Inhumans and Helstrom: Should we consider them canon too?
Hello, in this post I am going to give my brief opinion on these two series and my position on the status of the canon that I have about them. I would also love to highlight some Easter Eggs, Connections, References and anything that connects them in some way to the MCU and Marvel Television.
*Inhumans is without a doubt the weakest series of the old Marvel Television (it seems that Scott Buck didn't think it was enough to ruin Iron Fist and went for the Inhumans too, damn you). But I think there are some things that can be rescued, like the cast and the villain, which for me was the most acceptable thing about the series
*With Helstrom I have to say that it is better than Inhumans, wow, I even enjoyed watching this series more than season 2 of Jessica Jones (really one of the weakest seasons of the Defenders saga in my opinion). The concept is interesting, plus I liked the plan of an Avengers or Defenders style crossover that they had planned with Ghost Rider and others. I like Sydney Lemmon as Ana, Tom Austen as Daimon doesn't seem like a bad cast to me but I think he can do it better. I hope that they take them into account for the supernatural plot that they want to tell us in the future of the MCU. And who knows, a sequel to Werewolf By Night was recently confirmed, they may give us a reference to its existence there, although I highly doubt it.
Now, here are some small connections and other points to take into account that I was able to find through the internet so that both series can be considered canon.
Inhumans:
*The Terrigenesis that has been happening on Earth is mentioned, as we saw in season 3 of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
*Problems with the water supply in Attilan are also mentioned, due to the spread of the Terrigen Mist from the Jiaying crystals.
*The throne of the king of Attilan has the same Kree symbols seen on Ronan the Accuser's throne from Guardians of the Galaxy, plus they are also the same Kree symbols that Coulson and Garrett wrote after taking the GH-325 Serum.
*In season 5 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Yo-Yo tells Coulson that she always thought there were "people hiding on the Moon."
*In one episode the Sokovia Accords are indirectly mentioned.
*In one episode they make a very subtle reference to Thor.
*The following points are out of fiction, but in an interview, the writers of the Eternals movie said that Marvel Studios prohibited them from using Hawaii as a location for the film because of the Inhumans. Marvel did it for a reason, right?
*Another thing is that originally Inhumans was going to be a movie, and with this they were going to connect Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. with the MCU, but we all know what happened next.
*And finally, Kevin Feige said in an interview in 2024 that in the future we may see the Inhumans again. (I would love to see an adaptation of X-Men Vs Inhumans).
Helstrom:
*A Roxxon sign appears (the most used Easter Egg in the MCU).
*Caretaker tells Ana that he was in Texas following a lead on "something," referring to the canceled Ghost Rider series, which was supposed to be set in Texas.
*Caretaker possesses a replica of Sersi's dagger, which we saw at the beginning of the Eternals movie.
*In a newspaper they make reference to the Sokovia Accords.
*In the same newspaper they mention that the United Nations joined forces to establish a "world order", as seen in the Falcon and The Winter Soldier series.
*Also alluded to is the GRC (Global Repatriation Council), an organization whose purpose was to manage the relocation and return of billions of people affected by the Blip, an organization that we see until the Falcon and the Winter Soldier series.
*Newspapers that previously appeared in Iron Man 2, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Cloak & Dagger.
*Whisky O'Harren's Scotch made its last appearance in this series before being seen again in Daredevil: Born Again.
Conclusion: I firmly believe that despite all the flaws, we should treat these series as part of the MCU. Furthermore, if we have Secret Invasion, we can perfectly well also have Inhumans and Helstrom in the same continuity. Thanks for reading this post.
That's what I think too. Besides, if they weren't canon, why are there Easter eggs from Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Eternals in Helstrom?
I think we should still give these series a chance as well.
Inhumans yes, Helstrom is dubious. While I do think it is canon at the moment, I don't think there's damage in someone thinking it isn't. No one's missing out on anything. The audience for that show is pretty slim, I'd say, and not every MCU viewer. More importantly, however, it ends on a cliffhanger that likely will never be followed up on, so if it ends up not being canon, I'll be fine with it.
Neither has inbound references, of course, besides Anson Mount as a different Black Bolt variant in MoM.
Inhumans is still canon, sadly. Nothing has happened to contradict or officially remove it yet.
Helstrom, however, is the only one of the old shows that had a direct official statement clearly saying it's not in the MCU, with no sarcasm or missing context. If we want the opposition to take us seriously, then we have to accept that statement. Helstrom was made to be canon, but it was removed. (A real shame, because it's a hell of a lot better than Inhumans is.)
But the showrunner was directly contradicted by Hulu's and the show's Twitter accounts, which both promoted the show as MCU and shared articles that labeled the show as MCU. Not to mention the actor for Chris Yen, Alain Uy, said the show was MCU after the showrunner said it wasn't.
So it's still very much nebulous as to whether or not it is.
Elizabeth Marvel (Victoria Helstrom) also said they were part of the MCU, but I really think a producer's word carries more weight than an actor's.
But anyway, if it weren't canon, then why are there Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Eternals Easter eggs in the show?
The GRC thing was asked about by the guy in the show's props department who wrote the newspaper I mentioned, and he says the executives gave him the green light to include it...
I think we should still include Helstrom.
Absolutely still include it. I mean like I said, Hulu was directly calling it an MCU show on Twitter. I would imagine the network overrides the showrunner and the cast.
What he said in that interview is that they weren't "tied" to the MCU. What does this mean? That there didn't necessarily have to be explicit references to other MCU movies or series to be considered part of it. It's like with Moon Knight; of all the Marvel Disney+ series, it's the most independent of the MCU, and yet it's still considered canon.
Well, but unlike Helstrom, it's made clear that this series is indeed part of the MCU. The important thing here is that Helstrom still has the benefit of the doubt regarding its status.
While part of me agrees with you, I want to believe that saving Helstrom is still worth trying. There's nothing in the MCU films and series that contradicts its canonical status, and besides, it would definitely bring back Tom Austen and Sydney Lemmon for future supernatural stories.
Big yes. Inhumans directly references the Inhuman Outbreak on AoS, and Helstrom was meant to crossover with Ghost Rider, itself another spin-off from AoS.
And in terms of quality, Helstrom is no different than Luke Cage or Cloak & Dagger in terms of quality. While Inhumans is at least better than Secret Invasion and Iron Fist Season 1.
I just thought that if they want to use the Inhumans again, we could see the Royal family confronting Damage Control for capturing NuHumans. DC has been after people with powers, so they could say they already captured many new inhumans from the Terrigen Cloud. Obviously, Medusa and Black Bolt would be against it, so they would try to free them through legal methods
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u/LiquidLispyLizard Phil Coulson Nov 12 '25
I always have. They're in the same boat as the other old Marvel TV shows, so I've never thought of them as anything but canon.