Deadpool’s healing power or Professor X’s telepathic power; to understand the X-Men timeline, you need even more power. It is a bit messed up, but let’s try to make sense of it. The X-Men movies have been favorites among fans. You must have tried making Wolverine’s claws from a pen, pencil, or something else at least once during your childhood. But no matter how big of an X-Men fan you become, there’s always a bit of confusion about the timelines.

Things should have been simple: one timeline where events happen up to X-Men: The Last Stand, and a new timeline where Wolverine changes the past in X-Men: Days of Future Past. But what about the Logan and Deadpool movies? Into which timeline do these movies fall? This article will be about X-Men timeline explained. So, let’s try to understand the X-Men timeline in chronological order not X-Men movie in order.

The Original Timeline

Let’s first look at the original timeline. In 3000 BC, the world’s first mutant appeared in front of people, En Sabah Nur, aka Apocalypse, who ruled Egypt. Humans tried to change this, and Apocalypse was buried in Egypt. In 1845 AD, James Howlett’s trauma gave him his powers where he discovered who his real father was, and he ran away with his brother Victor. In 1861, Logan and Victor fought in the American Civil War, and in 1917, they fought in World War I.

In 1944, a young Charles Xavier met a young Raven in Westchester, and he gave her a home. On the other hand, in a German concentration camp, Erik Lehnsherr’s trauma introduced him to his mutant abilities, and he caught the attention of Klaus Schmidt. Also in 1944, Logan and Victor fought in World War II, and a year later, he met Yashida in a Japanese internment camp and saved him from the Nagasaki atomic bomb blast.

In 1962, Charles and Erik met each other and formed a team of mutants, but after the Cuban Missile Crisis, they went their separate ways. Charles also lost his ability to walk. In 1973, Logan and Victor participated in the Vietnam War. Victor killed an officer in a rage, and both were sentenced by a firing squad, which they survived, and then they were recruited by William Stryker into Team X.

Logan left the team after some time. In 1979, Victor faked killing Logan’s girlfriend. Logan went to Stryker and had adamantium fused to his bones. After that, Stryker’s true intentions were revealed to Logan. After all this turmoil, Professor X recruits Cyclops and some mutants, while Logan gets an adamantium bullet and forgets everything that happened before.

There are some continuity errors here, which will be discussed later. In 1986, Charles and Erik went to recruit Jean Grey. In the year 2000, Logan and Rogue arrive at Professor X’s school, where Magneto tries to use Rogue to turn world leaders into mutants, but the X-Men stop him and imprison him in a plastic jail. In 2003, Professor X was kidnapped, and the X-Men teamed up with Magneto to rescue him. Here, Jean Grey sacrificed herself so the X-Jet could escape.

In 2005, Worthington Lab found a mutant cure. Jean Grey returns in the form of Phoenix, where she immediately kills both Cyclops and then Professor X. A massive battle then ensues between Magneto and the X-Men, where Magneto loses his powers, and Logan kills Jean, while Charles Xavier reappears at the end of the movie.

In 2013, Logan, not feeling right since Jean’s death, is reminded by his old friend Yashida, who offers him death in exchange for his healing factor. Logan refuses, but Yashida schemes to steal Logan’s healing factor, which leads to a fierce battle, and Logan kills Yashida and leaves Japan, moving past his grief over Jean’s death. In 2015, Erik and Charles come to Logan and tell him about the impending threat of the Sentinels. By 2023, this threat will have become a problem for the whole world.

Sentinels are hunting the last of the mutants, and Professor X finds a way to send Wolverine back in time to prevent Mystique from killing Bolivar Trask, which would prevent the Sentinel program from progressing. Wolverine goes back in time and, with the help of Professor X and Magneto, stops all this, and the Sentinel program does not advance, changing the future. This led to a branch in 1973.

Continuity Errors

So one timeline is clear to us, but there are many continuity errors here. In the 2000 X-Men, Charles says he met Erik when he was 17, but this didn’t happen. Plus, Charles and Mystique were siblings, which was never mentioned. In 1979, Emma Frost in X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a child, whereas in the same timeline in 1962, we meet an adult Emma Frost.

In 2000, Charles tells Logan that they have known each other for 15 years, whereas they had actually known each other for 21 years. Logan had bone claws in 2015, but by 2023 he will have his adamantium claws back. Although there were more continuity errors before, which the X-Men movies addressed over time and corrected some errors as well. For example, Charles was walking in 1986, which was addressed in Days of Future Past.

The New Timeline

Now coming to the new timeline, in 1973, Wolverine and Professor X stop the assassination of Dr. Trask, but Magneto escapes, trying to kill the president, after which Mystique takes Wolverine’s body. An interesting point is that no one ages from 1962 to 1973. In 1983, Apocalypse awakens, and then sets out to destroy the world. Charles’s school is doing well. Apocalypse kidnaps Charles. Wolverine escapes from the Weapon X facility, and Jean Grey in her Phoenix form handles Apocalypse.

In 1992, the X-Men are doing proper X-Men work, but Jean Grey encounters Phoenix, and the atmosphere starts to deteriorate, but it stabilizes when Jean realizes how dangerous her powers are, and she leaves. Another movie was going to come after this, where Jean returns, and the school’s name changes from Xavier School to Jean Grey School; in the Deadpool movie, the school’s name is back to Xavier School.

In 2016, former special ops operative Wade Wilson activates his mutant gene and becomes Deadpool. Now Deadpool jumps timelines properly according to Days of Future Past, where a new branch was created. Wade Wilson existed before we met him in ’73 during the formation of Team X, but Deadpool knows he’s a fictional character, so it’s normal for him to make meta commentary about himself.

In 2018, Deadpool faces a new problem where another time-traveling element is added to the mix, basically, Cable comes from the future to kill Russell so that Russell doesn’t kill his family in the future. Here we see members of this timeline’s X-Men, so Deadpool is placed in this timeline. Deadpool saves Cable’s family, but in a different way, and in the end, Cable stays here, and Deadpool goes back in time and changes things. By 2023, everything is fixed from X-Men Days of Future Past, and Wolverine returns to the school where Jean and Scott are alive, and everyone is happy.

There are many continuity errors in this timeline too. There are 10-year jumps, but no character ages. Trask is completely different here while in the original timeline, Trask did not look like Peter Dinklage. Showing the part about bringing Jean back was necessary in the movie to make sense of many things.

Another Timeline

Now coming to the third timeline. In late 2020, the events of The New Mutants occurred, and footage featuring Logan in the New Mutants is shown. Here, Essex Corporation was experimenting on mutants. In 2029, events from Logan came forward where Logan was losing his healing factor. Professor X is killed. New mutant hunts appear with X23, and no one is killed. Because of the Logan movie, the New Mutant was added to a separate timeline. In Logan, both the original X-Men timeline and the new X-Men timeline are considered canon.

The events in Logan occur six years after Days of Future Past, but Logan also states that for the past 25 years, no new mutant has been born. The Essex Corporation’s mention is in the new timeline and also in Deadpool 2, but Deadpool 2 fits directly into the new timeline. X-Men have been dead in this universe for a long time. Logan here also talks about killing his father, Dr. Rice, which happened in the original timeline, but the original timeline was ended by Sentinels.

Now you can understand who really messed up here; this is Logan’s doing. But Logan was a character-driven movie by James Mangold, and if more attention had been paid to continuity and details, the director wouldn’t have been able to show what he came to show.

Conclusion – X-Men Timeline Explained

The confusion in the X-Men movie timeline tells us that these movies were faithfully adapted. Time travel has always been associated with X-Men storylines, where continuity confusion was also in the comics, so it’s not bad for it to be in the movie.

You can read our Complete X-Men Movie Recap: A Guide Before Watching Deadpool and Wolverine for details view of Fox’s Marvel Universe.

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