Will The MCU Replace Avengers With The Illuminati?

A conspiracy theory for the ages.

By Zoë Miskelly /

Marvel Studios

Now, for those not versed in the world of Marvel Comics, there are few sentences that sound weirder than "the Illuminati exist in the Marvel universe". It's twice as weird for the fact that this Illuminati is not the same group conspiracy theorists purport to exist in the real world, but rather a group of superheroes who have made a secret team.

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In order to explain why they might be popping into the Marvel Cinematic Universe sometime soon, it's worth delving into who the Marvel Illuminati are, and why exactly they formed.

So, for starters, this group has an intensely powerful line up. When Namor, Professor X, Black Bolt, Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man, Black Panther and Doctor Strange all agree to get together, you know it's over something serious.

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Indeed, their unlikely formation was over a pretty big deal: an alien invasion. Or, well, the aftermath of an alien invasion. After the ordeal that was the Kree-Skrull War, Iron Man came to a troubling realisation: a whole bunch of heroes had known about it, but since they had never discussed it with others, the information had been rendered useless.

Wanting to ensure this kind of problem wouldn't occur again, he suggested that these figureheads of various groups joined together in order to police their world behind the scenes. While most heroes were wary, they did all agree that sharing information on threats to the world was a logical plan, and thus the Illuminati was formed. At Namor's insistence, they kept their meetings secret to even their loved ones, in order to prevent it becoming an issue in the superhero community.

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