MCU’s X-Men Setup Secretly Began 11 Years Ago In Captain America 1

Marvel Studios actually began subtly setting up the X-Men, including Wolverine and Professor X, in the MCU all the way back in Captain America: The First Avenger. When Marvel launched the MCU back in 2008, they had to focus on superheroes who were, at the time, generally considered second-tier. The company had previously sold the film rights to many of their most popular heroes, notably the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man, meaning they were unable to make their own movies starring these characters.

All that changed when Disney acquired Fox’s movie and TV assets back in 2019, and the rights to the X-Men and their associated characters landed at Marvel Studios. Already Phase 4 has featured a number of second-tier characters and locations — notably Ursa Major in Black Widow and Madripoor in The Falcon & the Winter Soldier — while Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness features Patrick Stewart playing a variant of Professor X. It’s surely only a matter of time before mutants actually become part of the mainstream MCU timeline.

Surprisingly, there have been subtle hints of the X-Men since the MCU began. Released in 2011, Captain America: The First Avenger contains an easily missed conversation shortly after the death of Abraham Erskine. Captain America is presumed the only super-soldier, and an irate Colonel Phillips turns on him. “You’re an experiment,” he snaps. “You’re going straight to Alamogordo.” This is a deep cut in X-Men lore; in the comics, Professor X’s father, Brian, worked at what was initially believed to be a nuclear power plant in Alamogordo, New Mexico, but his son eventually learned it was a government black ops lab experimenting with super-soldiers — particularly, with mutants. This fits perfectly with Colonel Phillips’s comment to Rogers.

The experiments at Alamogordo remain a mystery even in the comics. Professor X eventually learned the facility was run by a scientist named Nathaniel Essex, an alias frequently used by X-Men villain Mr. Sinister, who was a twisted geneticist who hails from Victorian London and excels at genetic experimentation. He worked alongside Brian Xavier, Professor X’s step-father Kurt Marko, and even the long-lived mutants Mystique and Destiny. There, they conducted the first experiments upon mutants. There were even ominous hints Brian Xavier was involved in establishing the Weapon X Project, which was responsible for coating Wolverine’s bones with adamantium.

No doubt this was only intended as something of an Easter egg, albeit one so subtle it slipped past most viewers. But Marvel Studios could actually repurpose it now that they have the film rights to mutants and the X-Men, simply because it potentially serves as a setup for the latter. The MCU is already incorporating X-Men concepts into Phase 4, and little Easter eggs like the reference to Alamogordo allow them to retcon the mutant community as a secret part of the MCU all along, with mutants operating in the shadows, hidden from sight and, initially at least, few in number. Captain America: The First Avenger really does help set up that particular idea for the X-Men.