Just because Disney now has the rights to the X-Men, that doesn’t mean we’re going to get mutants in the MCU straight away. However, all the signs are saying Marvel will be dropping smaller-scale comic book concepts and elements that Fox previously had hold of in the near future. Almost immediately, in fact, if these set photos from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are anything to go by.
Murphy’s Multiverse has shared a couple of set pics from filming on the Disney Plus show earlier this year. As you may have seen, they depict a bunch of bikers that Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes will come into contact with. What’s on the back of their leather jackets is what’s grabbing our attention, though: their gang emblem seems to be an image of a red demon. And it looks like it’s an image from Marvel lore.
As suggested by The Direct, the demonic face closely resembles Ogun. A Japanese martial arts master, Ogun is a former mentor turned longtime enemy of none other than Wolverine. You might be thinking this would be a random character to throw into the series, but IMDb credits some supporting actors as playing Yakuza members in the production, and Ogun has connections to the criminal enterprise in the comics.
Ogun may not appear in the flesh in Falcon, but having the biker gang – who may have some connection to the Yakuza – wearing his face on their jackets would create a neat easter egg for fans to enjoy. Especially as it’s a little hint at the whole other corner of the Marvel universe that the studio can now dip into. Remember, the series will also see the titular pair travel to Madripoor, a fictional Asian nation from X-Men lore. The Ogun bikers are likely from Madripoor, in fact, according to Murphy’s Multiverse.
We might be in for a sizable wait until the rebooted X-Men arrive, but our first taste of Marvel playing in the X-sandbox could happen very soon. In fact, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier may even be able to hit Disney Plus later this year, as intended.