A Crazed Attempt to Discern theX-MenMovie Timeline in Its Entirety AfterDark Phoenix

Nineteen years after it all began , and helped usher in the early waves of the superheroiccinema dominancewe see today , Fox ’s X - Men saga is at an end with the tone ending of Dark Phoenix . It may have die out in a damp squib rather than truly fiery flames , but it now mean we have a complete , and utterly batshit , Ernst Boris Chain of event to break down .

The X - Men saga is made convoluted not only by its topsy turvy release schedule — a soft - reboot halfway through flinging us back to a series of prequels — but also by the comportment of XTC - Men : day of Future Past , making any effort to break down the actual chronological order of these movies an employment in hair - pulling defeat . We did it anyway , because hey , that ’s what we do ! So if you want to know just how the entire X - Saga extend down , from X - Men to Dark Phoenix and beyond ? Here ’s our guide .

Two Timelines, Both Alike in Dignity

Full disclosure proceed in : we ’re on some alternate timeline bullshit here . Two clear-cut movie sagas — the original three ten - Men motion picture , directed by Bryan Singer ( X - Men , X2 ) and Brett Ratner ( The Last Stand ) , and then the four “ reboot ” films starting with go - Men : First Class — are connect by the result ofDays of Future Past , creating one timeline of issue where the original X - movies happened , and a second where the First Class saga materialise … mostly . Bits of them technically happen in both ! You ’ll see …

Timeline A: In the Beginning, There Was the Wolverine

Well , technically it was Book of Revelation : En Sabah Nur ’s hike and precipitate in the backstory ofX - Men : Apocalypseas one of the ancient world ’s most powerful ruler and the eldest of the mutant raceway takes home in around 8,000 BC . He gets bring down and imprisoned by his former followers in 3,600 BC , but we get to forget about him for a while . Especially as , in this timeline at least , he does n’t amount up again .

We really start withX - Men Origins : Wolverine , which charts the long chronicle of Logan . In 1845 , James Howlett ’s mutant gene activates upon see the death of the homo he believed to be his father , only for the young James to incidentally kill his real founding father , Thomas Logan , in the result moment . James and his half - brother , Victor Creed — who’ll eventually be screw as the mutant villain Sabertooth — then spend the next C and a bit fighting in various war , surviving their misdeeds thanks to their regenerative mutant ability . James will , of row , eventually be known as Wolverine . We ’ll get to that !

Meanwhile , in 1944 , Erik Lensherr ( the eventual Magneto ) , a young Jewish son imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp , begins to certify his own powers . experiment on by the black leader of the Hellfire Club , Sebastian Shaw , Erik finally escapes , spend the next two decades hunting down every Nazi he can find and killing them for their horrifying role in the Holocaust . In … lighter events ? The unseasoned Charles Xavier meets shapeshifting mutant Raven Darkholme for the first time , inviting her to dwell with his family in their Westchester planetary house .

The two conflicting timelines of the wider X-Saga.

The two conflicting timelines of the wider X-Saga.Image: All Images: 20th Century Fox

We can now fast - forward two 10 to 1962 , when most ofX - man : First Classtakes place . Moira McTaggert uncovers the existence of the Hellfire Club and mutants in cosmopolitan ; Charles , Raven , and Erik team up to take on Shaw ; and the 10 - Men are born — after Charles uses a paradigm version of theCerebrohelmet to locate and recruit a squad of likeminded new mutants . He and Erik also essay to inscribe Logan / Wolverine at this distributor point , and fail . The X - Men battle Shaw and the Club in Cuba , and while they come after , it comes at great cost : Xavier is paralyzed and Lensherr — now operating as Magneto , the captain of Magnetism , takes Raven as well as Angel , Riptide , and Azazel to constitute his own , more virtuously grey-haired splinter group , the Brotherhood of Mutants .

Now , buckle up , because things are about to get really eldritch . The seeds of a timeline split set about to germinate after the events of X - Man : First Class in the setup for its sequel , sidereal day of Future Past ( which was probablynot a great move for the dealership ) .

In 1963 , Magneto is incorrectly accuse of assassinating President Kennedy , while a few yr subsequently , Xavier formally opens his school for “ Gifted Youngsters”….only for most of those youngsters to get signed up for the Vietnam war in 1970 , gyrate Charles into despair . Also , we ’re back in Origins for a bit , because James Howlett is fighting in Vietnam too , before he and Victor are recruit to get together a closemouthed Mutant Black Ops squad by William Stryker , known as Team X. James takes on a new name and codename here — borrow his dependable don ’s name to become Logan , and bring in his Wolverine cognomen — but step down Team X after several old age of service , when Stryker ’s perfunctory neglect for life and the squad ’s violent missions set about to weigh on him . But permit ’s forget about that for now …

We ’re going to a weird place .

The Split: Movies of Future Past

A discrepancy occurs in 1973 when Raven — go away by her alter ego Mystique — assassinates Bolivar Trask in Days of Future Past ’s dystopian reading of the timeline . Trask , head of Trask Industries , was set about to get the U.S. governing to utilize his gargantuan robot political program , the Sentinels , to hunt down and contain mutantkind . His dying , while taking piazza in one of the “ reboot ” era movies , is what actually leads to the prolongation of what we ’re referring to as Timeline A … which is the original 10 - Men movies . We ’ll get to the split finally , but for now , permit ’s conduct on with the events off of Timeline A.

We now fast forward to 2003 , when both X - Men and X2 take place . It ’s an uneasy clock time for mutantkind , and Magneto ’s Brotherhood of Mutants come upon at a political elevation in New York discussing the future of mutant ’ theatrical role in social club , hoping to expend the new mutant Rogue and some technology to transform the universe ’s leaders into mutants themselves . Xavier , with the help of Wolverine , brings together the X - Men once more to blockade Magneto ’s patch . Meanwhile , in X2 — yes , same year , different movie — William Stryker is up to some bullshit . Using the creative thinker - control tycoon of his own mutant son , Jason , Stryker brainwashes Nightcrawler into attacking the White House , an incident he uses to leverage an official attack on Xavier ’s school and kidnap several of the X - Men , admit Xavier himself .

The 10 - piece that escape the attack — including Colossus , Wolverine , Rogue , Iceman , and Pyro — find themselves forced to team up up with Magneto and Mystique to terminate Stryker and his Logos from brainwashing Xavier into using another Cerebro to kill every mutant on the satellite with a psychic instruction . During the deliverance missionary post , Magneto determine to be an son of a bitch and have Jason convince Charles to use Cerebro 2 to kill every human being alternatively , before taking off and leaving the X - Isle of Man to consider with his mess . Womp womp ! Nightcrawler and Storm free Xavier from Jason ’s control before he can habituate Cerebro 2 , and the X - Men escape Stryker ’s base as its being glut by a nearby dam , which was damaged in the conflict .

Well , mostly . Stryker drowns , and Jean Grey sacrifice herself to save the X - Men and hold back the tides , tap into a unusual , flaming young power in the process . Everyone ’s sad until 2006 , when the events of X - Men : The Last Stand happen . And then everyone in the actual world is pitiful because the events of X - humans : The Last Stand , a dreadful picture show , occur . Jean is reborn as the evil , all - potent Phoenix force , just as the X - man and the Brotherhood of Mutants get into another fight — this time over the development of a say curative for the mutant factor , with Magneto believing it will be used to forcefully uproot mutants .

Everyone realizes that struggle over it while a giant flaming psychical goddess of Brobdingnagian tycoon threatens to wreck the integral planet is a speculative idea , and they team up to stop Phoenix . Wolverine is ram to kill Jean , and is distressing , though mutant do get some par in the aftermath of , you know , hold start the world and all that . Oh , and by the by , Xavier is killed by Phoenix before her death , but do n’t worry , he get better by the remainder of the picture . Like I say , it ’s a bad one !

Anyway , everything ’s fine for a little bit . In 2013 , Wolverine is experience as a hermit , traumatize by have to pour down Jean , but is caught up in a new adventure in Japan where he beats up the Silver Samurai during the events ofThe Wolverine . Things begin to get freaky again when he returns to the U.S. and finds that not only is Xavier active again somehow , but he and Magneto are working together in the face of a grave newfangled menace to mutantkind . Because this is where all that sidereal day of Future Past stuff start coming into play again : thing are bad for mutants ( again ) , with Trask Industries having fully developed the Sentinels as the perfect Mutant - hunting twist .

By 2023 , most variation are dead , eradicate by Trask Industries ’ roving mechanical United States Army . As part of an audacious plan to change story , Kitty Pryde , heighten by the psychic might of Magneto and Xavier , sends Wolverine back in prison term to his body circa 1973 , to turn back Mystique from assassinate Trask in the first space . We ’re off to a new timeline , kinsfolk !

Timeline B: There and Back Again

receive back to 50 years ago , but we ’re still in the outcome of twenty-four hour period of Future Past ( god , my head hurts ) . Wolverine , back in his new - but - still - Hugh - Jackman dead body , finds the X - Men in a state of disrepair , thanks to the aforementioned Vietnam state of war trauma and Magneto ’s whole “ Did you defeat JFK ? ” deal . carcajou win over the younger adaptation of Xavier and Magneto to aid him prevent the grim future he came from … only for Magneto to attempt to kill President Nixon , too , after Mystique is prevented from down Trask and the Sentinel program goes into gist anyway . Womp womp . The struggle for Raven ’s soul between Xavier and Magneto ultimately ends with her choose the side of good , saving Nixon from Magneto ( yay … ? ) and erasing the Sentinels from the timeline , creating an totally fresh timeline in the process .

Everything that hap up to 1973 in Timeline A still happened here , just that alternatively of assassinating Trask and becoming a supervillain , Mystique kill no one and becomes a hero . Meanwhile , the 2023 Logan of Timeline A return to a reading of the hereafter to find his friends alive and well , while his 1973 ego in Timeline B is liberated from immurement by Mystique , in disguise as William Stryker . Is your header suffer now , too ?

Remember how we speak briefly about Apocalypse like , 1,500 word ago ? Anyway , it ’s time to handle with him now . After the events of day of Future Past , youthful Xavier and Magneto go their separate ways again , with Xavier re - opening his school to a new genesis of succeeding X - military personnel , and Magneto come down in love with a cleaning woman named Magda Gurzsky , settling down and having a girl together , Nina . But in 1983 Moira McTaggert ( remember Moira ? Good times ! ) unwittingly re - waken Apocalypse from his put away slumber , and Apocalypse promptly begins gathering his horsemen to remold the forward-looking world as his dominion . One of those horsemen is none other than Magneto , fox into working with Revelation of Saint John the Divine after his wife and fry were murder .

Xavier ’s new team of X - Men — lead by Mystique , and now admit Nightcrawler , Quicksilver , Cyclops , and a youthful Jean Grey — prepare to battle Apocalypse , but only after an interlude where they ’re captivate by William Stryker ’s forces and liberated by — gasp!—Wolverine . Anyway , Apocalypse launches an attack from his old tail of power in Cairo , and after two of his Horsemen ( Magento and Storm ) are convinced to change sides , Jean singlehandedly shore the final nose candy , tapping into a strange , ardent fresh great power in the process . hold off , where have we hear this before ? It does n’t count , especially not to Dark Phoenix , which completelyignores this tease of the Phoenix forceto do something else entirely .

Speaking of which , depend , we ’re here at Dark Phoenix ! The movie takes place mostly in 1992 . At this point , the go - Men are a world - renowned , dear squad of superheroes , with Mystique at their helm , and Charles Xavier has the ear of the President . They even have action pattern and chick of themselves ! After a military mission to rescue the crew of the U.S. Space Shuttle Endeavour when a strange solar solar flare disrupts their vessel , Jean unwittingly exposes herself to the Phoenix force out , the vast cosmic energy that the “ solar flare ” really was , which flux with her torso and grants her life-threatening tier of psychic business leader .

This gets the interest of the surviving extremity of theshapeshifting D’Barispecies , who were tracking the cosmic effect after it destroy their homeworld . The D’Bari infiltrate Earth and attempt to capture the Phoenix force for themselves by controlling Jean — who is traumatized by the revealing Xavier had dwell to her about the end of her male parent in the accident that go to her joining the X - man . Thanks to the Phoenix force , Jean ’s powers begin to get out of control , leading to her fleeing the 10 - Men in the aftermath of Xavier ’s deception and accidentally kill Mystique .

In the ensuing engagement , Xavier and the 10 - Men team up with Magneto ( again!)—who ’s been hiding off on his own little reclusive island in the years since Apocalypse , creating a mutant enclave — to stop Jean and then the D’Bari . After being convinced that Xavier and the X - Men really do care about her , Jean sacrifice herself to eradicate the D’Bari drawing card , Vuk , pass to become one with the Phoenix force . So ends , as far as we know , the events of Timeline B.

Timelines C and D: Oh God, Oh God Please Send Help

You believe we were done just because we got to Dark Phoenix ? Hahahahahaha , absolutely not . You see , while most of the X - Men movie saga takes shoes across these two timeline we ’ve been calling A and B , there are actually another two timelines thrown into the mixture thanks to the spinoffs Logan and Deadpool .

permit ’s take off with Logan , which we will dub Timeline C. Although the motion picture sport Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier once more , it ’s imply that this is not in the same timeline as the original X - Men films in our Timeline A , or the future segments of day of Future Past . And we ’re just conk to neglect that , even more confusingly , the setup for X-23 ’s transmissible material being prepared for Logan take place in thepost - credit sceneof Timeline B ’s X - Men : Apocalypse !

Anyway , wherever the hell it is , Logan take place in a dystopian future where , after 2014 , no variation are born thanks to a sinister architectural plan that imbued food provision with X - factor suppressing chemical substance . Fourteen years later , in 2028 , a traumatized Xavier falls dupe to a monolithic psychic seizure , killing 100 of people , include the ecstasy - human being . With Mutants on the verge of extinction , Logan take on Xavier to live out his last twenty-four hour period in Mexico , but in 2029 the two are roped into avail a group of young ringer of Wolverine , including X-23 ( be intimate by her “ real ” name , Laura Kinney ) , scarper incarceration and flee to Canada . Both Xavier and Logan die in the process , but Laura scarper to freedom .

That convey ups to the other spinoff timeline , Timeline D. D for Deadpool ! The two Deadpool moving picture likewise contain connections and reference to the films of both Timelines A and B as part of their fourth - paries breakage , metatextual Smörgåsbord of references and cameo , like Deadpool 2’steeny momentwith some of the Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix stars . But for the saki of our saneness it ’s best that we translate as them having taken place in their own spinoff branch of the timeline . And that ’s even before we get to Deadpool 2 ’s time - change of location shenanigan .

Deadpool and Deadpool 2 take position in a 2016 and 2018 . After being induct into a secret reactivation of the Weapon X project by one of its own new creation , Ajax , a cancer - stricken Wade Wilson find himself experimented on in a process that triggers his latent mutant factor of rapid ego - healing while also horribly blemish him . After teaming up with the 10 - Men team members Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead , Wade have retribution on Ajax , before decide to become a superheroic soldier of fortune for hire .

Two years later after his lady friend Vanessa is killed by mobsters , Wade slides into a impression and assay to vote down himself , despite his regenerative abilities . He ’s draw out of his blue funk by an encounter with the sentence - journey mutant Cable , who number from a dystopian future 2068 to stamp out a untried pyrokinetic mutation make love as Firefist , who becomes a dangerous villain in Cable ’s future . Wade convinces Cable to not kill Firefist while also ensure Firefist does n’t descend into his seemingly villainous destiny , undoing Cable ’s dark hereafter in the process .

If you ’ve pick up one thing from this violent attempt to make sentiency of a moving-picture show franchise that only barely pays attending to narration coherence at the practiced of times , it ’s that we ’ve been on a long , strange , and now and again fabulously dumb misstep with Fox ’s ownership of the XTC - humanity . These motion picture , despite the attempts to tie everything together in a Marvel Studios - esque shared creation , barely make sense with each other , loop over themselves and just flat out - contradicting each other .

But it is what it is , and what it is might not even be quite over yet . Though Disney now owns Fox and will likely bring up the ecstasy - valet as part of the much - easier - to - follow timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe , we still have New Mutants on the way , which could reconnect back to any one of these timeline ( though there ’s been no indication of that thus far ) , and we could even have a third Deadpool to throw into the mix ! Only time will tell .

For now though , here consist the timeline of Fox ’s tenner - Men — weird and convoluted , just like the saga that was born from it .