I'm Happy Captain America: Brave New World Will Help Lay Groundwork For The X-Men, But Why Is Marvel Acting Like Nobody Understands The Concept Of Mutants?

Hugh Jackman stands angrily in the TVA in Deadpool and Wolverine.
(Image credit: Marvel Studios)

The much-discussed Captain America: Brave New World is the latest entry on the schedule of upcoming Marvel movies, and it’s set to bring some big changes to Disney’s superhero franchise. While the film mainly revolves around Sam Wilson, it’ll also plant seeds for other corners of the cinematic universe. I’m mainly talking about the X-Men, whose lore is further established in the film. Like so many fans, I find this exciting but, at the same time, it feels like Marvel should give fans more credit when it comes to understanding the mutants.

What Did Captain America: Brave New World’s Co-Producer Say About The Film’s X-Men Ties?

During San Diego Comic-Con 2024 last summer, it was revealed that Cap 4 would have a surprising link to Eternals. That film saw the Celestial Tiamut nearly destroy the Earth as part of the Emergence, before being solidified by Sersei. Now, the imposing being’s frozen body is being harvested for a new substance that’s been dubbed as adamantium. In the comics, said substance is one of the strongest metals in the Marvel universe and is also what Wolverine’s claws are made out of.

Brave New World producer Nate Moore recently discussed the inclusion of the fictional metal in the upcoming superhero movie. Moore confirmed to ComicBook.com that in the context of the film, adamantium contributes to “global power struggles,” which he calls “the story of this movie.” However, the savvy filmmaker and longtime comic book fan also admitted that the inclusion of this famous metal does insist in the studio’s efforts to set up the famous characters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby decades ago:

One of the things we were very mindful of as we start to head towards a world that introduces the X-Men is sort of seeding the ground so it doesn’t feel like you’re going to drink out of the firehose with a lot of different concepts. You know, we’ve already said that Namor’s a mutant. We’ve hinted that Ms. Marvel may be as well at the end of her show. We want to start just sort of planting some seeds so that as we’re building towards that idea, it feels like an organic story that’s been happening rather than something that we just drop in the middle of this ongoing saga right now.

Up to this point, the shepherds of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have indeed found ways to subtly place the building blocks of mutant kind. Of course, they’ve also done so in more grandiose ways à la Patrick Stewart’s return as Professor X in Doctor Strange 2 and Beast and Binary’s presence in The Marvels’ mid-credits scene. This is the kind of long-game strategy that’s worked for the Disney-owned studio in the past. However, I’d argue that it may not be as necessary this time around.

Why Marvel’s Mutant Approach Doesn’t Need To Be So Tedious?

Something I’ve found so wonderful about the MCU is that it’s introduced a wide range of superhero characters, concepts and locales to general audiences over the years. Because many of those concepts were foreign to non-comic book readers, they had to be introduced slowly and carefully. One of the biggest examples would be the path to Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet. However, the IP also built up aspects of the Black Panther franchise over time and, up until recently, Kang the Conqueror was being built up slowly.

I can certainly understand not wanting to integrate the mutants into this continuity abruptly, yet there’s no need to keep the kid gloves on here. At this point, the general public has had access to various X-Men movies for years. That’s why it was such a big deal when Wolverine actor Hugh Jackman reprised his role in 2023’s Deadpool & Wolverine. Considering all of the information present in all of those films, I’d like to think that quite a few people have at least a basic understanding of the mutants and their world.

Think of it like the situation involving Spider-Man, who the MCU didn’t waste time setting up. Additionally, the Fantastic Four haven’t had much groundwork laid out ahead of their latest film, First Steps, possibly due to how familiar people are with them.

Of course, in an entertainment landscape where execs like to jump on an IP as soon as possible, I can see the value in Marvel taking its time when formally re-introducing the X-Men on the silver screen. I just hope the powers that be don’t overexplain the history of the mutants here. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing how adamantium plays into Captain America: Brave New World when it soars into theaters on February 14 as part of the 2025 movie schedule.

Erik Swann
Senior Content Producer

Erik Swann is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He began working with the publication in 2020 when he was hired as Weekend Editor. Today, he continues to write, edit and handle social media responsibilities over the weekend. On weekdays, he also writes TV and movie-related news and helps out with editing and social media as needed. He graduated from the University of Maryland, where he received a degree in Broadcast Journalism. After shifting into multi-platform journalism, he started working as a freelance writer and editor before joining CB. Covers superheroes, sci-fi, comedy, and almost anything else in film and TV. He eats more pizza than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

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