completed the Fox acquisition in time for Marvel’s MCU Phase 4 announcement in July 2019. At the time, Kevin Feige revealed the initial roster of films as well as plenty of TV shows that would launch on Disney+. The top Marvel exec also confirmed during that announcement that Fantastic Four and X-Men projects were in the works without revealing any titles. Marvel added more TV series to its Phase 4 list later that year, but it wasn’t until mid-December that Marvel confirmed the first film featuring characters that were previously used in Fox properties. Jon Watts will direct Fantastic Four, Feige said during Disney’s Investor Day meeting last year, without offering a release date window or cast information. A few weeks later, Feige also mentioned the Deadpool franchise, confirming that Marvel isn’t planning any changes to the character when it comes to the film’s R rating. While Feige did not reveal any Deadpool 3 launch details, this was further confirmation that Marvel is working on the film.
The only thing left is X-Men. The mutants are coming to the MCU, but we have no idea how it might happen. WandaVision did some teasing, but the finale didn’t confirm anything on that front. However, a new report says that Marvel is indeed working on the first X-Men film, and the movie’s title has apparently leaked. Before you go any further though, you should be aware that some WandaVision spoilers follow below, along with this potential X-Men spoiler.
Sources familiar with Marvel’s plans told The Illuminerdi that a project called The Mutants is in the works at Marvel Studios. The project is being developed as a feature film, and it’s supposed to be a reboot of the X-Men franchise.
WandaVision referenced Fox’s X-Men by having Evan Peters reprise his role as Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver. However, this turned out to be just a brilliant misdirection. It was fan service meant to throw us off-course. Peters played a Westview actor named Ralph Bohner. That was all there was to it. Neither Wanda nor Agatha conjured Quicksilver from the multiverse. That would be a massive display of power, the kind that would draw attention from superior beings on the sort of magic happening on planet Earth.
Also of note, Ralph’s face has no meaning to anyone in the main MCU timeline. It’s only us, the audience, who know that Peters played Quicksilver in Fox’s X-Men. It’s just like with Josh Brolin playing both Thanos in the MCU and Cable in Deadpool 2. Only we know it happened — well, Deadpool might also know.
The fact that Peters played Bohner rather than a version of Maximoff might also be symbolically significant for Marvel’s plans for the X-Men franchise. Marvel seems to want a clean X-Men reboot that would fit with the MCU, and none of the actors who played mutants in the Fox films might make the jump to the MCU. Aside from Deadpool, of course.
While The Illuminerdi has provided inside information about Marvel projects before, this is still just a rumor. But a different insider with a great track record when reporting Marvel secrets confirmed the title. The Mutants is real, according to Charles Murphy:
No. It's legit. https://t.co/E23HMmS8qA
— Charles I Don't Know About That Trailer Murphy (@_CharlesMurphy) March 5, 2021
There is another piece of evidence that backs up the rumor. Feige & Co. might be honoring Stan Lee, whose original title for the X-Men was The Mutants — here’s a quote from a Rolling Stone interview:
[Lee’s publisher Martin Goodman] liked the idea, but I wanted to call the book The Mutants, and he said, nobody knows what a mutant is, you gotta come up with another name. So I figured, well, they’re men and women with extra powers, and their leader is Professor Xavier, why don’t I call them the X-Men? I brought that name to my publisher, he said, that’s great! And as I walked out of the office, I thought, ‘If nobody would know what a mutant is, how is anybody gonna know what an X-Men is?’ But I had my name, and I wasn’t gonna fight it. That was how it started.
It’s unclear when The Mutants might launch, so we’ll just have to wait for Marvel to share more details about the MCU Phase 4 movies and TV shows it hasn’t fully announced.
