Disney mistake could have let on about the future of mutants in the MCU
The New Mutants is the X-Men movie that no one even expected to see, but could it turn out to be really significant for the MCU?
Earlier this month, the website for Disney's official fan club D23 called the long-delayed X-Men spin-off movie "a seriously electrifying new addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe".
Naturally, fans were trying to work out whether it was just a mistake or a surprising development. The fact that it was taken down shortly after the post went around the internet certainly suggested the former.
But what was the nature of the mistake: a factual error, or a communications error? Could it actually have revealed the future of mutants in the MCU?
We know that mutants are coming to the MCU at some point in the future, with Kevin Feige confirming at Comic-Con that they were working on a movie about "mutants". He stopped short of saying it was an X-Men movie.
The New Mutants is a Fox property that's now being released by Disney, and director Josh Trank confirmed that the movie is being released in its original form.
No reshoots have taken place (despite numerous rumours), so that means that we can't expect the movie itself to suddenly feature characters from the MCU since it filmed before the Disney/Fox deal happened.
However, even though reshoots haven't taken place, that doesn't necessarily rule out the possibility of a credits sequence being added as a stealth way of introducing mutants into the MCU.
Whenever X-Men characters enter the MCU, there's going to have to be some serious retconning to explain why they didn't help out during previous potentially world-ending events, so who's to say they can't start laying the groundwork for that in a credits scene?
It'd certainly be one way to create a bigger interest in The New Mutants.
Upcoming MCU movie The Eternals has faced a similar retcon issue and the first synopsis teased its way of dealing with it: "An unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows to reunite against mankind's most ancient enemy, The Deviants."
Basically, they've been in hiding – and it feels like the way that the mutants could be introduced in the MCU. They've always been around, they just haven't wanted to go public. After all, it didn't work out that well for them in the X-Men movies.
What if something happens in The New Mutants that, in a credits scene, sees SHIELD decide that the best thing is to keep mutants secret? We don't yet know when the movie is set, but it's expected to be contemporary, so could be placed just before the MCU kicked off.
Sure, it's very speculative and if we're being honest with ourselves, it's unlikely to happen.
And yet, no one expected Morbius – another comicbook movie that's not exactly keenly anticipated – to be closely linked to the MCU before the first trailer dropped that Vulture cameo.
So, for now, you can't rule anything out.
The New Mutants is released in the US on April 3 and in the UK on April 8.
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