MCU Theory: WandaVision Explains Where The Mutants Have Been

Marvel's upcoming Disney+ series, WandaVision, just might help explain where the mutants have been in the MCU all this time. Despite them being an enormous part of the Marvel comic books, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has largely operated to this point as though the X-Men, and mutants in general, simply don't exist. For almost two dozen movies and a handful of TV shows, the characters have operated in a world in which mutants have not once even been mentioned.

The reason for this was the longstanding, uneasy relationship between Marvel and 20th Century Fox. For years, Fox had the live-action movie rights to the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and any related characters. The rights ownership meant Marvel had to avoid any mention of the X-Men, with even the word "mutant" being verboten. In fact, back in 2001, Fox sued Marvel over its planned Mutant X television series, even though the series was to be based on entirely new characters with a completely different origin story than the X-Men and already-existing mutants of the world.

Now that Disney has acquired 20th Century Fox, however, the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four are back under Marvel's control. Already, Marvel has plans. Director Jon Watts has been tapped to direct the Fantastic Four reboot, which will be the first Fantastic Four movie in the MCU. Likewise, things are moving forward with Deadpool 3, with Deadpool being mutant (depending on who you ask) and previously with Fox.

It's been inevitable that, since the acquisition of Fox, that Marvel would fold the X-Men into the MCU. But introducing the X-Men and the entire concept of mutants, period, into a world that has, thus far, acted as though they don't exist is quite another. There's no way to make an X-Men movie that's part of the MCU without addressing it; it's too big and complex to sidestep as other continuity details might be.

WandaVision Will Follow The House Of M Storyline From The Comics

That's where WandaVision comes in. It's already known Marvel's flagship Disney+ series is important for the future of the MCU. Yet, it won't be important simply because it kicks off Phase 4 and really opens up the concept of alternate realities and other timelines first introduced in Phase 3. It will also be important because it could very well be the series that plausibly explains why the MCU has never had the X-Men. The reason it can is because of the comic book story it's based on.

Marvel has made it more than clear WandaVision will take lots of inspiration from the House of M comics. In that story, Scarlet Witch suffers a mental breakdown after the loss of her twins with Vision and, in her grief, starts to warp reality. Though her father (Magneto) and Professor X try their best to help her get over her grief, and Professor X even tries to heal her mind, it remains fractured and reality warps further. When her twin brother, Pietro, a.k.a. Quicksilver, alerts her there are discussions she's too dangerous to be allowed to survive, he suggests she create a new reality.

Her full-on breakdown and the unintentional power boost from Professor X help her create an alternate reality so powerful it supplants the real Marvel universe for a while. In it, the heroes of Marvel are given everything their hearts desire and it's clear this will be played out on a modified scale in WandaVision. In the new reality of the series, Vision is alive again and he and Wanda are living happily ever after, but it's clear something isn't right and the reality isn't, perhaps, actually reality at all.

Scarlet Witch Wiped Out The Mutants With Three Words

All of that leads to the part of House of M relevant to this theory. In the alternate reality, Magneto is ruling the world with mutants as the dominant species rather than feared as they are in the actual reality. But once he discovers it's not real and the idea was actually Quicksilver's doing, he kills Pietro in a fit of rage. Wanda, grief-stricken over her brother's death, brings Quicksilver back to life and turns on her father, furious that Magneto always chooses mutantkind over his own family. In a moment that changed everything in Marvel comics, Wanda takes away the thing her father cherishes most with three little words:

"No more mutants."

In a split second, Wanda simultaneously resets reality back to "normal" and wipes out 98% of the world's mutant population by rendering them powerless in an event that came to be known as the Decimation. While a few mutants retained their powers, it was estimated that out of hundreds of thousands of mutants, under two hundred mutants on the planet retained their mutant abilities. By the time the dust had settled, the entire race of mutants had nearly gone extinct, so powerful was Scarlet Witch's curse. Fifteen years later and mutantkind is still recovering from the devastating loss and trying to rebuild their numbers.

WandaVision Offers An Opening To Explain Where The X-Men Have Been

Doctor Strange gives the Time Stone to Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War

WandaVision can set up the explanation for mutants not being in the MCU to this point by offering two different explanations. One, it could go a modified comic book route in which Wanda accidentally wiped out the world's mutants but no one in the MCU remembered that reality or that the X-Men had once existed, not even the X-Men themselves. After the events of WandaVision, their mutant abilities, and everyone's memories, could be restored. Or, two, it could lean more heavily into the alternate universes and timelines theme Marvel is setting up in Phase 4. Scarlet Witch could have zapped all the mutants of the Marvel movie universe into an alternate universe with, again, no one in the MCU remembering them. Either route provides a solid in-universe explanation for why there have never been mutants in the MCU in the time the mutants were with Fox, why the X-Men have never bothered to show up to help in a fight.

It's worth noting that WandaVision will directly lead into the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness with Scarlet Witch confirmed for the movie. Thanks to his powers and his sequel's title, Doctor Strange has been poised for a while to be instrumental in bringing the X-Men and Fantastic Four into the MCU. However, it's becoming increasingly clear Scarlet Witch will also play an important role (and perhaps Loki in the events of his own series) in bringing mutants back in the MCU's Phase 4. Remember, Doctor Strange scanned through 14,000,605 alternate futures in Infinity War in order to find the one in which Thanos was defeated. It's virtually impossible he could have gone through all those timelines and not stumbled across one in which the X-Men exist. A timeline with mutants is a significant enough alteration to make any Sorcerer Supreme pause and put a pin in that timeline, vowing to follow up on it later. The events of WandaVision will conflate with what Doctor Strange discovered during Infinity War and they'll come together to set the multiverse right in the Doctor Strange sequel.

Next: Doctor Strange 2: Every Dimension The Multiverse Of Madness Could Visit