Since the year 2000 the X-Men Series has inspired many other superhero films/franchises to take a chance at making something big– taking a chance on something from a “silly comic book” and bringing it to the big screen. The Biggest example of this is the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) launched in 2008 with Iron Man and is still continuing to this very day.

But for years people wondered why the X-Men couldn’t show up in an Avengers movie, and the simple answer was that 20th Century Fox owned the X-Men film rights while Marvel themselves owned mostly everything else (besides Spider-Man).

But in 2019 Disney, who had acquired Marvel in 2009, bought 20th Century Fox, and
many Marvel Fans said “Yes! Finally we’ll see the X-Men in the MCU!” Now it’s being confirmed that the X-Men are a Big Part of Phases 4 and 5 of the MCU.

But there’s something I noticed when people started saying this, and that’s that the MCU has done pretty well without the X-Men, and for a while the X-Men films by Fox were doing pretty well by themselves as well.

That got me thinking on the big differences between the MCU and the X-Men films and why this was possible.

Marvel, before the Fox acquisition, tried to lessen the value of the X-Men by attempting
to replace them with The Inhumans, which blew up in their face as the Inhumans weren’t as popular and readers who were born different don’t relate as much since the Inhumans chose to get their powers while the X-Men were born with them.

That’s where I finally put together the main difference between the two. The Avengers are superheroes who are loved and supported by the public and government officials while the X-Men are shunned because of their powers, but still do the right thing anyway.

Tell me this, why is it that the citizens of New York love Spider-Man and cheer him on as
he fights a bad guy, meanwhile when Wolverine or Storm or Cyclopes shows up they get
harassed and even attacked by a mob of Anti-Mutant Supporters?

It doesn’t add up. I mean nobody knows if Spider-Man is a Mutant (Which he isn’t), or The Hulk or Captain America, they all he special powers but get praise while the X-Men get attacked.

Why is there this main difference?

Because the point of the X-Men is no matter how much you feel attacked because of who you are, you still should do the right thing.

The tone and overall feel for the X-Men is different and unique compared to the rest of the Marvel Universe. It’s as if you had The Watchmen exist in the same universe as The Justice League, both groups serve different purposes in the grand scheme of things.

So, what am I leading up to?

Well the X-Men Films did well on their own for almost two decades until the end where studio executives just didn’t know what to do anymore besides rehash old ideas, despite the X-Men having many more stories beyond those few that were adapted.

So what I believe is the best scenario to “Restart” the X-Men isn’t in the MCU, but their own cinematic universe separate from the rest of Marvel.

I know you’re probably saying, “But I want to see the Avengers and X-Men meet each other
and Team Up”, well that is possible, through the Multiverse.

Let’s say if Dr. Doom gets added to the main MCU he could create an Inter-Dimensional Device and he teams up with Magneto. This would cause the Avengers and X-Men to team up in a Cross-Universe fight and save both realities.

The Multiverse is used all the time in comics, so seeing it in the movies isn’t a bad idea, especially when the Multiverse has already been name-dropped in the MCU, is planned to be a major focus in Dr. Strange 2, and is rumored to be involved in the 3rd Tom Holland Spider-Man film bringing back both the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man and Andrew Garfield Spider-Man.

What do you think is best? Adding Mutants to the MCU as it is or allow the X-Men to reestablish themselves and THEN team up with the Avengers in a Cinematic Universe Crossover?