Those Merry Mutants seem to be rewriting history every time they're on the big
screen. So whip out your claws as we dig in and explain the entire cinematic X-Men timeline.
Long before the X-Men formed, mutants slowly made their presence known throughout
history. One of the first to appear was En Sabah Nur. Better known as Apocalypse,
he's seen at the end of Days of Future Past building a pyramid with his mind. X-Men:
Apocalypse begins in 3600 BC when En Sabah Nur transfers his consciousness into another
mutant body with a healing factor that enables him to live indefinitely. But
he's thwarted by saboteurs and trapped in a state of dormancy for many centuries.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens in 1845 in Northern Canada,
with a young James Howlett manifesting the mutant powers of an accelerated healing
factor and retractable claws. He and his half-brother Victor Creed then go on the
run and fight in major conflicts, including the American Civil War and the two World Wars.
2013's The Wolverine expands a bit more on Logan's time during World War II. He's
imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp, where he rescues a man named Ichirō Yashida.
X-Men: First Class reveals more details about several other prominent mutants during World
War II. A young Erik Lehnsherr is separated from his family at the Auschwitz concentration camp,
an experience so traumatic that it unleashes his magnetic powers. This catches the attention of
Nazi officer Klaus Schmidt, who kills Erik's mother to push him to demonstrate his control
over metal. Meanwhile, a young Charles Xavier befriends the shapeshifting Raven.
"You're hungry, and alone. Take whatever you want."
The two become as close as siblings but eventually go down different paths.
By 1962, Erik Lehnsherr is engaged in a global hunt for Klaus Schmidt. Meanwhile, CIA agent
Moira MacTaggert is assigned to infiltrate the Hellfire Club, headed by Schmidt, who now goes
by the name Sebastian Shaw. The Hellfire Club is working on a plan to cause World War III,
which they believe will annihilate the human race and allow mutants to become the dominant species.
Moira enlists the help of Xavier, and he befriends Erik during a mission. With the help of the CIA,
they recruit other young mutants and train them to use their powers to stop the Hellfire Club.
These mutants form the first iteration of the X-Men. While this team manages
to stop the Hellfire Club's deadly machinations,
their mission is not without its losses. Xavier is shot in the back, leaving him unable to walk,
and Erik turns his back on the X-Men on his path to becoming Magneto.
Much of X-Men Origins: Wolverine takes place in the 1970s, which sees Logan and
Victor Creed serving in the Vietnam War. They're recruited by Major William Stryker for Team X,
a squad of mutants tasked with dangerous missions. Logan decides that being a
mercenary isn't for him, so he heads to Canada to live a simpler life as a lumberjack. However,
when his lover Silverfox is seemingly killed by Creed, he accepts Stryker's offer to undergo a
procedure to have adamantium grafted to his skeleton to get revenge on his half-brother.
When Logan discovers that this was all part of a plan to turn him into a mindless soldier,
he wreaks havoc on Stryker's facility. He releases the mutants that Stryker was experimenting on,
who are soon rescued by Professor X. This ordeal strips Logan of his memory,
eventually sending him down a path to uncover his past.
Many of the events depicted in X-Men Origins:
Wolverine are dramatically altered by the events of Days of Future Past. In 1973,
the consciousness of the older Logan is sent back into his younger self on a mission to stop Raven,
now known as Mystique, from assassinating the weapons designer Bolivar Trask. This
event starts a chain reaction that sees the future production of Trask’s mutant-hunting
Sentinels. Logan is successful, which changes the course of the X-Men series' history.
"I think the history I know is a little different."
"Welcome back."
By the 1980s, Professor X has brought a young Scott Summers to his School for Gifted
Youngsters. Meanwhile, En Sabah Nur rises again and recruits other mutants to become
his Four Horsemen. This group includes Storm, Psylocke, and Angel, as well as Erik Lehnsherr,
who had been living a peaceful life with his wife and child. Professor X and his current team of
X-Men stop Apocalypse's plan of mutant domination and bring Storm and Mystique into the fold.
Because of the history-changing events in Days of Future Past, this version of the 1980s differs
from the previous depiction. In X-Men: The Last Stand, there's a scene that takes place
in 1986 in which a young Professor X and Magneto meet an adolescent Jean Grey and welcome her to
Xavier's school. However, Apocalypse features an older Jean in 1983 to fit the new timeline.
Then in Dark Phoenix, it's established that Professor X first met Jean in 1975.
In Dark Phoenix, the X-Men are assigned to rescue the stranded crew of a space
shuttle that's been hit by a mysterious force. They're successful, but Jean Grey
is exposed to the full blast. Instead of dying, her psychic powers become dramatically boosted,
but with a side effect of emotional instability. It's then revealed that Professor X blocked her
memory of causing the car accident that took her mother's life, which sends Jean down a dark path.
When the X-Men confront Jean, she accidentally kills Mystique in a fit of rage. She then goes to
Magneto for help, but he rebuffs her. However, her prayers are seemingly answered when she encounters
Vuk, one of the few surviving members of the alien race known as the D'Bari. Vuk promises
to help Jean control her powers, but it isn't long before she learns that Vuk actually plans
to absorb her abilities. When Vuk makes one last attempt to take Jean's powers,
Jean kills her and is consumed by the forces that possessed her.
The original X-Men trilogy ostensibly takes place in the 2000s when these films were
released. Wolverine and Rogue are taken in at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. Meanwhile,
Magneto and his cohorts hatch a scheme to turn the world's leaders into mutants.
They kidnap Rogue as part of their plan, but they're defeated by Wolverine and the X-Men,
and Magneto is placed in a plastic prison.
"A war is still coming, Charles, and I intend to fight it."
Then in X-2, Colonel William Stryker has kidnapped Professor X and other young mutants from the
school. He plans to combine the psychic abilities of his son Jason and Professor X to kill the
world's mutant population. Their plan is thwarted through a reluctant partnership between the X-Men,
Magneto, and Mystique. However, Jean Grey seemingly dies while helping her teammates escape.
But it's soon revealed in The Last Stand that Jean Grey is very much alive, with
enhanced psychic powers and a new personality known as Phoenix. Alas, she becomes unstable,
killing Professor X and teaming up with Magneto and his new Brotherhood, who are determined to
stop Worthington Labs and their so-called "mutant cure." The X-Men stop Magneto and his forces,
but Wolverine is forced to kill Jean Grey, whose powers have become uncontrollable.
Sometime after the events of the original X-Men trilogy, Wolverine is living alone
in the Canadian wilderness, still haunted by the death of Jean. He's soon called to Japan
to meet with Ichirō Yashida, the man he saved during World War II. Ichirō is dying of cancer,
so he offers to take Wolverine's healing factor, thereby allowing him to live a mortal life.
Wolverine declines and is about to leave Japan when he's infected by a robotic parasite that
slows his accelerated healing. After Ichirō supposedly dies, his granddaughter Mariko is
attacked by gangsters, prompting Wolverine to rescue her. They then go on the run together.
Wolverine and Mariko begin to develop a romantic relationship, but then she's kidnapped,
so he must team up with Yukio to find her. They determine that Mariko was held
at Ichirō's estate. They're too late to rescue her, although it's here that Wolverine removes
the device that's blocking his healing factor. They then take the fight to Ichirō's hometown,
where it's revealed that he's still alive in a massive robotic samurai suit and
is still determined to extract Wolverine's abilities. He's ultimately defeated, though.
Wolverine decides to leave Japan, but he's stopped at the airport by Magneto
and a resurrected Professor X, who warns him about a new threat facing mutantkind.
"You're not the only one with gifts."
In 2023, the world is overrun by the massive mutant-hunting robots known as Sentinels. The
surviving X-Men are on the run and hiding in an old Chinese temple. They concoct a scheme
in which Kitty Pryde uses her abilities to send Wolverine's consciousness back to 1973 to prevent
Mystique from assassinating Bolivar Trask, which led to the production of the Sentinels. The rest
of the X-Men are tasked with protecting Kitty long enough for Wolverine to achieve his goal.
However, their plan is endangered by an army of Sentinels who discover their location. Most of
the X-Men are killed, but their deaths are not in vain. Wolverine prevents the assassination
of Trask, and the Sentinel program is canceled. He then wakes up in the present day to discover that
the world is now safe for mutants and that all of his teammates are alive, including Jean Grey.
In the world of 2029 in Logan, no mutants have been born in decades. Only Logan and Caliban
are left to care for an elderly and sick Professor X. Logan works as a limo driver
to save enough money to buy a boat where they can peacefully spend the rest of their lives. However,
his plans are disrupted when he meets Laura, a young mutant girl with powers
similar to his own. She's on the run from a corporation experimenting on mutant children.
So Dr. Zander Rice sends Donald Pierce and his Reavers to take back Laura. Caliban is
captured during the skirmish, but Logan manages to get Laura and Professor X out
of the fight. They set out to Eden, one of the last havens for mutants. During another battle,
Professor X and Caliban are killed, leaving Logan and Laura to finish their journey alone. They then
meet the other escaped children, but they still must contend with Rice, Pierce, and the Reavers.
They're overtaken by the mutant children, who make their escape, but not before Logan is killed.
"They'll keep coming, coming. You don't have to fight anymore."
Deadpool's place in the existing X-Men timeline is unclear. In his first solo
outing, Wade Wilson spends his days as a mercenary who eventually decides to
settle down with a sex worker named Vanessa. They plan to get married,
but Wade's cancer diagnosis prompts him to undergo a torturous experimental procedure at the hands
of the villainous Ajax. While it successfully forces his mutant healing ability to manifest,
it also leaves him horribly scarred, so he gives himself a new identity
as Deadpool. When Ajax kidnaps Vanessa, Wade goes on a bloody quest to rescue her.
Vanessa is killed in Deadpool 2, which spurs Wade to join the X-Men,
believing that's what she would've wanted. His first mission with the team involves rescuing a
pyrokinetic mutant boy named Russell. Things get complicated when Cable arrives from the
future to kill Russell because he'll grow up to kill Cable's family, but Deadpool is determined
to protect him at all costs. He convinces Cable to give him a chance to talk some sense into Russell,
but Russell has teamed up with the Juggernaut to get revenge on the orphanage that abused
him. They're ultimately successful in convincing Russell to change his ways,
and Cable gives Deadpool a chance to mess with the already-complicated timeline.
"You're welcome, Canada."
Released in 2020, The New Mutants follows a younger generation of gifted youngsters sent
to an institute run by Dr. Cecilia Reyes. They believe that they're destined to join the X-Men,
but they're actually being trained to become soldiers for a mysterious organization.
The placement of The New Mutants in the X-Men timeline is even murkier than that of Deadpool.
While there are references to the X-Men, it's not clear when the events of this film take place. One
of the few bridges to the larger franchise is the fact that Reyes works for the Essex Corporation,
which was first mentioned in a post-credits scene at the end of X-Men: Apocalypse. Essex
also owns the orphanage that housed Russell in Deadpool 2. This was meant as a tease to
introduce the classic villain Mister Sinister, also known as Nathaniel Essex. He was supposed
to appear in a post-credits scene at the end of The New Mutants, but that never happened.