Marvel has had a hard time in bringing new heroes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe but not having the right to use the Mutants. Mutants play a very essential role in Marvel Comics and almost every superhero team has managed to have one of them in the comics. The MCU did not have the right to use the term ‘mutant’ for any of the characters who are categorized as that in the movies. After the acquisition of 20th Century Fox by Disney it’s about time that the MCU started using the term and bringing in more such characters. But it seems Venom: Let There Be Carnage has beaten them to the punch. Venom 2 has introduced mutants before the MCU.
Marvel
We have seen the success that Marvel experienced in recent years with the massive movies that explore the live-action interpretations of some of the greatest storylines. But this was not the case during the early days as Marvel had to sell the rights to some of their characters to other studios. The rights for the mutants in the X-Men world were given to the 20th Century Fox. This also stopped Marvel from using the term ‘mutant’. We have seen two of the major mutants appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the form of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch and yet they were never referred to as mutants throughout. In fact, Wanda is a witch!
Mutant in Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Venom: Let There Be Carnage introduced us to a lot of characters and it seems they just jumped right in to use the term ‘mutant’ before MCU. The movie had the character of Shriek in the movie and this character is explicitly a mutant in the movies. Even though the character is based around the world of Spider-Man which could clearly mean that her character is in Sony’s collection of Marvel rights. But still, Sony didn’t beat around the bush with the character and just went for it in terms of this character. When it was being explored where the source of the powers of her character was, it was clearly referred to as the product of “mutations”. Hence dropping the ‘M’-word that MCU has been restricted from using for so long.
Rights for ‘Mutant’
Now the interesting thing to explore here is how Sony got the particular rights to use the term. The movie has an ending that links it with the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the post-credits sequence. We get to see Venom and Eddie Brock land in the universe of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. This could mean that the rights came from the MCU links and hence Disney granted them permission to use the term. Fans might have not picked on this right away considering Shriek is associated with Venom and the other characters in Spider-Man’s universe. A much greater impact would clearly be if we see Scarlet Witch being referred to as a mutant.
We know that MCU is already working on its projects around the mutants. Even though no proper update has been given yet when we will get to see these characters. The third part in the Deadpool films will be seen as a part of the MCU and hence we know that it is the only confirmed MCU mutant movie so far. A project based around the X-Men reboot into MCU is also at works and it would be rather interesting to see how MCU brings these mutants into this world of characters.
In a way, considering the fact that Venom joined the MCU as the end of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, we can say that Shriek is the closest MCU has come to a use of the term mutant. We are sure that the first time MCU actually uses mutants it would be quite a lot more interesting. But it does not defeat the fact that Venom: Let There Be Carnage did it first.
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