After Phase Four’s middling efforts, the X-Men might be the only thing that can save the MCU if they are handled with the proper care.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe was once an unassailable colossus, bestriding the world of blockbuster movies and destroying every record in its path. MCU fans were rabid for the films, creating a fandom that made Marvel the biggest entertainment name in the world. Avengers: Endgame was a victory lap, but it was also the last great win for the MCU. The MCU post-Endgame showed signs of weakness as the years went on, leading to middling returns and finally an honest-to-goodness box office bomb in The Marvels.

The MCU is on the ropes, but things may start to look up. Deadpool And Wolverine unites Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman for a highly anticipated film. The announcement of the primary cast of the Fantastic Four was a big news item, but there’s one franchise that everyone is betting can save the MCU – the X-Men. However, will Marvel’s mighty mutants have the power to turn the tide? It’s an interesting question that could change the future of superhero movies forever.

Phasing Out

The first three phases of the MCU were unabashed successes. People can bring up the formulaic nature of the stories, the over-reliance on Easter eggs, the simple characters, and downright terrible villains to talk smack about them. However, that doesn’t change the fact that Phases One through Three were massively popular. The opinions on the movies themselves don’t matter when compared to the box office, merchandise sales, and legions of fans. Overall, even the most contrary commenter on the MCU can’t deny that there are some excellent superhero movies in the MCU. Of course, Phase Four is a different story.

Phase Four contains some beloved entries in the MCU – WandaVision, Loki Season One, Shang-Chi And The Ten Rings, Spider-Man: No Way Home – but it also has some movies and shows with definite problems. Falcon And Winter Soldier dropped any pretense of good storytelling when it went out of its way to make the Flagsmashers – poor people who don’t want to lose what they worked for during the years after the Blip – as villains. Eternals tried to mix prestige filmmaking with the MCU formula and failed at both. Thor: Love And Thunder botched a storyline that tried to adapt the bestselling and highest-regarded Thor story of the last thirty years.

What If… was fine if a little toothless compared to the comics it was based on. Hawkeye is another entry based on an amazing comic that turned out merely so-so. Black Widow was too little far too late, even if Red Guardian and Yelena were amazing. Doctor Strange And The Multiverse Of Madness was better than it gets credit for, and it is one of the few MCU films where a director’s style shines through Kevin Feige’s shadow directing. She-Hulk started a storm of anti-fans screaming about wokeness and how inaccurate the comics it was, which is ironic, seeing as how it’s basically what She-Hulk comics have been since the John Byrne run almost forty years ago. Phase Four had some tremendous highs, but its lows shook the MCU fanbase.

The MCU was the end-all, be-all of films and superheroes, and some fans would attack like sharks smelling blood if the MCU wasn’t roundly praised. The first three Phases conditioned them to expect a certain kind of story that patted them on the head for their knowledge and loyalty, and Phase Four didn’t give them that. The first three phases had a throughline story: Phase One was getting the Avengers together, Phase Two was the Infinity Stones, and Phase Three was the culmination of both.

MCU fans were used to a clear path to where they were going, but Phase Four didn’t do that. Phase Four was the rebuilding season; the old stars had retired and it was time to build new ones. However, the MCU forgot to build a simple story that everyone could follow, which cost them.

An All-New (X-)Mansion

The Avengers’ future in the MCU is in jeopardy. No one has stepped up to be the new Steve Rogers or Iron Man. However, they aren’t the only team Marvel Studio has in their stable. The announcement of the Fantastic Four cast was a big deal recently, but the problem with the FF is simple – Marvel Studios can easily go back to the formula well and do the movie that way. Another thing working against TheFantastic Four is the lack of cultural cache. The Fantastic Four hasn’t been a massively popular franchise in decades; the Fox movies were passable but forgettable. The Fantastic Four may be successful, and it may even be very good, but it’s not going to turn the tide.

The X-Men are a different story, though. X-Men ’97 is already raising a fever pitch online with an entire generation of millennials. The Fox X-Men movies aren’t as universally beloved as the MCU, but there are some gems in there that people love. Older millennials grew up with the ’90s X-Men boom, and Zoomers watched the good X-Men movies with the bad. The X-Men have a massive cultural cache that Marvel can manipulate to get people even more excited. In 2024, Marvel Studios will see its first test run with the X-Men in Deadpool and Wolverine. The release of the movie’s trailer got massive attention, and the reception has been very positive so far.

Deadpool And Wolverine doesn’t seem like it will be too MCU, but its success – and the success of X-Men ’97 – will be very important to the future of Marvel Studios. If those two are hits, Marvel Studios will know that the X-Men could save them. The problem with the X-Men movies in the MCU is that the X-Men aren’t going to fit well into the MCU formula. The X-Men have a central anti-hate metaphor that must be a part of the story. The X-Men’s story revolves around the way the world treats them and the mutant race. It informs everything the characters do, from the team itself to the villains.

The X-Men can do lighthearted action/adventure, but that’s also not their style. Using the common MCU formula on the X-Men would be a disaster, at least from a story level. The X-Men need a certain amount of gravitas, which the MCU has been able to do but not consistently. The X-Men are still a long shot cinematically, especially with the middling box office and reviews of X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix, so missteps can be made.

The X-Men Might Not Save The Universe

Here’s the thing about the X-Men in the MCU – if it’s business as usual, it will not go well. If Marvel Studios decides to do a light-hearted X-Men romp, there’s a chance that MCU fans will come running back to the theaters just because they’ve waited for the X-Men to get into the MCU. Marvel Studios can depend on this for one movie, but one movie isn’t going to turn the tide of the MCU. An MCU formula X-Men movie that downplays the seriousness of the X-Men and goes all in on the MCU action-comedy will make money.

However, if the next one does the same thing, the X-Men’s MCU tenure isn’t going to work. The glory of the X-Men is that it opens up an entire universe of characters. The MCU could just make X-Men movies for a decade or two and never run out of solo and team movies, with many of the best stories ever made to adapt. The X-Men do every facet of the superhero world – sci-fi, superheroics, fantasy, Western, war stories, spy stories, romance – and that’s what Marvel Studios need more than anything else. The X-Men is the killer franchise that could easily save the MCU.

The X-Men can do the mutant superhero stuff. Wolverine movies can be anything from period pieces to spy and martial arts movies. X-Force movies can be superhero spy movies. X-Factor can be a government-sponsored mutant team or do detective movies. New Mutants can do teen superhero shenanigans. Gambit movies. Rogue movies. Mystique and Destiny movies. Nightcrawler movies. Magneto movies. The list goes on and on. That’s the power of the X-Men in the MCU. If Marvel can hit hard enough with the first X-Men movie, they will win the game. The X-Men were the most fruitful franchise in the comics, with hundreds of mutants debuting in the last forty years. It’s a whole new world if Marvel can get the X-Men to work. It can get a little convoluted, but MCU fans will love it.

However, Marvel Studios has bungled a few sure things in the last few years. MCU fans are as critical as ever and want something special from the X-Men in the MCU. The Marvels didn’t have to fail, but it did because it was exactly what everyone expected. If the MCU does that with the X-Men, it will break the legs of the concept. It’s hard to believe in modern-day Marvel, but Marvel Studios has surprised everyone multiple times. They still have that dog in them, and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.