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.
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00:00 Those merry mutants seem to be rewriting history every time they're on the big screen. So whip
00:06 out your claws as we dig in and explain the entire cinematic X-Men timeline.
00:12 Long before the X-Men formed, mutants slowly made their presence known throughout history.
00:17 One of the first to appear was N'Saba Noor. Better known as Apocalypse, he's seen at the
00:22 end of "Days of Future Past" building a pyramid with his mind. X-Men Apocalypse begins in
00:27 3600 BC when N'Saba Noor transfers his consciousness into another mutant body with a healing factor
00:35 that enables him to live indefinitely. But he's thwarted by saboteurs and trapped in
00:40 a state of dormancy for many centuries.
00:42 X-Men Origins Wolverine opens in 1845 in northern Canada, with a young James Howlett manifesting
00:49 the mutant powers of an accelerated healing factor and retractable claws. He and his half-brother
00:54 Victor Creed then go on the run and fight in major conflicts, including the American
00:59 Civil War and the two World Wars.
01:02 2013's The Wolverine expands a bit more on Logan's time during World War II. He's imprisoned
01:07 in a Japanese POW camp where he rescues a man named Ichiro Yashida. X-Men First Class
01:13 reveals more details about several other prominent mutants during World War II. A young Eric
01:18 Lencher is separated from his family at the Auschwitz concentration camp, an experience
01:23 so traumatic that it unleashes his magnetic powers. This catches the attention of Nazi
01:28 officer Klaus Schmidt, who kills Eric's mother to push him to demonstrate his control over
01:33 metal. Meanwhile, a young Charles Xavier befriends the shapeshifting Raven.
01:38 "You're hungry and alone. Take whatever you want."
01:43 The two become as close as siblings, but eventually go down different paths.
01:47 By 1962, Eric Lencher is engaged in a global hunt for Klaus Schmidt. Meanwhile, CIA agent
01:54 Moira McTaggart is assigned to infiltrate the Hellfire Club, headed by Schmidt, who
01:58 now goes by the name Sebastian Shaw. The Hellfire Club is working on a plan to cause World War
02:04 III, which they believe will annihilate the human race and allow mutants to become the
02:07 dominant species. Moira enlists the help of Xavier, and he befriends Eric during a mission.
02:13 With the help of the CIA, they recruit other young mutants and train them to use their
02:17 powers to stop the Hellfire Club. These mutants form the first iteration of the X-Men. While
02:23 this team manages to stop the Hellfire Club's deadly machinations, their mission is not
02:27 without its losses. Xavier is shot in the back, leaving him unable to walk, and Eric
02:32 turns his back on the X-Men on his path to becoming Magneto.
02:36 Much of X-Men Origins Wolverine takes place in the 1970s, which sees Logan and Victor
02:41 Creed serving in the Vietnam War. They're recruited by Major William Stryker for Team
02:46 X, a squad of mutants tasked with dangerous missions. Logan decides that being a mercenary
02:51 isn't for him, so he heads to Canada to live a simpler life as a lumberjack. However, when
02:56 his lover Silver Fox is seemingly killed by Creed, he accepts Stryker's offer to undergo
03:01 a procedure to have adamantium grafted to his skeleton to get revenge on his half-brother.
03:06 When Logan discovers that this was all part of a plan to turn him into a mindless soldier,
03:11 he wreaks havoc on Stryker's facility. He releases the mutants that Stryker was experimenting
03:15 on, who are soon rescued by Professor X. This ordeal strips Logan of his memory, eventually
03:21 sending him down a path to uncover his past.
03:24 Many of the events depicted in X-Men Origins Wolverine are dramatically altered by the events
03:28 of days of future past. In 1973, the consciousness of the older Logan is sent back into his younger
03:34 self on a mission to stop Raven, now known as Mystique, from assassinating the weapons
03:39 designer Bolivar Trask. This event starts a chain reaction that sees the future production
03:44 of Trask's mutant-hunting Sentinels. Logan is successful, which changes the course of
03:49 the X-Men series' history.
03:50 "I think the history I know is a little different."
03:51 "Welcome back."
03:58 By the 1980s, Professor X has brought a young Scott Summers to his school for gifted youngsters.
04:03 Meanwhile, N'Saba Noor rises again and recruits other mutants to become his four horsemen.
04:09 This group includes Storm, Psylocke, and Angel, as well as Eric Lensher, who had been living
04:14 a peaceful life with his wife and child. Professor X and his current team of X-Men stop Apocalypse's
04:20 plan of mutant domination and bring Storm and Mystique into the fold.
04:25 Because of the history-changing events in Days of Future Past, this version of the 1980s
04:29 differs from the previous depiction. In X-Men The Last Stand, there's a scene that takes
04:34 place in 1986 in which a young Professor X and Magneto meet an adolescent Jean Grey and
04:40 welcome her to Xavier's school. However, Apocalypse features an older Jean in 1983 to fit the
04:46 new timeline. Then, in Dark Phoenix, it's established that Professor X first met Jean
04:51 in 1975.
04:53 In Dark Phoenix, the X-Men are assigned to rescue the stranded crew of a space shuttle
04:58 that's been hit by a mysterious force. They're successful, but Jean Grey is exposed to the
05:03 full blast. Instead of dying, her psychic powers become dramatically boosted, but with
05:07 a side effect of emotional instability. It's then revealed that Professor X blocked her
05:12 memory of causing the car accident that took her mother's life, which sends Jean down a
05:16 dark path.
05:18 When the X-Men confront Jean, she accidentally kills Mystique in a fit of rage. She then
05:22 goes to Magneto for help, but he rebuffs her. However, her prayers are seemingly answered
05:27 when she encounters Vuk, one of the few surviving members of the alien race known as the D'Bari.
05:33 Vuk promises to help Jean control her powers, but it isn't long before she learns that Vuk
05:37 actually plans to absorb her abilities. When Vuk makes one last attempt to take Jean's
05:42 powers, Jean kills her and is consumed by the forces that possessed her.
05:47 The original X-Men trilogy ostensibly takes place in the 2000s, when these films were
05:51 released. Wolverine and Rogue are taken in at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters.
05:56 Meanwhile, Magneto and his cohorts hatch a scheme to turn the world's leaders into mutants.
06:01 They kidnap Rogue as part of their plan, but they're defeated by Wolverine and the X-Men,
06:05 and Magneto is placed in a plastic prison.
06:08 "The war is still coming, Charles, and I intend to fight it."
06:15 Then in X2, Colonel William Stryker has kidnapped Professor X and other young mutants from the
06:20 school. He plans to combine the psychic abilities of his son Jason and Professor X to kill the
06:25 world's mutant population. Their plan is thwarted through a reluctant partnership between the
06:30 X-Men, Magneto, and Mystique. However, Jean Grey seemingly dies while helping her teammates
06:35 escape.
06:36 But it's soon revealed in The Last Stand that Jean Grey is very much alive, with enhanced
06:41 psychic powers and a new personality known as Phoenix. Alas, she becomes unstable, killing
06:46 Professor X and teaming up with Magneto and his new brotherhood, who are determined to
06:51 stop Worthington Labs and their so-called "mutant cure."
06:54 The X-Men stop Magneto and his forces, but Wolverine is forced to kill Jean Grey, whose
06:59 powers have become uncontrollable.
07:02 Sometime after the events of the original X-Men trilogy, Wolverine is living alone in
07:06 the Canadian wilderness, still haunted by the death of Jean. He's soon called to Japan
07:11 to meet with Aichiro Yashida, the man he saved during World War II. Aichiro is dying of cancer,
07:16 so he offers to take Wolverine's healing factor, thereby allowing him to live a mortal life.
07:21 Wolverine declines and is about to leave Japan when he's infected by a robotic parasite that
07:26 slows his accelerated healing. After Aichiro supposedly dies, his granddaughter Mariko
07:31 is attacked by gangsters, prompting Wolverine to rescue her. They then go on the run together.
07:37 Wolverine and Mariko begin to develop a romantic relationship, but then she's kidnapped, so
07:42 he must team up with Yukio to find her.
07:45 They determine that Mariko was held at Aichiro's estate. They're too late to rescue her, although
07:49 it's here that Wolverine removes the device that's blocking his healing factor. They then
07:54 take the fight to Aichiro's hometown, where it's revealed that he's still alive in a massive
07:58 robotic samurai suit, and is still determined to extract Wolverine's abilities. He's ultimately
08:04 defeated, though. Wolverine decides to leave Japan, but he's stopped at the airport by
08:08 Magneto and a resurrected Professor X, who warns him about a new threat facing mutant-kind.
08:14 "You're not the only one with gifts."
08:18 In 2023, the world is overrun by the massive mutant-hunting robots known as Sentinels.
08:24 The surviving X-Men are on the run and hiding in an old Chinese temple. They concoct a scheme
08:29 in which Kitty Pryde uses her abilities to send Wolverine's consciousness back to 1973
08:34 to prevent Mystique from assassinating Bolivar Trask, which led to the production of the
08:39 Sentinels. The rest of the X-Men are tasked with protecting Kitty long enough for Wolverine
08:42 to achieve his goal.
08:44 However, their plan is endangered by an army of Sentinels who discover their location.
08:49 Most of the X-Men are killed, but their deaths are not in vain. Wolverine prevents the assassination
08:54 of Trask, and the Sentinel program is canceled. He then wakes up in the present day to discover
08:59 that the world is now safe for mutants and that all of his teammates are alive, including
09:03 Jean Grey.
09:05 In the world of 2029 and Logan, no mutants have been born in decades. Only Logan and
09:10 Caliban are left to care for an elderly and sick Professor X. Logan works as a limo driver
09:15 to save enough money to buy a boat where they can peacefully spend the rest of their lives.
09:20 However, his plans are disrupted when he meets Laura, a young mutant girl with powers similar
09:25 to his own. She's on the run from a corporation experimenting on mutant children. So, Dr.
09:30 Xander Rice sends Donald Pierce and his Reavers to take back Laura.
09:34 Caliban is captured during the skirmish, but Logan manages to get Laura and Professor X
09:39 out of the fight. They set out to Eden, one of the last havens for mutants. During another
09:44 battle, Professor X and Caliban are killed, leaving Logan and Laura to finish their journey
09:48 alone. They then meet the other escaped children, but they still must contend with Rice, Pierce,
09:54 and the Reavers. They're overtaken by the mutant children, who make their escape, but
09:58 not before Logan is killed.
10:00 "They'll keep coming, coming. You don't have to fight anymore."
10:08 Deadpool's place in the existing X-Men timeline is unclear. In his first solo outing, Wade
10:12 Wilson spends his days as a mercenary who eventually decides to settle down with a sex
10:16 worker named Vanessa. They plan to get married, but Wade's cancer diagnosis prompts him to
10:21 undergo a torturous experimental procedure at the hands of the villainous Ajax. While
10:25 it successfully forces his mutant healing ability to manifest, it also leaves him horribly
10:30 scarred, so he gives himself a new identity as Deadpool.
10:34 When Ajax kidnaps Vanessa, Wade goes on a bloody quest to rescue her. Vanessa is killed
10:39 in Deadpool 2, which spurs Wade to join the X-Men, believing that's what she would've
10:44 wanted. His first mission with the team involves rescuing a pyrokinetic mutant boy named Russell.
10:49 Things get complicated when Cable arrives from the future to kill Russell because he'll
10:53 grow up to kill Cable's family, but Deadpool is determined to protect him at all costs.
10:57 He convinces Cable to give him a chance to talk some sense into Russell, but Russell
11:01 has teamed up with the Juggernaut to get revenge on the orphanage that abused him.
11:05 They're ultimately successful in convincing Russell to change his ways, and Cable gives
11:09 Deadpool a chance to mess with the already complicated timeline.
11:13 "You're welcome, Canada."
11:17 Released in 2020, The New Mutants follows a younger generation of gifted youngsters
11:21 sent to an institute run by Dr. Cecilia Reyes. They believe that they're destined to join
11:26 the X-Men, but they're actually being trained to become soldiers for a mysterious organization.
11:32 The placement of the New Mutants in the X-Men timeline is even murkier than that of Deadpool.
11:37 While there are references to the X-Men, it's not clear when the events of this film take
11:41 place. One of the few bridges to the larger franchise is the fact that Reyes works for
11:45 the Essex Corporation, which was first mentioned in a post-credits scene at the end of X-Men
11:50 Apocalypse. Essex also owns the orphanage that housed Russell in Deadpool 2. This was
11:55 meant as a tease to introduce the classic villain, Mr. Sinister, also known as Nathaniel
12:00 Essex. He was supposed to appear in a post-credits scene at the end of The New Mutants, but that
12:04 never happened.
12:05 -