The Entire X-Men Timeline Explained
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 -