Marvel’s upcoming Falcon & Winter Soldier series could introduce Tyger Tiger, a Madripoor crime boss who’s also one of Wolverine’s lovers, into the MCU. 2019 was a historic year for Marvel Studios, and not just because of blockbuster hits like Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far From Home. It was also the year Disney completed their acquisition of Fox, meaning the film rights to the X-Men and their associated characters have all reverted to Marvel.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has teased that the studio has already figured out how to incorporate mutants into the MCU. For now, though, it looks as though some of the secondary concepts and characters are entering the shared cinematic universe first. Set photos from the upcoming Falcon & Winter Soldier Disney+ TV series showed a set incorporating the flag of Madripoor, an island that’s basically the X-Men equivalent of the Mos Eisley Cantina. On close examination, the set appears to be part of the Royal Palace Gardens, which were introduced in Wolverine #6. Naturally, this means casting decisions should be carefully examined in case they hint that characters associated with Madripoor will also make their MCU debut in this Disney+ show.

In mid-December, there were reports that Marvel had cast actress Miki Ishikawa (The Terror, Hit) in a mystery role in Falcon & Winter Soldier; the very fact Marvel is keeping this secret suggests that she’s playing someone lifted straight from the comics. Significantly, Ishikawa is the spitting image of one of Madripoor’s most important figures, a woman who calls herself Tyger Tiger.

Born in Singapore, Jessan Hoan grew up enjoying wealth and prosperity given her family owned one of the nation’s largest banks. The family business was targeted by a rival organization; when they couldn’t buy the Hoan International Bank, they decided to resort to other means to put them out of business. They hired a major crime lord from the nearby island of Madripoor, and he sent cybernetic agents known as the Reavers to conduct a rather more hostile takeover. Jessan herself was kidnapped by the Reavers, who hoped to use her knowledge of the banking industry to their advantage. Fortunately, the X-Men tracked the Reavers to their base in the Australian Outback, and intervened.

The Reavers’ attack achieved its primary objective, however, and Hoan International Bank went out of business. What’s more, one of the Reavers had partly succeeded in brainwashing Jessan, endowing her with formidable combat skills and removing all trace of morality. Taking the name “Tyger Tiger,” Jessan launched a cunning and ruthless plan to take control of Madripoor herself. This led her into an uneasy alliance with Wolverine, who had settled on Madripoor and believed she would become the lesser of two evils. She also seduced him, with the two enjoying an on-again-off-again relationship as Tyger Tiger used Logan’s attraction to her in order to keep his guard down. With Wolverine’s reluctant assistance, Tyger Tiger supplanted the crime bosses of Madripoor and established a tight grip on the nation’s various criminal enterprises.

Second only to Wolverine himself, Tyger Tiger is undoubtedly Madripoor’s most (in)famous resident. It’s currently unclear whether or not Madripoor will be a prominent location in Falcon & Winter Soldier, but it’s surely no coincidence that Marvel has cast an actress who bears such a resemblance to the early Tyger Tiger. There would be a certain degree of irony if one of Wolverine’s lovers made her way from the comics to the MCU before Logan did.

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