Everyone’s favorite Game of Thrones badass — Kit Harrington — will make his mark on Marvel movies when he appears as “Black Knight” in The Eternals. But, will his character actually be a back-door way to get new versions of Wolverine and the rest of the X-Men into the ever-expanded Marvel Cinematic Universe? Here’s what’s going on.
Kit Harrington and Eternals co-star Salma Hayek posted a behind-the-scenes photo of themselves on the set of the next Marvel movie. If you’re confused about what The Eternals even are, that’s fine. Here’s cheat-sheet: They’re a group of immortal beings who sort of pre-date regular history in the Marvel universe. Remember Star Lord’s dad, as played by Kurt Russell in Guardains of the Galaxy 2? Yeah, he was one of the Eternals.
ANYWAY. Salma Hayek’s photo was just a sweet Instagram photo, but at the exact same time, comic book fans began theorizing that there’s a lot more going on with Harrington’s character than previously thought.
If your eyes glazed over when you read “comic book fans started theorizing,” I’ll cut to the chase: in the complicated mythology of Marvel Comics, Harrington’s character Black Knight is loosely connected with the origin of the mutants who are later known as X-Men. Basically, Black Knight ran into some early versions of the Mutants, but the legit explosion of mutants didn’t happen on Earth until the 20th century, partially because the mutant gene was stimulated by outside forces.
Okay, so what the hell does that mean for the MCU right now? Well, up until this point, the MCU movies haven’t depicted any of the X-Men for legal reasons, with the notable exception of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Also, as was revealed last week, an outtake of the famous Iron Man post-credits scene would have hinted at the existence of X-Men in the background of the MCU. No one really knows what the plot of the Eternals will be about yet, but it’s totally possible that Black Knight might discover the “origin” of the new version of Mutants in the MCU. (Reminder: post- Fox/Disney merger, the X-Men can now appear in the regular Marvel movies.)
In other words, because of some crazy ancient history magical shenanigans, Marvel’s The Enternals could end with a post-credits scene that teases the new X-Men. That is, only if we’re lucky.
The Eternals hits theaters Nov. 6, 2020.
This article originally appeared on Fatherly. Follow @FatherlyHQ on Twitter.
