The MCU's stunning X-Men line-up "revealed"; fans divided

The Mutants are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That's right, the X-Men's arrivals are on the horizon, as the Marvel Studios franchise has been slowly laying the groundwork for their entrance into the film series throughout the Multiverse Saga, with nods and references to iconic X-Men characters, themes, and storylines along the way.

But the next phase in that plan to introduce the characters will come in the form of a movie. Yes, Marvel Studios is indeed developing an X-Men movie, with a writer already attached to the project. And with Kevin Feige already confirming that the Mutants Era is here, it's only a matter of time until we meet Marvel's Mightiest Mutants in the form of Charles Xavier's team of superheroes.

Naturally, fans are wondering which of the classic X-Men heroes will be involved in the project. We've seen two live-action iterations of the team thus far, both of which took place in the Fox X-Men movie series. How could the MCU's compare to that? Well, a new report might have given us some answers.

The MCU's X-Men roster will be "similar" to X-Men '97's

According to veteran insider Daniel Richtman, the X-Men roster in the MCU will be similar to the one seen in animated series X-Men '97 "plus some". While that doesn't outright give the identity of every character involved, it does potentially confirm that the line-up will consist of Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Beast, Gambit, and Jubilee, while also featuring some others.

One character that the reboot won't feature, however, is Wolverine. In the same report in which Richtman speaks about the X-Men's line-up, he also confirms that Logan is not in the treatment for the movie at all, which suggests that he won't be involved in the project. He also adds that the reason for that is the fact that Hugh Jackman will likely be sticking around as his iconic version of Wolverine, even after Avengers: Secret Wars, so a recast wouldn't be necessary. An alternate version of Logan from another Earth, he made his MCU debut in Deadpool and Wolverine and spoke about the version of the X-Men he was a part of. Hopefully he will cross paths with the MCU's version at some point.

The immediate response to this report was somewhat divided. The idea that the MCU would take inspiration from the X-Men '97 line-up was met with praise from fans, because the Disney Plus series did a wonderful job of handling its roster of iconic characters and that makes it a great blueprint for any other adaptation. However, the revelation that Wolverine won't be a part of it had a bit more of a mixed response.

The good news is that it means Hugh Jackman will likely be sticking around as Logan, and given how iconic his performance has been over the past two decades, that's definitely the right choice. But separating Wolverine from the X-Men, at least in the beginning of their story, might be a bit of a risk given the character's popularity.

What it does mean is that the rest of the X-Men will get a chance to shine. As iconic as the original X-Men movies are, they struggled to present themselves as ensemble movies. Granted, Wolverine was the main character of those, so it's not surprising that they focused on him, but that focus came at the expense of the other characters. Cyclops, for instance, is the leader of the team - and was one of the main characters of the original X-Men: The Animated Series - and yet the movies gave the character very little to do.

If you compare that to the MCU's Avengers movies, you will see that Marvel Studios actually did a great job of balancing each hero on the team, while still ensuring that we knew which ones were the leaders. With that in mind, it might actually be a good thing to separate Wolverine from the X-Men early on as it would allow the MCU to produce more of an ensemble film to highlight how strong of a team Marvel's Mightiest Mutants are. After that, the two forces could come together.