I Need the MCU X-Men to Avoid These Two Marvel Storylines For At Least a Decade

September 1, 2026, 1:00pm

The X-Men are finally properly joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and while this means that all kinds of stories can finally be told, I hope these two are ignored for at least a decade. FOX’s X-Men team has already made several appearances in MCU projects like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Deadpool & Wolverine, and the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, but the first X-Men character unique to the MCU finally made her debut in Spider-Man: Brand New Day: Jean Grey, played by Sadie Sink.

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At D23 2026, Disney revealed an entire slate of X-Men cast members, who are set to star alongside Sink in a 2028 X-Men movie. The cast of mutants will consist of Jean Grey, Emma Frost, Rogue, Storm, Professor X, and Mister Sinister. This only scratches the surface of what X-Men characters the MCU could feature, and while I’m not sure what stories future movies will tell, I really hope it isn’t these two.

The MCU Needs To Avoid Another Dark Phoenix Retelling

“The Dark Phoenix Saga” is one of the most iconic Jean Grey stories, and considering that Jean is the first X-Men team member who has been introduced to the MCU, many fans are expecting that the franchise will retell this story eventually. The saga was first introduced in 1980, with it following the powerful mutant as she encounters the cosmic Phoenix Force. Taking on a new mantle, she is slowly corrupted by the power of the Phoenix, with her eventually becoming a villain who is at the center of an intergalactic battle.

The saga has been retold countless times in X-Men adaptations, including the animated shows X-Men: The Animated Series and Wolverine and the X-Men. Both FOX X-Men series attempted to adapt it as well. The critically panned X-Men: The Last Stand featured it as one of its several storylines, while 2019’s Dark Phoenix adapted the Hellfire arc. Both of these films are considered to be some of the worst of the live-action X-Men movies, with neither doing the original saga justice.

So, there is good reason for the MCU to do a “Dark Phoenix” adaptation, as it could finally do it right. However, since it has already been tried so many times, doing it again isn’t a good idea. After all, it is a massive story, so attempting to entirely tell it within one movie is difficult. Plus, there are tons of other stories that center on Jean Grey as well as other X-Men members, so it doesn’t seem fair to adapt the iconic franchise three different times only to repeat the exact same storyline in all three.

On top of that, Jean Grey dies at the end of the Marvel Comics story, something that doesn’t need to happen so early in the MCU. A decade down the road might be the right time to retire Sink’s iteration of the character, but there are so many stories for the MCU to tell before this point.

The Sentinel Threat Also Needs To Be Avoided (Especially After Doomsday)

The other storyline that the MCU’s X-Men saga needs to avoid is ones centering on Sentinels. In the comics, Sentinels are massive robots typically created by the government in order to round up and exterminate mutants. They are key to some of X-Men‘s best moments of political commentary, and they’re some of the most iconic Marvel villains. However, they don’t need to be done again.

The Sentinels were at the core of X-Men: Days of Future Past, in which Wolverine has to go back in time and destroy the Sentinel program in order to prevent a dystopian future. The film gets into the details of the program’s creation, intentions, and execution, fully exploring their operations and evolution across decades. Unlike “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” this adaptation of the Sentinels was incredible, and it was adapted just as well in X-Men ’97 and several other X-Men projects.

No matter how good a track record this story has, it still shouldn’t be repeated in the MCU over stories that have never gotten the spotlight. This is even more true considering that the Sentinels will appear in Avengers: Doomsday, meaning that they will have already played a big role in the MCU. It’s ok for Sentinels to have a minor role in future X-Men projects, but they shouldn’t be the sole focus of a movie for a while.