Marvel"s Historic TV Bomb Accidentally Created The MCU"s First Mutant

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Summary

The Inhumans TV show has been a failure and Marvel has actively avoided any connections or references to it in the MCU.
The poor reception of Inhumans has influenced the MCU's decision to rework the origins of characters, including turning Kamala Khan into the MCU's first official mutant.
Making Kamala a mutant instead of an Inhuman works well for her MCU origin, as it aligns with the upcoming debut of the X-Men and simplifies her backstory. The Inhumans are unlikely to ever be featured in the MCU.

Marvel has had a couple of failures with its TV shows, but one historic flop in particular accidentally gave the Marvel Cinematic Universe its very first mutant. Although the MCU continues to struggle with its TV content and has had both great TV shows and others that will end up being forgotten, it’s arguably doing better than during the Marvel Television days. The MCU has managed to retcon some of those past TV failures and has even brought back characters from this chapter of Marvel history to give them another chance, but one show that won’t ever be redeemed is Inhumans.
Inhumans aired on ABC in 2017 and introduced the audience to the Inhuman Royal Family – Black Bolt, Medusa, Karnak, Gorgon, Crystal, and Maximus – who after a military coup are forced to escape to Hawaii, where they must find a way to save themselves and the world. Inhumans is regarded as one of Marvel’s biggest failures to date, and though it’s not part of the MCU, it has affected this connected universe – but, at least, its historic failure made way for the MCU’s very first, official mutant: Kamala Khan a.k.a. Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani).
The MCU Has Been Intentionally Avoiding The Inhumans

The poor writing, terrible visual effects, and questionable character decisions are some of the elements that killed Inhumans, but this specific flop has directly affected the MCU. In the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, written by Dave Gonzales and Joanna Robinson, it’s revealed that Marvel has actively avoided any references and connections to the Inhumans, not just the TV series but the characters themselves. When Eternals was in development, the production team was instructed not to have any parts of the story set in Hawaii to avoid the risk of having the audience remember Inhumans and try to find links between the series and the MCU.
The only link to the Inhumans that the MCU has had was a Black Bolt (Anson Mount) variant in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This Black Bolt was part of another universe’s Illuminati, but like the rest of the team, he was brutally killed by Scarlet Witch. Black Bolt’s variant had no connection to the series, and his horrible death has been seen as the definitive end of the Inhumans in the MCU. Marvel’s efforts to avoid any and all links and references to the Inhumans have gone as far as to rework the origins of a couple of characters, but this allowed the MCU to turn Kamala Khan into this universe’s first official mutant.
Ms. Marvel May Not Have Been A Mutant If Inhumans Was Better

In the comics, Kamala Khan’s body-morphing abilities are a result of her Inhuman genes. Kamala learned she had Inhuman genes after the Inhumanity storyline, where the Terrigen Mists (natural mutagens) were released all over the world and activated dormant Inhuman cells. When Marvel announced it was going to bring Ms. Marvel to life in her own TV show, questions arose about how Marvel was going to address her Inhuman nature or if the MCU was going to change Kamala’s origin to better fit this connected universe. With the above-mentioned reveal about Marvel avoiding the Inhumans, it makes sense that Kamala was reworked to be a mutant instead.
Ms. Marvel probably wouldn’t have had to go through this change had Inhumans not been a major flop. While being a success wouldn’t have immediately granted the series a place in the MCU's multiverse, it wouldn’t have killed its characters’ chances to become a part of this universe at some point – and, of course, Marvel wouldn’t have to go to lengths to avoid references and connections to the Inhumans. Kamala Khan would have been an Inhuman if the show had been successful, and it would have opened the door for the rest of the team to join the MCU in some capacity at some point.
Why Ms. Marvel's New MCU Origin Works So Well

Being an Inhuman would have been interesting for Kamala Khan’s MCU history, but even if the Inhumans TV series had been a hit, Kamala being an Inhuman would have been a bit complicated. The MCU would have had to explain Kamala’s exposure to the Terrigen Mists and everything that comes with having “Inhuman abilities”, but making Kamala a mutant is a lot less work. It helps that the X-Men are being prepared for their official MCU debut, so Kamala being a mutant is a sort of primer for the arrival of the X-Men, and through them, the MCU can explain more about Kamala’s nature. Ms. Marvel and the MCU don’t really need the Inhumans or any connections to them, and it seems unlikely that these characters will ever get a chance in the MCU.
Source: MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios.
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