The Disney/Fox merger is nearly a done deal, and is one that has many fans, Marvel fans in particular, rather excited. With Disney’s purchase of Fox Media, they will eventually retain the film rights the Fox’s Marvel properties, like the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, including ALL mutants. This has huge implications as to the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now, thanks to the Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary, a new book that gives a walk through to the first 10 years of the MCU, we may have a window to help usher in mutants to the already established universe.
Going through the Visual Dictionary (as pointed out by Screen Rant), the description for Scarlet Witch offers up a very particular wording as to how she attained her powers:
“She may be called Scarlet Witch, but Wanda’s powers aren’t derived from the occult. Whether it altered her or merely unlocked something latent inside Wanda, the Infinity Stone on Loki’s scepter bestowed incredible powers of the mind. Wanda’s internal neuro-electric interface allows her to conjure blasts of red telekinetic energy. She can also use this energy to create barriers, levitate and move objects; to communicate and read thoughts by telepathy; and even to manipulate the minds of others.”
The vague nod to ‘something latent’ being unlocked by the Mind Stone lends to the possibility of the mutant X-gene. Now, considering that legally Disney and Marvel can’t actually start making plans until the deal is finalized, we’re still a couple years away from mutants making their MCU debut. But, this ambiguous wording lets Marvel have the ability to take the route that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were the first know mutants on the scene, if they so choose. It also better explains their power set.
While Wanda Maximoff’s powers make sense coming from the Mind Stone, Pietro’s are a little bit stranger. The Mind Stone giving him superspeed doesn’t really make sense. But, if all the Mind Stone did was ignite their X-gene, then his powers are based on his latent mutant ability, and not directly from the Infinity Stone.
One thing fans need to remember, though, is that Marvel Comics has already retconned these characters’ history. You see, most fans know that Pietro and Wanda are the twin mutant children of long time X-Men baddie (and many times, ally), Magneto. However, during the Axis storyline in the comics, Marvel revealed that Magneto was not their father at all, nor were they even mutants, but rather results of experimentation early on in their lives by the High Evolutionary.
This storyline just so happen to come out around the same time that the MCU announced the twins would be in Avengers: Age Of Ultron (which Fox followed up by adding Quicksilver to X-Men: Days of Future Past, in a part originally meant for Juggernaut). This would mean that, technically, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch aren’t even mutants in the first place.
So, regardless of how the MCU decides to play it once the Fox deal is done, the vague description leaves their history open to interpretation and doesn’t take away from just what Marvel has already established with the big screen version of Scarlet Witch.
What do you think of this description? Does this leave the door open for mutants in the MCU? Let us know in the comments below!