MCU's X-Men Setup Secretly Began 11 Years Ago In Captain America 1
Marvel Studios actually began subtly setting up the X-Men, including Wolverine and Professor X, in the MCU all the way back in Captain America: The First Avenger. When Marvel launched the MCU back in 2008, they had to focus on superheroes who were, at the time, generally considered second-tier. The company had previously sold the film rights to many of their most popular heroes, notably the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man, meaning they were unable to make their own movies starring these characters.
All that changed when Disney acquired Fox's movie and TV assets back in 2019, and the rights to the X-Men and their associated characters landed at Marvel Studios. Already Phase 4 has featured a number of second-tier characters and locations — notably Ursa Major in Black Widow and Madripoor in The Falcon & the Winter Soldier — while Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness features Patrick Stewart playing a variant of Professor X. It's surely only a matter of time before mutants actually become part of the mainstream MCU timeline.
Related: Marvel Just Introduced The MCU's Most Powerful Mutant Before The X-Men
Surprisingly, there have been subtle hints of the X-Men since the MCU began. Released in 2011, Captain America: The First Avenger contains an easily missed conversation shortly after the death of Abraham Erskine. Captain America is presumed the only super-soldier, and an irate Colonel Phillips turns on him. "You're an experiment," he snaps. "You're going straight to Alamogordo." This is a deep cut in X-Men lore; in the comics, Professor X's father, Brian, worked at what was initially believed to be a nuclear power plant in Alamogordo, New Mexico, but his son eventually learned it was a government black ops
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