It looks like Eternals has finally opened the gate for X-Men and mutants to enter the MCU. Disney recently gained legal control of Fox’s films and TV projects and it has given them to Marvel Studios. To tell the truth, fans were expecting X-Men and mutants for a long time. The MCU does not seem to be in a rush with these projects, but at least it has hinted at X-Men / mutants through Eternals.
Mutants are people with abilities and capabilities beyond human comprehension. They are born with an X-gene, which activates at puberty and gives specific powers to a person. The comics tell us that the celestials, the creators of Eternals and Deviants, are the origin of this mysterious gene. Comic book fans were really expecting some story of X-Men in the movie. However, Eternals did not talk about this dimension at all.
Eternals made some changes to celestials so that they were no longer interested in orchestrating human evolution. Their only motive was to let humanity flourish enough to activate the seed of Tiamut present on Earth.
New pieces of evidence suggest that The MCU has secretly pointed out mutant origins after all. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige is now Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment. He is famous for his attempts to run books and movies on parallel tracks. The new comic of X-Men has promised the readers about a big and radical event concerning X-Men. So, there’s a possibility that the upcoming movies may go hand in hand with it.
New X-Men Retcons
Marvel Writer Jonathan Hickman started the X-Men relaunch in 2019. Since then, the franchise has flourished stronger than ever. The story tells us that all the mutants have converged on the island of Krakoa. Their motive was to awaken the millions of dead through their powers and Cerebro technology. The narrative explained that X-Men established one more island that was connected to Mars and claimed it in the name of mutants.
Jonathan Hickman is famous for his descriptive and multi-dimensional storyline. He is no longer the lead writer for the series, but his legacy is now in more than capable hands. Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribic are the writers for Eternals, and they have attempted to infuse mutant aspects into its story. Marvel has its eyes on a three-way collaboration that has never been attempted before. It wants to bring X-Men, Eternals, and Avengers together. At the moment, there are no clear clues as to why so-called ‘Judgment Day’ will occur, but a major teaser has hinted that it is connected to a major retcon.
A dialogue from Druig, an Eternal, sheds some light on this matter. Druig says “For a million years, Earth has been protected from the Deviants, But we made a mistake… We missed some,The mutants.” This is a clear-cut sign of the presence of mutants and their relationship with Deviants. Deviants may have transmitted X-gene into humans through breeding. Eternals may have been unaware of this factor, leading to their failure to protect Earth from Deviants.
Mutant Origin And The MCU
Eternals movie did not stay true to the portrayal of Deviants from the comics. A Deviant is essentially a kind of parasite. Deviants absorb the attributes of anything they eat and digest. For example, Kro became the Deviant leader when he absorbed the energy of Eternal leader Ajak. However, there’s a small room for the Deviant-human DNA combination theory to be true.
The thing unique to Deviants is that no two Deviants are like each other. They develop the characteristics of the prey they feed on. Humans, as a species, have more similarities than differences. The movie did not explain how a Deviant changes after feeding off a human being.
Deviants may have gained human attributes that enabled them to integrate into human society. These human-like Deviants may be the reason for Deviant gene flow into the human genome.
As a matter of fact, there’s no guarantee that the MCU will explore the mutant dimension. One good way to approach this is to make mutants suddenly emerge into human society. Watching teens randomly develop uncanny abilities will induce an element of surprise in the narrative. The MCU can take this approach to gradually explain the plot. Writers can make Eternals figure out these Deviant invasions of the human race.
This theory is sure interesting, but fans will need to wait to testify to it. Only time will be able to uncover the mysterious origin of Mutants, and whether Eternals are the prime culprit behind it.
