The Guardians of the Galaxy holiday special did something strange with it Kevin Bacon. And it wasn’t just that he sang a rockin’ Christmas carol. It’s a canon thing. Since Guardians of the Universe Full. 1 came out, we knew that Kevin Bacon was a real person in the Marvel Universe. Star-Lord talked about his legendary bravery and how he saved an entire city from destruction with the power of dance. But what Kevin Bacon made clear in the Holiday special was that this was a movie. All the heroics Peter Quill had heard about were movies. And this creates an interesting conundrum because Kevin Bacon in a X-Men movie.
InX-Men: First Class, Kevin Bacon played Sebastian Shaw, an alpha-level mutant who helped Magneto awaken his powers. And if all of Kevin Bacon’s movies are part of the MCU, whatever X-Men: First Class? It could mean two things: either Kevin Bacon is secretly a powerful mutant, or X-Men: First Class was a movie in the MCU. It’s an especially interesting prospect at a time when Marvel is still questioning how to incorporate the X-Men into MCU lore. All of Fox’s movies could have been just that: movies. But put Kevin Bacon in it The Guardians of the Galaxy holiday special may have changed more than people expect.
Kevin Bacon’s Sebastian Shaw is a mutant in X-Men: First Class
The first possibility that Kevin Bacon’s movies are real in the MCU is that Kevin Bacon is actually Sebastian Shaw or some sort of simulacrum. In 2011 X-Men: first class, Bacon played Sebastian Shaw, a mutant with a genius-level intellect capable of absorbing kinetic energy. In the movie, Sebastian Shaw experimented on Erik Lensherr (Magneto) and ended up being killed by the same one. But seeing Bacon in the Holiday special would mean he must have somehow survived.
In the comics, Sebastian Shaw uses his energy-absorbing powers to give him some sort of pseudo-immortality, so it wouldn’t be out of the question for him to live that long.
If the events in the movie are true, then that would mean Kevin Bacon is a powerful mutant who has lived among us under the assumed identity of a movie star, and no one has thought otherwise. It would be something Sebastian Shaw could do. Perhaps to escape the racism of a mutant, he assumed the identity of Kevin Bacon so he could hide his powers and still be successful. But given his role in the recent Guardians of the Galaxy holiday specialit seems like a gamble.
Kevin Bacon’s movies are movies in the MCU
When Kevin Bacon explained to Drax and Mantis that his appearance in Footless was just that, a performance, he inadvertently created a series of possibilities related to his role in X-Men: First Class. The second possibility, and one that might be easier for filmmakers to swallow, is that the X-Men movies are actual movies in the MCU along with Footloose, hollow man, and Friday the 13th. It’s an interesting fluke.
It doesn’t just mean Marvel doesn’t have to explain how the previous X-Men movies fit into the MCU, but it also gives them a chance to introduce the superhero team. If the movies are real, that means the X-Men have always worked in the background, but no one has felt the need to mention them until now. It also means their superhero exploits don’t necessarily have to match what happened in the movies.
Bacon’s movies being real also means Marvel could choose whether or not to recast the X-Men, based on their discretion. You can still have Nicholas Hoult play Beast, for example, because he felt that acting in these fiction films was a good way for mutants to reach humanity. And at the same time, you could recast James McAvoy with someone else to play Professor X, because the real Charles Xavier was just too busy leading the X-Men to star in a movie.
Kevin Bacon provides Marvel with the perfect cover for introducing the X-Men to the MCU. It wouldn’t be hard to tell Marvel viewers the X-Men movies as in-universe movies created by the X-Men to reach out to humanity. Mutants have a tradition of being hated by commoners, and making a series of movies to glorify the X-Men could have been their way of managing public relations with humanity.
Since these movies are movies in the MCU, Marvel gives a simple answer to the question we’ve all been asking: How is Marvel going to integrate the X-Men into the MCU? Using this casual explanation from Kevin Bacon might have provided a way out for Marvel filmmakers. Instead of a complicated narrative twist, or everything that happens in another multiverse, the X-Men movies were just that: movies!