When Kevin Feige announced the initial MCU Phase 4 titles in late July 2019, he ended the Comic-Con panel by saying that he didn’t even have time to talk about mutants. That was hot on the heels of Disney’s Fox acquisition that gave Marvel the rights to X-Men, Deadpool, and Fantastic Four. More than two years later, Feige still didn’t find time to talk about the MCU’s X-Men. But Doctor Strange 2 might tell us everything we need to know, potentially solving the MCU’s big problem with the mutants from X-Men.
We already heard plenty of rumors teasing X-Men cameos for Multiverse of Madness, and that’s quite understandable. Everything and the kitchen sink is rumored to appear in this sequel. But there’s a rather crazy Doctor Strange 2 plot rumor going around that offers a brilliant way for the MCU to get its mutants.
Before we explain how Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness might bring the X-Men to the MCU, we’ll have to warn you that huge spoilers might follow below.
The MCU’s mutants problem
Marvel wanted to have the mutants in the MCU as far back as the original Iron Man. A deleted scene featuring Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) would have had the former mentioning the mutants. But Fox was making mutant movies back then. And at the time, the MCU meant nothing in the world of superhero flicks.
Some fifteen years later, the MCU is bigger than Fox’s X-Men franchise ever was. And Disney owns all the Fox properties now, so it can use the mutants in movies like Doctor Strange 2 and other MCU projects. But integrating the X-Men in the MCU timeline is challenging.
Marvel has to find a way to add the mutants to the story so that it makes sense. We haven’t had any X-Men in the MCU so far, even though mutants should populate the universe by now.
Marvel doesn’t have to stick to the comic books. It can develop alternate origin stories for all the mutants it wants to feature in the MCU. We always assumed that Marvel might use MCU events like the Infinity Stone snaps in Infinity War and Endgame to explain the arrival of mutants. Similarly, the failed emergence in Eternals might be the kind of event that triggers the X gene in mutants.
Then there’s the multiverse, which is where Doctor Strange 2 comes in. That’s another easy way that mutants could land in the MCU.
Now, we have some supposed plot leaks that this is exactly how it’ll happen.
Rumors of Doctor Strange 2 and mutants
Rumors dating back to early 2020 claimed that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will feature various mutant cameos. The list included the most obvious choices: Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool, and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. But new claims last year said that Professor X will show up in the multiverse as the leader of the Illuminati. Patrick Stewart will supposedly play that version of Charles Xavier. But James McAvoy might also play the younger Charles, other rumors said.
More recent reports said that a bunch of the X-Men from the Fox universe will join Charles in fighting Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen). Wanda, after all, is a mutant in the comics. She’s the daughter of Magneto.
The credible source
It so happens that a trusted insider said a few days ago that Wanda will do something at the end of Doctor Strange 2 that brings the mutants to the MCU. We have no idea what, but the speculation is that it’ll involve a powerful spell of some kind.
Wanda uses a “No More Mutants” spell to get rid of mutants in the comics. It makes sense for Marvel to adapt or reverse that iconic event to meet its MCU needs.
The wild Doctor Strange 2 plot twist
This brings us to the new Doctor Strange 2 plot leaks that give us a wild explanation for having the mutants in the MCU.
A Twitter user who goes by the name Moth Culture claims that the “No More Mutants” spell already happened in the MCU. The X-Men tried to stop Wanda from reuniting with her kids from a different reality, so Wanda removed them from the timeline entirely.
As a result, Doctor Strange 2 supposedly ends with Wanda undoing what happened. The mutants then return to the MCU. As a result, the Fox movies will be reconned to make them work in the MCU.
Moreover, Deadpool might be the mutant who remembers the past, not Wolverine as we heard previously.
It might sound crazy, but there is a way for it to happen. We’ll explain it all in the future.
Meanwhile, we’ll have to wait for more Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness plot spoilers to see whether Wanda’s “No More Mutants” spell might indeed be part of the sequel and whether she’ll bring the mutants to the MCU.
