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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
My overall thought with mutants is for them to have been existent in the past, but so few in number they managed to fly under the radar, at least as a distinct category of powered people.
However something occurs that causes or is later revealed to have caused a substantial increase in the mutant population. I'm personally favorable to pulling a reverse House of M in Multiverse of Madness (bonus points of it somehow involves Scarlet Witch saying "No, more mutants"), but there are other options.
This allows us to retain some plausibility as for why they have never been mentioned before, while allowing for both a big population of modern mutants and historical mutants when it's especially important for their backstory.
For Magneto specifically I'd retain his holocaust survivor background and just reveal that he's been on ice for most of the intervening years. By this point he's been out for awhile (possibly jailbroken by MCU Xavier) but keeping a low profile.
Apocalypse, Exodus, and Selene could still be a thing with good explanations; Apocalypse has had a lot of different names over the time he's been alive and also has a tendency to get betrayed by subordinates and either wind up in stasis or being forced to lay low for a while before he can reestablish himself, Exodus was sealed away somehow because he went apeshit and posed a threat to the world, and Selene tends to operate behind the scenes and also tends to seek out and kill other mutants because she sees them as a threat and is too paranoid of being betrayed to get them to try and serve her.
I like the idea that Mutants have been under the radar for the past human life span because Mr Sinister abducts absoloutly everyone who leaves a paper trail for themselves. Great way to introduce your starter villain and usher in a nee status quo with his initial defeat.
Tie his back story in to something with Xavier and Magneto in the 40s, 50s and 60s, and then end your film with a stinger of Magneto on ice in the present.
I really hope they cool it on Magneto
And Wolverine, Mystique, Xavier
Forever liveblogging the AvengersStumbled on this artwork
of Marvel’s Jewish characters getting together for a Peking Duck Christmas recently.
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Yeah, that works. Apocalypse made them Acolytes and usually killed them anyways, Selene killed them because she was paranoid of having anyone who could pose a threat to her, and Sinister whisked them off to his lab to do Sinister things. If Romulus shows up here, he would be better suited as a relative nobody fronting as a grand conspirator who gets away with it because only his sister and a select few other people are a). still alive and b). know the truth, and he either wasn't on Selene or Apocalypse's radar whatsoever or maybe had an encounter with them early on where he got the shit kicked out of him and was just lucky enough to not get killed.
Edited by HasturHasturHastur on Apr 2nd 2022 at 7:45:36 AM
Mutants having been around forever, but only recently appearing in large enough numbers to be noticed: that's the implied canon in almost every version of the X-Men. Public knowledge of mutants is always supposed to be a fairly recent development. In the original comics, atomic testing was blamed for the mutant baby boom.
As for Magneto, I'll say it again: just don't use the character. Guy has been played out in the prior movies, and there are so many other mutants to focus on. If you do have him show up, just keep his backstory undefined.
Another thing I could see happening is that Charles and Max wind up getting thrown forward in time from the 60s for some reason (possibly Kang, possibly Wanda, possibly something else) right after some big mutant-generating event, and take it upon themselves to start seeking them out. I'd be fine with Charles just finding the original five and maybe Havok, and Max would probably find Mystique (who could conceivably be old enough to have known both of them in their original time), Toad, Mastermind, Blob, Unus, and Pyro. Wolverine would probably still be in Alpha Flight, the others would be off on their own. Weapon X probably still happened and was one of many old Cold War-era projects.
Edited by HasturHasturHastur on Apr 2nd 2022 at 8:39:56 AM
Hank can stay, having him be an eminent scientist in the MCU would be fine. Maybe the Summers brothers could start assembling the team while Gabe is off preparing his rise to power out in the Shi'ar Empire, and that could lead to a crossover event when Captain Marvel tries to do something about him, gets stomped by him and is very nearly killed, and realizes that she has to sound the alarm to all major civilizations anywhere near the Shi'ar Empire that there is a grave existential threat brewing.
Could work as a one-time thing, because Vulcan really is that ludicrously powerful anyways and Carol frantically telling Fury that there is a threat beyond their imagination out there that even Thanos pales in comparison to would work as an "oh shit" moment. If the galactic defender can't handle something, they're truly fucked.
If the mutants are integrated, I wonder how they're going to approach the whole "mutant bigotry" that has been a staple of the franchise. The MCU is relatively more realistic, and by this point, these people have had over a decade of superpowered figures in spandex. If they start calling the X-Men specifically abominations against nature, it's going to look kind of awkward.
What about the more out there stories and characters like Age of Apocalypse and X-Man.
I can imagine Ao A can work as an alternate continuity via an animated show, it be incredibly fun.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."AOA could be a What If...?, Nate (along with Cable and Bishop for heroes and Holocaust and maybe Abyss or Dark Beast for villains) could be a multiversal traveler who manages to enter the MCU reality to prevent the AOA from occurring. I think that's as far out as we'll get - I very highly doubt that the Savage Land or Mojoworld will enter the MCU, and the Shi'ar Empire will probably first show up in a Captain Marvel film, likely with Deathbird and possibly D'ken as the villain.
Edited by HasturHasturHastur on Apr 2nd 2022 at 2:03:43 AM
I think the obvious route to take MCU mutant descrimination is that it's a heredity condition and it crops up in puberty. So focus on prejudices in highschool settings and bigotry directed at whether mutant adults should enter relationships if it means potentially making mutant babies.
Mirror current politics like pushes for "Don't say Gay" bills and bills permitting marriage descrimination and bogus conversation therapy camps.
With the open existence of the Friends of Humanity (as a sort of Proud Boys or Groypers-esque group here) and Graydon Creed (or an original character based off of him) having a political campaign that gets some traction (or, barring that, being a notorious and vocal far-right personality with a worrying amount of followers), and possibly a nascent or revitalized Sentinel project serving as examples of the threats posed to mutantkind.
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Given how much right-wing media is really smearing Disney right now, that idea would be a really cool way to incorporate modern-day problems while simultaneously giving those groups a subtle middle finger. I don't have much faith that it'll happen, given how cynical I am about Disney, but it would be interesting to see.
Man, Chapek is really not popular within the company right now. I even read an article that mentioned that the previous Bob we had as CEO actively hates him now
.
I'm obviously not going to go up to bat for any Disney CEO, but at least Iger helped greenlight Black Panther when Perlmutter was doing everything in his power to prevent it from being made.
"I'm Mr. Blue, woah-woah-ooh..."

Ben Grimm, which is part of why I think Liev Schreiber would be a perfect casting choice for him.