Last Friday, only a day after Marvel announced Ant-Man and The Wasp and their changed Phase Three plans, a rumor hit that that Inhumans was going to be removed from the release schedule. This was later debunked by other outlets, and until Marvel says otherwise, the film is still set to be released in 2019. This is likely pleasing news to a select group of fans, but for everyone else, they’re probably wondering what the big deal is. After all, Marvel has barely given any updates on this project’s progression, so what does it matter if a movie four years away doesn’t get made? To put it simply, not only has Marvel dedicated too much energy already in setting these characters up, but their overall presence is key to the MCU’s future.As a basic refresher for the uninitiated, the Inhumans are a group of superpowered people that have lived on Earth for millennia. Their ancestors were humans experimented on by the Kree, to be weapons in their war against the Skrulls, and after the Kree abandoned the experiment and left Earth, these ancestors formed their own civilization in seclusion from the rest of the world. Unlike mutants, who are naturally gifted from birth, a person with Inhuman genes is empowered or transformed when exposed to the Terrigen Mist. Movie audiences were introduced to the Kree in Guardians of the Galaxy, but because Inhumans was the last movie revealed at Marvel’s original Phase Three announcement, it was assumed at first that there wouldn’t be any setup for them until several years down the line.That changed last December during the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2’s midseason finale, when it was revealed that an artifact called the Obelisk actually contained a Terrigen crystal within. When lead character Skye (a.k.a. Daisy Johnson) and minor antagonist Raina were exposed to the Mist, their inner Inhuman abilities were awakened, while Skye’s teammate Tripp was petrified by the Obelisk's outer casing when its fragments struck him. In the second half of the season, Skye met more Inhumans, like her guide Lincoln Campbell and her birth mother Jiaying, the latter of whom led an Inhuman settlement called Afterlife. Season 3 of the ABC series is further exploring Inhumans as more of them emerge across the globe thanks to some pesky Terrigen crystal remnants finding their way into fish oil tablets. However, it’s the movie that will be able to unleash the Inhumans' full potential.
