Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Reveals Major Detail About the X-Men

Mutants have officially arrived in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Earlier this year, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) was introduced as the first mutant added to the beloved franchise. Fast forward a few months and the MCU found itself with another mutant, this time with Tenoch Huerta’s Namor seemingly carrying the X-Gene. In fact, it’s Namor’s debut that confirms something major about the X-Men (and mutants as a whole) within the franchise. Light spoilers up ahead for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Proceed with caution if you’ve yet to see the movie!

While Khan started exhibiting powers in the most recent chunk of the timeline, Wakanda Forever revealed Namor was born centuries ago. Not just that, but he has exhibited abilities since his birth, meaning mutant genes have been around for quite some time. The Snap didn’t cause the formation of the mutants, nor were they introduced through multiversal means. Instead, it seems that mutants have always been a thing within the MCU, just hidden away from the rest of the franchise.

When are the X-Men appearing in the MCU?

According to Wakanda Forever producer Nate Moore, the X-Men proper are still a ways off. Outside of Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) appearing together in Deadpool 3, little is known about the future of the group within the MCU.

“Well, Storm’s relationship with Wakanda in publishing is pretty interesting. Obviously, we might be a few years out from the X-Men, so I’m not sure we’re there yet,” Moore said in a chat with ScreenRant. ” Who else from Wakanda have we not introduced? I mean, there’s a pretty deep bench, actually. And especially, I think, Ta-Nehisi’s run introduced a lot of key characters that would be fun to export. Even characters like Vibraxas, which are more Fantastic Four characters. But yeah, it’s a pretty deep bench. I think there’s a lot more stories to tell on Wakanda for sure.”

Now in theaters, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever follows Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba) as they fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T’Challa’s death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda.  It has yet to be seen where the Midnight Angels tie into the story.

Introducing Tenoch Huerta as Namor, king of a hidden undersea nation, the film also stars Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Mabel Cadena and Alex Livanalli.