An ingenious fan theory streamlines Fox's X-Men timeline using one single scene from Logan. Throughout 20 years and 13 movies, Fox's X-Men franchise became increasingly contrived with contradicting events and several timeline changes. From prequel stories to time travel and alternate universes, the X-Men movies sidelined consistency in favor of spectacular battles starring Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and other live-action mutants.
Despite how long it ran, Fox's X-Men franchise never had a long-term plan like the MCU. Endings weren't definitive, backstories were constantly retconned, and character appearances were all over the place. Hugh Jackman's Wolverine was the only constant in the franchise, but even he went through major unexplained changes along the way, including the sudden return of his adamantium claws between the events of The Wolverine and X-Men: Days of Future Past. However, one particular scene in Logan features Wolverine possibly explaining why the movies contradicted themselves so much.
The X-Men Movies' Extremely Complicated Timeline Explained
The original X-Men trilogy tells a pretty straightforward story. It begins with Wolverine's debut, continues with the X-Men's fight against William Stryker, and ends with a war between the X-Men and Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants. The timeline starts to get confusing with X-Men Origins: Wolverine, where it's revealed that Wolverine had known Sabretooth, Cyclops, and Charles Xavier long before the first X-Men movie. Deadpool, Angel, and Bolivar Trask are only some of the characters who get conflicting appearances in the franchise. Most egregiously, Charles Xavier and Magneto are young adults throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, but suddenly seem to be well into their 70s in the early 2000s.
There are many more conflicting details in the X-Men franchise, but it's implied that at least some of them come from the differences between various timelines. The original X-Men trilogy, The Wolverine, X-Men: First Class, and the 1970s portion of X-Men: Days of Future Past likely exist in a single timeline. Then, Wolverine's trip back in time during X-Men: Days of Future Past probably divided it, placing X-Men: Apocalypse and X-Men: Dark Phoenix in a different one. Meanwhile, Logan and Deadpool's timelines are probably different, while X-Men Origins: Wolverine's is left ambiguous.
Theory: The X-Men Timeline Is Made Up Of Real Events & In-Universe Stories
Reddit OscKarthenerd proposes a simple solution to the X-Men franchise's inconsistencies. In Logan, Wolverine finds an X-Men comic book among Laura's belongings while they hide in a hotel. Offended, Wolverine explains to her that comic books sensationalize the X-Men's real experiences, saying "Maybe a quarter of it happened, and not like this". This means that the events of movies like X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: Dark Phoenix could be the in-universe comic book adaptations of the X-Men's real battles, and any inconsistencies can be chalked up to creative liberties from the writers.
Considering how tragically the X-Men died before Logan, it's possible that Wolverine's reunion with his fallen colleagues at the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past is just a romanticized conclusion that the comic book writers tried to give the X-Men in order to ignore their grim reality — or as a greedy way to keep their money-making comic book versions alive for future fictional stories. From Wolverine's perspective, the only movies that happened accurately may have been X-Men and The Wolverine, and perhaps even X-Men: First Class. All the other movies may include certain real events, but not like Wolverine, Charles Xavier, and the other X-Men experienced them.
How This Wolverine Theory Improves The X-Men Movies
The theory that most of the X-Men movies are in-universe comic books is a clever way to explain all the plot holes and irregularities in the franchise. It also gives each viewer freedom to pick the events they consider part of true X-Men canon and ignore the ones that contradict them. Logan originally featured Xavier ing Jean Grey's death, which would create another inconsistency given that Jean Grey succumbed to Xavier's seizure instead of Wolverine's claws in this timeline. But since that scene was cut from the final film, Logan only acknowledges X-Men's battle at the Statue of Liberty and Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
With only those two elements, the X-Men's deaths, Wolverine's decreased healing powers due to adamantium poisoning, and a sudden decline in the mutant gene, viewers can get as creative as they can with their own version of X-Men canon. Perhaps the "quarter" of the events that Wolverine mentions includes the main plot of every X-Men movie, but instead of requiring time travel shenanigans and logic-defying retcons, it all could have happened in a much more straightforward manner. Alternatively, only part of every movie may have actually happened, and the comic book writers may have filled in the rest with the limited information they knew about the real X-Men.
The Problems With The Wolverine/X-Men Timeline Theory
While the X-Men comic book theory is extremely effective in solving most inconsistencies in the movie franchise, it still has some potential obstacles. First, the in-universe comic book writers couldn't have known about some of the events the real X-Men experienced. For instance, Wolverine's amnesia after the Weapon X program is unlikely to have been disclosed to the public. William Stryker's experiments are even less likely to be common knowledge, let alone be included in a comic book, considering that they're still operating under Dr. Zander Rice and hurting little kids like Laura Kinney in Logan's present day.
Second, packaging real mutant conflicts as entertainment seems unlikely in Logan's timeline since mutants are still looked down upon in 2029. And lastly, Deadpool 3 will likely invalidate this theory, as it might reveal that Fox's X-Men franchise exists as a set of parallel timelines in the Marvel multiverse similar to how Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man, and Sony's Spider-Man Universe run concurrently with the MCU. In fact, Charles Xavier's MCU debut in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness s the idea that there isn't a single "real" version of the X-Men given that he's a variant that ed the Illuminati and got murdered by the MCU's Scarlet Witch.
