The rumor joins the long list of speculations that have been making the rounds online, in the absence of any official information from Marvel Studios about it’s X-Men project.

Cyclops. Wolverine. Jean Gray.

Some characters have been at the forefront of the Marvel brand that are intimately connected to the X-Men. It is as Captain America and Iron Man are to the Avengers, Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben are to the Fantastic Four, and as Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman are to the Justice League. Whenever it comes to introducing these teams in new mediums, these characters are the premier choices to build out the universe with.
X-Men | Marvel Comics
While Wolverine, Cyclops, and Marvel Girl might be important characters to introduce the X-Men within any universe, a rumor has surfaced online that states that Marvel might forgo its premiere mutant team to focus on ‘underutilized’ characters to introduce the X-Men in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Needless to say, fans had a few things to say about it, whether it is true or not.

Fans simply don’t want an X-Men full of ‘underutilized’ characters

Official art for X-Men ’97 (via Marvel Animation)
X-Men ’97 was a resounding success for Marvel, and it did not play around with its main cast. Even if it chose to go with secondary characters like Morph and Bishop in its main lineup of characters, the show heavily relied on figures such as Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, and Gambit.

These characters are known entities for the majority of the audience, no matter what their level of familiarity with the X-Men IP. So when there were talks of Marvel allegedly thinking about bringing the X-Men in the MCU sans its iconic main cast, fans were understandably miffed.

This company loves failure

— LastS0n (@LastS0n) May 19, 2024

That’s what spinoffs are for. How about do your core team justice first, then we can get shit like X-Force, X-Factor, Exiles, New Mutants, Gen X, etc

— i find mfs like u really interesting bro. (@Mid_Jeanist) May 19, 2024

Literally just give the mcu to the X-men 97 team. This isn’t hard

— Jonathan (@cambss) May 19, 2024

It would be a huge mistake to not focus on Cyclops and Jean Grey

— Li Meier (@DISC0_DAZZLER) May 19, 2024

Details have been scarce about what the Marvel Cinematic Universe is planning to do with the X-Men. Two main members of the team, Beast and Charles Xavier, have made their appearances in Marvel movies already, and Wolverine will make three once Deadpool & Wolverine hits theatres.

There has been a slew of rumors that have been circulating about the MCU’s treatment of the X-Men, that have been claiming everything, from the MCU’s X-Men being an all-women team to the MCU setting their X-Men in a whole different universe. Details will probably remain scarce until we are well into 2025, given the slew of projects that Marvel has to get through before it can even start thinking about an X-Men film.

The MCU’s X-Men already have a certain format that can cue us into what we can expect

Beast from the post-credit scenes of The Marvels/ Marvel Studios
There seemed to be a fixed format for the X-Men cameos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that can probably cue us into what audiences can expect from the MCU’s X-Men. The cameos usually have the Fox-verse actors reprising their roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but their outfits are usually closer to what they wear in X-Men: The Animated Series.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe could take the best parts of these adaptations, simply because of the recall value that these films and the animated show have, and use them to create a version of the X-Men for the MCU that is familiar yet refreshing and new for fans of the X-Men and the MCU, as well as general audiences.

This could very much indicate a core team that is a fusion of the original Uncanny X-Men, that introduced characters like Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel and Iceman, and Giant-Sized X-Men, which brought in characters like Wolverine, Colossus, Storm, and Nightcrawler, for the MCU, which would ideally be the choice that would resonate with fans.

It must be noted that the MCU has already introduced mutants in its mainline universe, in the form of Ms. Marvel, who is revealed to be a mutant (thanks to dialogue and a musical cue from X-Men: The Animated Series). This change was also mirrored in the comics when Kamala Khan was changed from being an Inhuman to a mutant. The fact that Kamala as a character was not headhunted by Charles Xavier, has some interesting implications for the mainline MCU.