The X-Men are coming to Disney+. The return of their classic animated series was officially announced on Disney+ Day. Between that and their impending debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's easy to forget that Marvel Studios was actively looking for a substitute for the merry mutants in recent memory.
Marvel attempted to make the Inhumans a major force both in comics and on-screen. Many fans and industry observers took it as a transparent attempt to stand in for the X-Men, whose film rights were owned by 20th Century Fox before Disney acquired the studio in 2019. The Inhumans failed to become a thing in any medium, but that may have been the best thing that could have happened for Marvel and the X-Men.
The Inhumans failed to catch on in any medium where Marvel attempted to make them a prominent part of their universe. While Marvel's comic book push of the characters was met with a tepid reaction, it was the failure of their live-action adaptations that remains Marvel's most infamous bomb.
Inhumans was a passion project for former Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter. The movie version was far enough along that it was once scheduled to be part of Phase Three of the MCU. A dispute between Perlmutter and Kevin Feige led to Inhumans being shifted from the movie division to television, although its pilot did get a limited IMAX release.
The Inhumans television series was canceled after one much-maligned season, taking Marvel's attempt to make the characters a bigger part of the comics down with it. It's a shame that the efforts of many talented creators, in comics and on television, went to waste. But there is a silver lining to the Inhumans' massive failure for the characters they were meant to replace.
The X-Men's introduction to the MCU requires some finesse on Marvel's part. After 20 years of Fox-produced movies, which culminated in 2020's New Mutants, a lot of ground has been covered by the X-Men on film. Marvel Studios has to learn from Fox's mistakes while also retaining what's worked about the characters and without making it feel like a retread.
The failure of Inhumans makes Marvel's job with the X-Men a little easier. Without the Inhumans inhabiting the X-Men's usual outsider role in the MCU, it will be easier to introduce them without worrying about redundancy. The fact that Inhumans died on the vine also means that Marvel doesn't have to introduce the X-Men to the MCU in a feature film.
Fans have been looking for clues about the X-Men's MCU debut since WandaVision aired. Theories posited that everyone from Magneto to Layla Miller could have shown up to herald the debut of mutants in the shared universe. While that didn't happen, the idea of debuting the X-Men on Disney+ isn't a bad one. Instead of tacking them on to another character's show, the X-Men could be introduced in their own series.
Given the X-Men's huge cast of characters and complex mythology, there's a solid argument that television is the perfect medium to adapt them to. The '90s animated series remains the most faithful and loved adaptation of the characters, to the point where it's getting a revival. Applying what worked there to a live-action show could make it the biggest MCU show on Disney+. It could also lay the groundwork for the eventual X-Men movie without shortchanging characters the way the Fox movies did.
Furthermore, Inhumans' cancelation means that the field is wide open for a Marvel team/ensemble show. Had Inhumans succeeded, the concept might have already been run into the ground in the years since its 2017 debut. Instead, most MCU shows have revolved around one or two characters, save for outliers like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Runaways and the Defenders event series. That means an X-Men MCU show can break ground for the franchise.
Inhumans' crash and burn might still sting at Marvel. It was a rare misstep that became an evolutionary dead-end for the ever-expanding franchise. Even so, it did conveniently lay the groundwork for the X-Men's MCU debut, showing how charmed the franchise's success has been. Even its biggest failure could set up a huge hit down the line.