There's much talk of the alternate-reality/multiverse approach to both Marvel and DC mythologies: how their cinematic universes will open for a broad range of superhero crossovers. The intrigue is justified, but the idea isn't trailblazing or unusual among imagi-franchises.
Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Star Trek, Terminator, Planet of the Apes, Alien Nation, Fringe, Sliders, Cloverfield and (in perhaps a more subtle manner) Toho's kaiju have paved thought-provoking, parallel paths. However (unless one considers such small-screen endeavors as Gerard Christopher's Superboy or Lois and Clark), the forerunner on the live-action superhero-franchise front is Twentieth Century Fox's X-Men.
The actual catalyst came with Days of Future Past, named after a comic-book saga, which in turn was named after a legendary concept album by the Moody Blues.
In X-Men's Days, time travel invades, with Hugh Jackman's Wolverine leading the charge. The '70s morph as a result, with an assassination attempt on President Nixon and bad girl, Mystique turning good in the end.
Nothing was the same after those events, though the altered history presented doesn't erase what came before or what may exist along an infinite number of celestial trails. The setup also allowed its actors to exchange roles and backgrounds within Days' ensuing sequels/prequels: a gimmick that both Warner Brothers and Disney now employ without shame.
Considering X-Men's track record, our diligent mutants have left the door wide open for amazing offshoots and outcomes. For example, a few years prior, audiences were treated to a rugged realm where Logan grew old in a character study that, though connected to previous chapters, embodied its own world, while still begging for a down-the-line link to intersecting pockets.
Logan gave us something so brash and idealized, in fact, that rumor now claims that Jackman's world-weary mutant may cameo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Some say that Patrick Stewart's Charles Xavier might manifest, too. We've also heard about Ryan Reynolds' intended insertion as Stan the Man's cameo replacement. And then there's this whole double-Quicksilver thing which--ah, shoot, for the sake of squashing a major spoiler, I must go mum. (Watch WandaVision Episode #5 for that significant scoop.)
I sure hope that many members of the Fox team do, indeed, show in the grand, mix-and-match Marvel Cinematic Universe plan. The alternate-reality scope of X-Men is too prolific not to nibble on, in particular with Disney now holding the anything-goes, rebooting reins. If made part of the unfurling, zigzagging realities, X-Men holds the transforming tonic to be uplifting, sorrowful, thrilling and above all, surprising at the same and varying times: ideal flavoring for any MCU stew.
Let's hope the House of the Mouse doesn't fumble the opportunist ball. The X-Men should rub elbows with such big-screen counterparts as the Avengers, Spidey and the Fantastic Four; and more than on specialized occasion, but on a hardy, indefinite basis. Fingers crossed that this tried-and-true band of uncanny irregulars ascends again into the coveted X-light.
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