Three years after Disney finalized its purchase of Fox, Marvel Studios has finally began to sow the seeds for the X-coming, Men’s with Ms. Marvel revealing Kamala Khan as the MCU’s first. The wait may have been longer than many had wanted, given there were early speculations that some might appear as soon as Avengers: Endgame, but the studio has obviously been keen to take its time.
Despite the fact that Ms. Marvel’s twist was the first mention of the X-Men in the MCU, Marvel Studios is known for sowing the seeds for stories years before they come to fruition. It’s for this reason that MCU fans are continuously looking for hidden meanings in every throwaway sentence and Easter egg.
One such statement appeared in Spider-Man: Far From Home only months after Disney completed its acquisition of Fox, and one hypothesis says it was intended to set up the X-Men.
Suspicious Kree Sleeper Cells in the MCU
Spider-Man: Far From Home sees Talos, dressed as Nick Fury, remark “Kree sleeper cells” being active on Earth after appearing in 2019’s Captain Marvel: “I assumed Kree having sleeper cells was top secret information.”
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter at the time, Far From Home author Chris McKenna remarked on the phrase, noting that the Kree name-drop wasn’t meant to be a huge deal.
However, Marvel Studios is notorious for adding new meaning to events and statements years later to fit the present story:
“It was one of those situations when we needed a downbeat with Maria and Nick speaking in disguise. We’d ask [Marvel Studios] for narrative pieces, and they’d give us tidbits here and there. That was one of those things that made them think they were talking about the Kree. That’s how uninteresting the narrative is.”
Back in 2019, the Kree were only key participants in Captain Marvel, along with Ronan the Accuser from Guardians of the Galaxy, but they are now primed to be engaged in the MCU’s introduction of mutants in the near future, a dramatic change from the books.
Is there a link between the Kree and the Mutants?
Ms. Marvel hinted to the origin of the bangle that unlocked her talents with the appearance of a suspect arm before unveiling Kamala Khan as the MCU’s first mutant. During a flashback to British-occupied India in 1942, Kamala’s grandmother Aisha looked for bangles and discovered one linked to a blue arm behind some debris in a British-looted cave.
The body attached to the arm was never disclosed, but most suspected it belonged to a Kree – Captain Marvel’s extraterrestrial species. The Kree have nothing to do with mutants, although their experiments on humans resulted in the development of the Inhuman species.
Based on the limited hints of the MCU’s mutants that have been released so far, it seems they may be combined with the Inhumans. Normally, mutants are born with their talents, but Kamala had to have hers unlocked, sparking speculation of Scarlet Witch going through something similar, akin to how Inhumans must go through Terrigenesis to obtain their abilities.
Perhaps the MCU will incorporate bits of the Inhumans into the mutants to prevent general viewers being confused by the presence of two comparable, but very distinct, super-powered species at the same time. Marvel Studios has already mixed characters and storylines, but adopting components of the Inhumans to introduce mutants would be the most significant move.
Was Mutants teased in Spider-Man: Far From Home?
At the time of Far From Home’s production, Disney had only just bought Fox and the X-Men franchise. With that in mind, it’s unlikely that Marvel Studios has even started to figure out how mutants would enter the MCU, much alone sow the seeds in future films.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, on the other hand, is notorious for adding additional significance to pieces of the MCU after the fact in order to further strengthen its interconnectedness. With that in mind, it’s possible that these Kree sleeper cells are mutants in hiding, since other well-known mutants, like as Namor, are already out there someplace.
Sleeper cells would be a military and conspiracy-driven word for mutants in hiding, but because that remark was given by a Skrull, they’d presumably have a prejudiced perspective on anything Kree-related owing to the two species’ renowned animosity. Perhaps the hint of malevolent intent is legitimate, and this might be the beginning of the Magneto-led Brotherhood of Mutants.
The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, as it was originally known, has served a variety of goals throughout the years, ranging from terrorist acts against anti-mutant leaders to all-out global dominance. Because the Kree developed Inhumans for their own goals, it’s possible that they did the same with mutants in the MCU, resulting in a group like the Brotherhood acting as a sleeper cell.
With Secret Invasion set to attack Skrulls that have infiltrated human culture and are hiding, maybe the Kree’s own sleeper cells will come into action. The Marvels might also be used to better explain the Kree’s mutant links once Kamala Khan returns, particularly as the blue aliens played a significant role in Captain Marvel and should do so again.
