intern production assistant named Kevin Feige.
During the production of You’ve Got Mail (the perfect movie to watch right now as Fall begins to settle in), the young Feige was assigned to work closely with Meg Ryan by teaching her how to use email, which plays a central role in the plot of the movie.
Feige impressed his boss, and when Lauren Shuler Donner went on to become a producer on the X-Men movies she took Feige with her and made him a producer too, launching his career. X-Men, therefore, became his first associate producer gig, and he’d quickly followed that up by playing the same role on Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, the rest of the X-Men movies, and plenty more of the best superhero movies of the early 2000s era too.
In fact, Feige became so experienced that when Iron-Man rolled around to begin the MCU in earnest, Feige was handed the main producer credit – a position that he’s filled in every new movie since, as he’s become the architect of the franchise and the president of Marvel studios.
Perhaps, then, given that Feige really had one of his first breaks by helping to show Ryan how to use email, he could repay the favor and give her a role in his behemoth movie series. It’s easy to imagine her slotting right in, perhaps as some arch-villain. Maybe things could even be brought full circle with her playing one of the best X-Men characters in the eventual MCU reboot, and here’s a pitch: Meg Ryan as an evil, older Emma Frost. Sign. Us. Up. You can watch the X-Men movies, and all other MCU movies, right now on Disney Plus.
For more X-Men fun, see our guide on the best way to watch the X-Men movies in order, and check out our picks for the best romance movies.