The X-Men film franchise isn’t exactly “family friendly” in terms of the violence: especially not Logan. While Deadpool seems like it could be an X-Men spin-off, it’s definitely not “family friendly” considering the violence, mature references, and mature sexual content.
However, the X-Men comic franchise becomes complicated in its film form. One of the reasons for said complications, is the directors and writers are inconsistent — because they switch out a lot, which leaves inconsistencies in the narrative thus leaving gaps in the plot.
Mutants are people with powers infused in their genes. Put simply, a mutation of the human race. These powers vary among each individual, but some can have similar powers. Such as Professor X and Jean Grey who both have the power to read minds.
The movies having inconsistent directors contribute to the unclear complicated timeline since the execution of the plot of each movie does not flow together to correlate with said timeline. The main purpose of Days of Future Past was to change the past to change the future.
In doing so, it wiped a clean slate for certain events in the timeline that lead up to the doomed past. Bryan Singer, — the original director of the first two movies before the directors changed for the next four movies up until Days of Future Past — was trying to correct a timeline.
However, if the point was to start fresh in general, that would mean they removed X-Men, X2, and The Last Stand from the narrative. In addition, it would also remove when and how Wolverine was experimented on in Wolverine, and possibly the plot of The Wolverine.
On the other hand, Fox did create a timeline of events that lead up to the doomed future, which specifies historic events for the purpose of the doomed timeline, starting from First Class — the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis — and leading all the way to 2023 in Days of Future Past.
I will start this breakdown by listing the movies in the order of publication, then the order of the timelines (differing futures and pasts). I will include the Deadpool franchise because of the fun cameos, but as far as theories go feel free to think of Deadpool as a separate universe, because I won’t be including them in the X-Men timeline for the sake of clarity.
Release of the Films:
(2000) “X-Men”
(2003) X2: X-Men United
(2006) X-Men: The Last Stand
(2009) X-Men Origins: Wolverine
(2011) X-Men: First Class
(2013) The Wolverine
(2014) X-Men: Days of Future Past
(2016) Deadpool
(2016) X-Men: Apocalypse
(2017) Logan
(2018) Deadpool 2
(2019) Dark Phoenix
The tricky part is, after Days of Future Past, there are suddenly two alternate futures and pasts instead of just one, which was the doomed future in Days of Future Past. This is also where I have several theories conducted, but it’s a lot to specifically break down, so I will only rearrange the events in each movie for it to make sense.
Timeline leading up to the doomed future:
1962 – X-Men: First Class
1973 – X-Men: Days of Future Past (past where doomed future begins)
1979 – X-Men Origins: Wolverine (second half of events)
2003 – X-Men
2003 – X2: X-Men United
2006 – X-Men: The Last Stand
2013 – The Wolverine (2 years later in 2015, ending leads up to “DOFP”)
2023 – X-Men: Days of Future Past (doomed future)
Timeline after the doomed future is changed:
1845 – X-Men Origins: Wolverine (first half of events)
1962 – X-Men: First Class
1973 – X-Men: Days of Future Past (the past is changed to change the future)
1983 – X-Men: Apocalypse
1992 – Dark Phoenix
2029 – Logan
As you can see according to order and removal of movies, it’s understandable as to why everything is confusing. Things could’ve been different and better, but it doesn’t matter since it won’t be revisited now that Marvel/Disney owns X-Men and plans to do something with it. With The New Mutants out, that ends Fox’s timeline on the X-Men franchise.
Overall, Fox’s X-Men film franchise is inconsistent. The major problem deviates from the inconsistent directors and screenwriters of each film. The films remain as good entertainment for representing the comics, but it will be interesting to see where a new reboot will go, regarding Marvel’s/Disney’s new ownership of X-Men.
The movies don’t seem to be relevant anymore, but that’s because fanatics like me haven’t spoken up a ton about it. It seems it’s only spoken on when it trends, especially on talks of a new movie or tv show. I just like to show my passion.
With that said, I hope my insight has enlightened you and I’d love to talk about this in-depth! If you’d like to see more of my random content or would like to contact me, you can find me on Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr. You may also email me at jrnw99@gmail.com if you prefer.
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