Are the X-Men the Key to Promoting More Diversity in the MCU?
The reboot of the X-Men characters for the MCU is going to be happening eventually, but fans are starting to wonder how inclusive the characters will become. With Kevin Feige making a strong point in recent years to bring more diversity to every MCU movie, how that’s going to work with X-Men is becoming a hot topic.
One could argue the Fox versions of X-Men was already diverse in a few ways. However, Feige might take things further with a stronger push to bring a mix of all races and sexual orientations.
On social media, fans are arguing over how to handle this diversity. Should it just be considered natural in the movies without playing it up, or will they make overly obvious gestures toward it to let everyone know it’s there?
The original X-Men from the comic books were all white
Go back in time 45 years and Marvel comic book fans would find the X-Men being introduced as affluent, New York-based white kids, something that was more or less the norm in superheroes back then. Not until later years did comic book writers start to break barriers on making superheroes more inclusive.
Yes, the comic books usually made it happen first before the movies did. In the case of X-Men, the Fox movies ultimately made them a little more diverse after the comics had done a little of the same earlier thanks to writers-artists Len Wein and Chris Claremont.
In more recent times, those diverse characters have become far too ignored. Thanks to the Fox movies, though, many of the characters are still well-remembered. With Storm being an African-American woman (Halle Berry), it was a good start for the big-screen editions, if not perfect.
When the movies came out, it also helped to start selling more X-Men comics, something that hadn’t really happened prior. Now it’s worth pondering if an even more diversified X-Men movie franchise will reinvigorate the comic book editions.
Fans think X-Men will push forward more MCU inclusion
On Reddit, some commenters have pointed out without Wein and Clairmont, the X-Men likely wouldn’t have diversified in the movies. Now it’s only a matter of when rather than if on the X-Men rebooting within the MCU.
Just how inclusive the new versions would be is still a matter of debate. Feige might have to include the new, diverse characters soon created for an X-Men comic book revamp. Leah Williams and David Baldeón are recreating X-Men in a book, and it’ll be called X-Factor.
This isn’t to say the comic book X-Men didn’t try even more diversity in just recent years. Regardless, there’s been complaints some of the characters (especially in the LGBTQ category) have been set aside.
In this comic book reboot, there’s going to be a larger role on creating characters with diverse sexual orientations. Will Feige take from this, or just do his own take?
What’s the real word on a new X-Men revival?
Many of the characters already seen in the MCU movies have tangential relationships to the X-Men, so it makes sense the latter will be seen in the MCU before long. Upcoming The Eternals has a direct link to the mutants of X-Men. Plus, Scarlet Witch and her brother Quicksilver were the children of Magneto in the comic books.
Since the MCU has mostly gone in its own direction, there’s no doubt going to be hints and connections in The Eternals and Disney+’s WandaVision about X-Men mutants.
Whether they’ll take directly from the above X-Factor book series is another thing. With thoughts Marvel is still have internal battles on how diverse their characters should become, there may have to be a lot of compromise for a while. If some blame Disney for this, the good news is inclusion isn’t being ignored completely by any means.
