As outlined above, the supposed contradiction in how the Marvel public treats the X-Men compared to other superheroes isn’t really an issue. Mutants represent something entirely different and, to the prejudiced mind, more threatening. It’s still a bit odd that people in the Marvel universe don’t just call every superpowered individual a mutant, but that’s beside the point.
Still, balancing the complex sociopolitical world of the X-Men with other major Marvel characters and storylines can be challenging. Fox kept the mutants in their own film universe because of rights limitations, but it ended up working out because it made things simpler. As Marvel Studios prepares to introduce its own, new version of the X-Men — not Wolverine’s return in “Deadpool 3,” but a proper, fully recast iteration — Kevin Feige and company have some big decisions to make.
Because mutants as a major race don’t exist in the main MCU reality, many have theorized that the X-Men will be introduced through some parallel world. And, depending on what Marvel intends to do with them this time around, it might make the most sense to keep them there. Aside from complicating the balance, the X-Men will add a lot of characters to the current mix. The population of active MCU characters could effectively double when they’re brought into the fold, and that might just be too much to juggle in a single dimension. Time will tell how Disney ultimately decides to handle the MCU’s X-Men reboot. But after the response to “X-Men ’97,” expectations are higher than ever.