How WandaVision Could Introduce Mutants To The MCU
Contains spoilers for the first two episodes of WandaVision
With only the first two episodes of WandaVision released so far, speculation is rampant about where the series is headed. Things started out innocent enough. We're in a black-and-white sitcom world where Avenger Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) lives with her miraculously resurrected husband, Vision (Paul Bettany), in a suburban town where their worst fear is not fitting in. However, unnerving events keep breaking through their domestic bliss, like a brightly colored toy helicopter and an urgent voice over the radio. These aberrations make it obvious something here is very wrong.
Fans are speculating that Wanda created this fake world, unknowingly or not, with her reality bending powers as a means to cope with the death of Vision after Avengers: Endgame. The voice on the radio, meanwhile, seems to think she's being held there against her will, while the organization S.W.O.R.D. continues to attempt contact with her.
We know the nine-episode series is ramping up to a theatrical MCU-level endgame, as well as some likely connections to future MCU films like Doctor Strange: The Multiverse of Madness. Could we be headed toward the long-awaited introduction of mutants into the MCU, as well?
In the comics, Magneto is Wanda's father (sort of)
While the rights to the X-Men characters have long been separate from the MCU, Disney's merger with Fox in 2019 officially brought them back into the fold. As a result, Marvel has already announced the return of the Fantastic Four and provided fans the Deadpool 3 news they've been waiting for that the Merc with a Mouth will be joining the MCU in the coming years. That said, the House of Mouse has been relatively quiet about the highly popular X-Men. If the comics are anything to judge by, WandaVision could be the perfect avenue for their debut.
In the comics, Scarlet Witch and her twin, Quicksilver, discover that their father is actually the mutant supervillain (and sometimes X-Man) Magneto, but then much later find out that isn't true. The pair of them have a complicated relationship: They're often at odds, and yet are compelled by their apparent familial connection. Meanwhile, Scarlet Witch's story in the MCU is immediately different, as she and her brother got their powers from the Mind Stone and not from birth. It was the death of their parents that originally led them to hate Tony Stark and work with Ultron. Even so, Screen Rant posited the idea that it could still be revealed that Magneto was their biological father all along.
WandaVision certainly seems to take inspiration from the comics' House of M storyline in which Wanda warps reality as the result of a mental breakdown after the loss of her children. Magneto then tries to save her from herself and the Avengers. In WandaVision, it's the loss of Vision causing her distress, but it could still be Magneto who shows up to get her out of it, as S.W.O.R.D. seems to be struggling in that regard.
It may still be a few years before mutants join the MCU
Although the connection between Scarlet Witch and Magneto gives a perfect opening for the mutants' introduction, the timing may not work out. Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios and creative overlord of the MCU, told io9 in 2019 that it would be a while before the X-Men found their way into the MCU. They'd already been working on the story's five-year plan before the merger with Fox was settled, so it might be another couple of years before the mutants are introduced.
When Deadline asked Feige if WandaVision was leading up to the X-Men's arrival, he gave a predictably vague answer, saying, "In hindsight, in five years when we're talking about everything that's happened, everything can be a ramp to everything."
WandaVision will wind up being the lynchpin to the MCU's Phase 4 one way or another, but whether that's by introducing the mutants, or perhaps the multiverse, remains to be seen. In fact, there's an argument that the upcoming film Eternals could introduce the X-Men into the MCU, so we may all just have to wait for that one.