How to Integrate the X-Men into the MCU, Take 2

So a while back I talked about how I would integrate the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but in more general thematic terms as opposed to plot and specific continuity. 

A tweet by “Moviebob” Bob Chipman got me thinking in more detail, and I think I have some ideas:

Part of the issue I was having is how to combine certain timeline issues with the new revelation about mutants’ existence, and I think I’ve hit on a nifty solution. We already know from CA:CW and Ant-Man (and Hulk too) that the U.S Govt. had a covert superhero program from the 60s onwards, trying to replicate the lost Super-Soldier program.

This project could easily have included more forceful and less savory attempts to recruit mutants into the national security state, i.e Weapon X, with SHIELD trying to cover up the existence of mutants and HYDRA infiltrating the unethical human experimentation side. In response, mutants go underground to avoid being turned into weapons of war against their will and have remained underground ever since. This solves the problem of how to combine secrecy and the mutant metaphor.

The mutant “Masquerade” to borrow from my White Wolf days continues until the emergence of the Avengers and the collapse of SHIELD, since now the public is starting to warm to the idea of superpowered people as good and the institution that’s been hunting them is deinstitutionalized. Xavier (who’s updated to be a Vietnam War veteran) begins to recruit and train the X-Men into becoming an Avengers for the mutants. 

However, the events of CA:CW creates the basis for “a world that hates and fears them” through the backlash against the Avengers and the creation of the Sokovia Accords, which looks very different to mutants. Now the whole world is out to get them, not just SHIELD/HYDRA. At the same time, the events of Infinity War and A4 convince Xavier that the X-Men are needed to save the world, since mutant registration is moot if someone like Thanos kills half of the world. However, this stance is controversial within the mutant community, not everyone agrees, but after the first appearance of the X-Men the cat’s out of the bag…

Which brings in the X-Men’s own protagonists. Personally, I wouldn’t bring in Magneto as the primary villain in the first film – he’s been really over-used by the Bryan Singer X-Men films and needs a break. Rather, I would start the X-Men off with someone who hasn’t been seen yet in the X-films:

Yes, the mad scientist Mr. Sinister, who brings in all the same eugenics/Darwinian theme as Apocalypse but with glam rock stylings instead of ponderousness. And the best part is, the X-Men can totally kill off Sinister in the first film without wasting him, because Mr. Sinister has INFINITE CLONES. Hell, if they want to, they can even do the gender-swapped Miss Sinister thing, because Mr. Sinister doesn’t care about gender norms. 

So how do we deal with Magneto’s timeline thing? Well, to begin with, I’d keep him in the background and build him up through mentions in dialogue and post-credit scenes until they’ve built him up enough (especially if they need to recast Magneto). And there’s a couple of ways you can hook Magneto into setting while still keeping his origin:

• We know that HYDRA was operating human experimentation programs during WWII, and that they used human cryonics to deal with potentially dangerous subjects. What if HYDRA were experimenting on a young Erik Lensherr (a bit older than the child the Singer films had him, more like a young man in his mid-20s, closer to Claremont’s continuity), he rebelled and they flash-froze him to prevent him escaping?
• He’s stuck in an abandoned HYDRA lab for however many years are necessary, but at a useful time, the systems keeping him frozen fail and he wakes up. They could go the amnesia route (he’s been down that road before), or you could have Magneto hunting HYDRA from the shadows as in First Class.
• At some point, he meets Xavier, they become friends but disagree about the possibility of mutant integration into human society. Then sometime around A:AoU, Magneto finds out that the wife and/or kids he thought died in the camps survived and settled in Sokovia…and Wanda and Pietro were his grandchildren, experimented on by HYDRA to unlock their genetic potential. 

This gives him a good hook into a main cast member of the existing MCU – he’s the grandfather of an Avenger – but also a good reason to be an anti-villain: he hates HYDRA and the Sokovia Accords, but also blames Stark and the Avengers for the death of his kin.