Falcon and Winter Soldier theory: MCU Mutants are hiding in plain sight
Rumor has it Marvel will tease the X-Men at some point soon, but what if we've already met our first mutant?
Mutants are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We don’t know when, but rumor has it the first character could show up as soon as this year. And with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier set to visit one major X-Men location, it’s totally possible the Disney+ series could be the first home of mutants in the MCU.
But is it possible we’ve already met our first mutant? Or even our first mutants? What if Falcon and the Winter Soldier is hiding the MCU’s first X-men characters in plain sight? This theory might be a little out there, but hear me out:
What if the Flag-Smashers aren’t just super-soldiers, they’re mutants?
Are the Flag Smashers secretly mutants?
In Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 2, we meet the Flag-Smashers, a team of anarchists with super strength. The group easily beats both Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes in a fight, and even the new Captain America and his sidekick Battlestar can’t stop them.
Later in the episode, the Flag-Smashers flee from the Power Brokers, another shady group that we still haven’t met. The implication seems clear: the Flag-Smashers got their powers from the Power Brokers (inspired by a single character in the comics called the Power Broker). But what if that’s just a misdirection?
After all, think about it, who’s the most famous superhero team in Marvel history? (Besides the Avengers, of course.)
Look, I know it’s a stretch, but there’s more than one reason this Marvel theory could be true, so stick around just a little while longer.
Mutants in the MCU?
The Scarlet Witch could be Marvel’s first “mutant.”
Ever since Disney bought Fox, fans have wondered how Marvel will integrate the X-Men into the MCU. The biggest problem? How do you make mutants a thing in the Marvel universe while also explaining how they’ve remained a secret for so long?
One popular theory is that Marvel will change the way mutants work. The classic X-Men story is that an evolutionary mutation called the X-gene gives a random subset of the human popular superpowers.
But what if in the MCU, the X-gene alone isn’t enough? What if you also need to be exposed to an extraordinary power? Like an Infinity Stone?
This theory explains how Wanda Maximoff and her brother Pietro were actually mutants thanks to their exposure to the Mind Stone, but it also sets an even bigger twist: What if Thanos’s Snap exposed the entire world to the power of the Infinity Stones? The Flag-Smashers could be some of the first new mutants to discover their powers.
X-Men in Falcon and the Winter Soldier?
Wolverine in Madripoor.
Marvel’s new show is already a globetrotting adventure, but we’re still waiting for the series to visit one particular location: Madripoor. The fictional island located in Southeast Asia, and it’s best known in the comics as one of Wolverine’s favorite haunts.
The credits for Falcon and the Winter Soldier tease a trip to Madripoor, and leaked set photos also hinted at the location. It seems certain that Sam and Bucky will eventually head to the island, but why?
Madripoor is a mutant hangout, but could it also be the home of the Flag-Smashers? If that’s the case, it would explain why Sam and Bucky are going to the island in the first place, while also revealing the unexpected way that mutants might be joining the MCU.
