Why Scarlet Witch is the Key for the X-Men to Join the MCU

If you're wondering why you haven't heard much of Marvel Studios' plans for Phase Four, president Kevin Feige has made it clear the studios is keeping everything close to the chest until Phase Three officially wraps with Avengers 4. We do know a couple of things, however; the landscape of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be different, and we'll be mourning the loss of characters we've come to love over the last 10 years. However, with the Disney and Fox merger in the works, there's a very good chance we'll be welcoming some new ones as well.

Which brings us to virtually every Marvel fan's dream of having the X-Men and Fantastic Four finally rubbing shoulders with the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. Despite Feige indicating that the incorporation of the Fox characters is still a ways off, you can't help but feel that he's simply waiting for the right moment, and more so, the right way to integrate these additional faces into the MCU.

And with that in mind, it's a virtual no-brainer; the entry point Feige and company should be looking at is a solo movie focusing on Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch.

In recent interviews, Olsen expressed trepidation about such a venture, admitting it wasn't something she was "pushing" for. But despite her initial tentativeness, she later clarified that she would love a crack at a solo flick.

Even more interestingly is that in walking back her previous apprehension, she also mentioned the perfect event that would enable her character to bring Fox's mutants into the MCU: House of M, the popular comic event from writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Olivier Coipel.

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It's worth noting that in the filmverse, Wanda Maximoff was not born with her abilities. She's genetically enhanced, as we saw in Age of Ultron, thanks to Baron Strucker's rogue HYDRA faction which mutated her into, well, a "miracle" -- the MCU's way of using Scarlet Witch without calling her a "mutant." This experimentation was made possible on her and her brother Pietro (aka Quicksilver, as played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) thanks to the Mind Stone, which means that there could be a connection from Wanda to the other Infinity Stones that the MCU has yet to explore.

Remember, the Infinity Stones have a certain synergy amongst themselves, which is what gifts someone who's wielding an Infinity Gauntlet filled with all the Stones godlike powers, not the least of which is the ability to remake the universe. Now, if Wanda becomes unhinged as per House of M, or sees her powers evolve, the studio could easily have her tapping into the Reality Stone, and well, reshaping reality. This would allow Wanda to create an alternate world just like House of M, one where mutants could be one of the species existing in the MCU.

In the comics, she created this reality (albeit due to the manipulation of Quicksilver) so as to live a peaceful life with her family -- Magneto, her brother and her two children. It wouldn't be that far-fetched adapting this for the big screen and having the character want a new reality. Even in the MCU, she has all the motivation she needs. She's been through a lot, after all: Quicksilver's death, Sokovia being destroyed in the battle against Ultron, fighting with her fellow Avengers in Civil War, and most recently, her own death, as well as that of her boyfriend, the Vision, in Infinity War.

Seeing as Olsen has two more Marvel films on her contract once Phase Three ends, it's highly a pretty safe bet her character will return in Avengers 4. The incidents listed above could be presented as cascading catalysts for her wanting a fresh start, and more, that happy ending she never got in previous films. And, when she eventually resets reality to 'normal' as per the comics, the mutants that she created could be integrated into the mainstream MCU. After all, when alternate realities end, as we've seen with the Ultimate Universe and 2015's Secret Wars, characters (e.g. Miles Morales, Old Man Logan) can end up in places they weren't before.

This approach would allow any era of Fox's X-Men to merge with the MCU, or create room for Marvel Studios to cast fresh faces. Even if the MCU doesn't go the alternate reality route, Wanda's possible connection to the other Infinity Stones, namely the Space Stone, could even allow her to open a portal (maybe a rip in the fabric of space and time) to invite Fox's mutants over. We already saw Loki opening a portal using the Tesseract in 2012's The Avengers, so Scarlet Witch could always go omega level, using the Stones' combined influence to create a gateway for mutants from other realities -- but in the end, we'd rather see Avengers: House of M in theaters.