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On Thursday morning, we woke up to the news that Marvel Studios had announced a huge number of cast members for the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, with the biggest shock being the return of a huge array of X-Men actors, many of them queer icons.

We already knew Kelsey Grammer was returning as Beast, but more surprising was the other returning X-actors: Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Ian McKellen鈥檚 Magneto, James Marsden as Cyclops, and Alan Cumming and Rebecca Romjin as our fav blue-skinned mutants Nightcrawler and Mystique all confirmed to appear in the film (and Channing Tatum鈥檚 Gambit, for some reason).

It鈥檚 been an open secret since Disney purchased 20th Century Fox in 2019 that the X-Men, queer favourites that they are, were set to play a huge part in the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But I have to admit that this announcement for Doomsday has only enhanced my pre-existing scepticism about mutants in the MCU. I worry that these characters, who are so often fighting for change, are set to be flattened into caricatures when they take centre stage in the franchise.

The unique appeal of the X-Men, and how it clashes with MCU

I鈥檝e always loved the X-Men, even as a kid. The aesthetics of the naturally super-powered team starring icons like Storm, Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue and Nightcrawler taking on giant robots and humans hellbent on their destruction is of course wildly endearing to children 鈥� and naturally, the spandex doesn鈥檛 hurt either.

But as I got older, I realised that there鈥檚 nothing else quite like the X-Men in comic book media, thanks to the overtly political elements at the core of their premise that have long made mutantkind an allegory for marginalised groups. Series co-creator Stan Lee has said that , and gay screen legend/Magneto actor Ian McKellen has drawn comparisons to the queer community and mutants. In the present, it鈥檚 easier than ever to draw parallels between the treatment of mutants and the global queer community with a fascistic President in the Oval Office.

As a result, these characters have always resonated heavily with 17c起草社区IA+ readers, and the queer element of X-Men has only grown more explicit as the years go on (see for more examples). What makes the X-Men so irresistibly queer in my eyes is the fact that they鈥檙e hated by much of the non-mutant population of Earth due to the circumstances of their birth, but nonetheless come together as a found family to fight against hatred and for the good of all Earth鈥檚 inhabitants.

I would say at the core of any story about the X-Men is the idea of change. They fight to change the public perception of mutants, to change the world and often to change the future. Meanwhile, allowing change is the antithetical to the MCU鈥檚 approach to storytelling. It鈥檚 a franchise with a reputation for maintaining the status quo, for reflecting the real world but never really imagining a better future for it.

The MCU’s obsession with the past is most prevalent in the unending procession of cameos that have made up much of the modern-era MCU films, and bringing back all of these actors from the old X-Men films (not a single one under 50, by the way) means that Doomsday is unlikely to be any different.

They鈥檙e simply refusing to let go of the past glory of movies that are literally decades old at this point so that they can reap nostalgia points from fans of the mutants, queer or otherwise. The X-Men are not characters in a film like Doomsday: they are pieces of intellectual property deployed to maximise the number of bums in seats and money made.

It’s hard to have faith in an MCU version of X-Men

This decision also signals to me that the next live-action incarnation of the X-Men will not be daring in either a political or narrative way due to that incessant need to generate as much money as possible. It鈥檚 difficult to have faith that whichever filmmaker tackles the project will be able to properly delve into the metaphor of the material, especially given the high likelihood that any allegories to queer people or any other marginalised groups will get it labelled 鈥渨oke鈥� in our hellscape of a cultural climate.

X-Men has always been 鈥渨oke鈥�, of course, but will Disney acknowledge that when it comes to the chance to make a few million more dollars? My faith weakens even further when I consider , and the company鈥檚 recent willingness to scale back its DEI practices in line with the current Trump regime, . That doesn鈥檛 give me confidence in Marvel鈥檚 ability to represent the X-Men properly!

I could be wrong, and I honestly hope I am. It鈥檚 worth noting that last year’s spectacular X-Men 鈥�97 was released under Disney鈥檚 watch, and that show really dug into mutants as a political entity in a truly fascinating way while taking material from X-comics both new and old (it even contains the phrase 鈥淢agneto was right鈥�). But the stakes were always much lower for 鈥�97, a show that went straight to Disney+ and had an existing fanbase thanks to the 90s animated show; it was in a perfect position to take risks.

Meanwhile, the stakes couldn鈥檛 be higher for the new live-action version of X-Men; the future of the MCU likely rides on the entry of mutantkind into the franchise. But it鈥檚 hard to get excited when this risk-averse Avengers: Doomsday announcement indicates a dire misunderstanding of what makes the X-Men great to begin with, and it means the future looks bleak in the MCU for the best superhero team in comics.