Summary
Mutants are on their way into the MCU, withMarvelworking hard to inject fresh characters into these worlds. TheX-Menhave started having a presence due to Wolverine’s involvement, but the excitement is undoubtedly there about more of these iconic characters being put into the story that’s being told.
With the upcoming injection of theX-Men, there are tons of characters, all with unique abilities and stories, and choosing when to put them in and which to pick first will be difficult. However, there is an obvious option about who could be chosen first, and that’s Mystique.
How Would Mystique Fit In
Mystique might often be presented as an enemy of the X-Men, but she’s one of the most iconic mutant characters and has been portrayed perfectly in the live-action movies to date. Because of that, there will be an expectation that she’s part of the MCUfrom the moment mutants get involved, and it’s easy to see how she could slot into the overall story.
Her ability to shapeshift means she could quickly appear in any film between now and the X-Men’s full arrival. If her role is to recruit mutants or find out who to provide information to Magneto, she could make surprise appearances in various movies featuring mentions of mutants or characters that may have those traits. This would be a way of developing a significant storyline for the first MCUX-Menmovie without giving too much away.
Mystique being the next mutant character to appear, makes sense because she could easily be lurking in the background without people noticing. Marvel could give subtle glimpses of her blue skin at points and then fully reveal that she’s been around in multiple movies, lurking in the shadows in thefirst MCUX-Menfilm.
Why The Multiverse Plays A Part
Mystique’s ability to change appearanceis what makes her the most interesting option to use next from the X-Men world. The fact that Marvel has characters from the past in current movies via the multiverse is an interesting concept as far as the mutants are concerned. Marvel can establish the idea that mutants have always been around, even if they’ve not been seen or focused on yet in the MCU, and having Mystique work out the multiverse and how to manipulate it for her personal gains would be the way to do that. She is one of the smartest characters in the X-Men universe, notorious for adapting to any circumstance and taking advantage of situations. Therefore, it would suit her character to use the multiverse as a tool to track down other mutants while constantly disguising herself.
In addition, the multiverse could be used to bring Jennifer Lawrence into the MCU for the first time, as she could reprise her role as Mystique for a cameo. Marvel loves to give fans this type of surprise, asDeadpool & Wolverineprovedwith Chris Evans' cameoappearance. Seeing a past version of Mystique show up with Lawrence in the role once more would get lots of people talking, and that’s what Marvel wants people to do about mutants to build excitement.
Why Marvel Should Keep Drip Feeding X-Men
Of course, there’s eventually going to come a time when Marvel drops a fullX-Menmovie into the MCU to tell stories specific to those characters. That will then allow other MCU characters to dip in and out and create further opportunities down the line, but the idea of drip-feeding these characters into the MCU is the most innovative approach for now. While it won’t be possible to haveevery single mutant make appearancesin movies before anX-Menstory is told, it would be nice to get as many as possible beforehand.
This is especially true for whichever characters are being earmarked for important roles moving forward. Having them pop up in other movies would prove they exist and don’t just appear from nowhere. The multiverse saga has seen the concept of mutants slowly being introduced into the MCU, which hasn’t happened before. Because of this concept, Namor and Ms. Marvel were revealed to be mutants, whileWolverine is now a fully-fledged character.It’s a clever way of introducing a whole new roster of talent without overwhelming audiences with fresh ideas and tons of characters that could end up being overkill if it all happened simultaneously.
Bringing occasional characters to different movies or television shows, even if they’re not the story’s focal point, is a great way for people to get to grips with who they are as a character. Audiences are then more excited about seeing them in more detail at a later stage, such as anX-Menfilm. They have connected to the character and had a tease of their abilities and personality, and that can then be explored in more detail in another movie. Mystique being involved in several movies, potentially as a background character that people don’t notice due to her shapeshifting would be a great way of achieving this too because it adds an element of mystery that could be then revealed in a bigX-Menfilm.
