Division X is the CIA division that recruits mutant agents in X-Men: First Class. CIA agent Moira MacTaggert discovers that mutants may be useful in countering Sebastian Shaw, a powerful mutant seeking to manipulate the Cuban Missile Crisis. She brings Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr to a secret facility connected with the operation.
The division gives the early X-Men a government setting before they become an independent superhero team. Xavier helps identify and train mutants including Hank McCoy, Raven, Sean Cassidy, Alex Summers, and Armando Muñoz. Their recruitment leads to the group’s first field mission against Shaw and his allies.
Division X is not the same as Xavier’s later school or the broader CIA organization. It is a film-specific unit created for the prequel’s espionage framework. The movie uses the 1962 crisis as a historical backdrop, although its mutant characters and events are fictional. Matthew Vaughn directed the film, which premiered in 2011.