Marvel Studios' official X-Men team may have the perfect introduction after the suspected reboot of the MCU after Avengers: Secret Wars. Although Marvel Studios acquired the rights to mutant characters from Marvel Comics, including the X-Men, after Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019, the team still hasn't made it's MCU debut. Several mutant characters have made their way to the MCU, including Ms. Marvel's Kamala Khan, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's Namor, and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law's Mr. Immortal, but there is still confusion surrounding how Marvel Studios will bring the X-Men into the MCU while retaining their rich backstories.

Recent speculation suggests that Avengers: Secret Wars may reboot the MCU, establishing a new timeline after a suspected incursion destroys the MCU's multiverse as audiences know it. Reboots are a popular storytelling technique in superhero comic books, as they allow writers to practically start from scratch, introducing a new continuity to avoid confusion, introduce new characters, or bring back previously dead heroes. 2027's Avengers: Secret Wars may provide the perfect opportunity for Marvel Studios to reset the MCU, and this could help to solve several massive issues that the franchise faces with the introduction of the MCU's official X-Men team.

The X-Men Are Marvel's Biggest Continuity Challenge

The introduction of the X-Men into a franchise already as well-established as the MCU is an almost impossible task for Marvel Studios, particularly since most of Marvel Comics' mutants have intricate backstories that are directly tied to major historical events. There have been several theories about where the MCU's X-Men have been, but debuting the team in the current world of the MCU would surely create some of the franchise's biggest continuity problems. There would need to be major retcons, or the potential reveal that mutants come from another reality in the multiverse. However, new rumors concerning a reboot of the MCU could provide an even more understandable opportunity.

Why The MCU's Reset Is The Best Solution For The X-Men

A reboot of the MCU isn't expected to be a complete overhaul, as many actors would be assumed to be reprising their roles, and the events of the MCU's prior stories likely wouldn't be forgotten. This same thing occurred in Marvel Comics' 2015 Secret Wars event, which has led many to ponder whether Avengers: Secret Wars could realistically pull it off by combining one or more universes into a new timeline. If this is the case, Marvel Studios would be able to start with a clean slate, potentially even introducing mutant characters into the franchise from day one, and exploring their rich backstories in the history of this new continuity.

Bringing mutants and the X-Men into the MCU following a reboot means there will be no need for Marvel Studios to explain where they've been at all, and no other characters would need to be retconned into mutants. This was almost the case for Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch, and even Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, which would have been a controversial choice. As it stands, a reset of the MCU may have already been teased in Loki season 2, so it seems likely that this is the direction Marvel Studios will be taking for the X-Men, which could see them debut in the MCU's Phase 7.