The MCU continues to expand with each fresh release, and things are starting to get complicated.
Several characters introduced through a variety of established MCU hits have connections to as-yet unintroduced Marvel staples, and the familial ties between a set of titular, iconic characters has been an outstanding issue for awhile. The X-Men are supposedly set to make their MCU debut eventually — hopefully soon — but mutants are already an established part of the sprawling cinematic franchise. The existence of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, the twin children of Magneto in Marvel comics, has been raising eyebrows for years, as fans wonder how the franchise will explain away their connection to the popular mutant.
Due to Magneto’s complete lack of a presence in the MCU — so far, at least — Wanda and Pietro’s parentage has largely been ignored. This is likely in hopes of leaving their background open to alteration, which would allow for a canon explanation to eventually find its way into the story, once Magneto has been established. The question of how this might happen has haunted MCU fans for years, as they pondered how the franchise will explain away Magneto’s lack of presence in his children’s lives.
A surprisingly simple explanation was recently posted to Reddit’s Marvel Studios sub — one that makes sense in the franchise’s canon, and that unfortunately happens all too often in the real world. A fan took to the sub to note that the MCU could easily explain away Magneto’s absence by simply making him a distant father.
By simply establishing that Magneto abandoned his children before they were born, the MCU could allow Magneto to still be the twins’ father, but maintain all the storylines already established via previous releases. Characters and plotlines surrounding the twins’ childhoods, experimentation, and parents could be maintained, so long as the franchise shifted gears very slightly. Stepfathers exist, after all, and it’s entirely possible for the twins to have grown up with a father figure they don’t share blood with.
As commenters were quick to point out, the twins don’t need to be Magneto’s children in the MCU, but abandoning their ties from comics would surely rankle some fans. It’s not like the MCU hasn’t taken liberties with the source material before, however, and abandoning Wanda and Pietro’s original parentage wouldn’t be the biggest change the cinematic franchise has made.
Knowing that such a simple, believable explanation exists is a comfort to those fans who want to see the MCU maintain a blood tie between Magneto and his in-comics kids, but we wouldn’t blame the franchise if it went in a different direction. So long as it comes up with something more worthy of Magneto — and perhaps Wanda — than what was included in Multiverse of Madness, we can forgive some shuffling up of the original story.