Marvel Studios' first-ever X-Men movie now reportedly has a working title, but it has viewers wondering what's coming based on how weird that title is. The X-Men are one of the more highly anticipated MCU newcomers, considering how long they were kept away due to rights issues, meaning any bit of news surrounding their debut will garner fan attention.
Marvel Studios' upcoming X-Men movie is reportedly using the working title "Chunnel." Understandably, this word is not one that comes up often in the English language or in the movie world, but it could set up some intriguing ideas for where Marvel Studios is going with the mutants.
Analyzing the news (initially reported by The Cosmic Circus), the word "Chunnel" is a nickname for the Channel Tunnel, a 32-mile-long railway connecting England and France beneath the English Channel. However, the tunnel has appeared in a pair of X-Men comics and eight times in Marvel Comics overall.
Notably, the Chunnel was used in New X-Men #129-130, which introduced the powerful mutant known as Fantomex. Stealing information about the Weapon X project in the Chunnel, he eventually goes to the X-Men for help destroying Weapon XII, which is located in the tunnel and is eventually revealed to be Weapon XIII.
While the X-Men movie is officially in development, with Thunderbolts*' Jake Schreier in line to direct it, no story details have been revealed. The script will be written by Michael Lesslie (who held the same job for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes), and the reboot does not have a release timeframe yet.
What X-Men Movie's Weird Title Could Mean for Mutants' MCU Debut
While the Channel Tunnel's inclusion specifically in the MCU's X-Men reboot is hard to nail down, it could have a deeper meaning for what will end up coming in the film.
Thinking of famous tunnels in the Marvel universe, the mutant sanctuary known as Krakoa is connected to the world by a tunnel, which could help introduce mutants to the MCU. While Namor the Submariner and Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel are the MCU's only confirmed mutants to date, Krakoa may open the door to other characters retconned to have been in hiding throughout MCU history.
It also could be more of a theme used for the X-Men as a whole, who are about to enter the greater MCU for the first time alongside other teams like the Avengers, New Avengers, and Fantastic Four.
With this being the mutants' first real efforts on Earth-616 in the MCU (outside of Deadpool & Wolverine and the legacy mutants in Avengers: Doomsday), it will understandably serve as a landmark moment for the franchise. In terms of the working title, it may be a nod to the "bridge" or "tunnel" being created for the mutants' long-awaited debut alongside Marvel Studios' biggest names.
With the X-Men reboot still at least a couple of years away from being fully realized, new information beyond its working title is sure to shed more light on what will be done with the mutants' introduction to Marvel Studios.
