How to View the X-MEN Series From This Point Forward

How to View the X-MEN Series From This Point Forward

After the game changing X-MEN: DOFP, FastFlames attempts to explain what happened to the timeline, along with explaining the order in which the films should be watched after *SPOILERS*!

Editorial Opinion
By fastflames - May 24, 2014 06:05 PM EST
Filed Under: X-Men
I am now issuing a *MAJOR SPOILER WARNING* as this Editorial contains some pretty critical spoilers for X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Still here? Well I hope you have seen the film because there are some great moments that I am about to ruin for you if you haven't!

I want to start off by saying that this movie really exceeded my expectations. I bought the X-Men Complete Series Blu-Ray pack and my ticket for the 7:05 showing on opening night to get prepared. I went to the movie and was sitting in the theater with my friend who has never seen an X-Men movie before. We were both blown away. My friend really enjoyed it, until the last 15 minutes, and then he was confused beyond belief. It required another 20 minutes of explanation in the lobby to get my friend to understand the gravity of that last scene.

The last scene of DOFP shows us that Wolverine  succeeded in not only changing the future of the X-Men timeline, but has erased an entire fifty years of that timelines history, which has been replaced with new events. While this fifty years worth of "blank canvas" opens up the possibility for countless new stories to be told, and also opens up the possibility to re-tell stories that have been already made (such as the Phoenix Saga), it does this at the expense of rebooting the entire series, except for the evens of First Class. Here is a very good info graphic posted by KingPatel earlier today that explains this new timeline quite well.



With the release of DOFP, the original timeline goes like this... First Class, Origins, X1, X2, X3, The Wolverine, DOFP, then the timeline ends.

As you can see, other than First Class and the first five minutes of Origins, the series may have been completely rebooted after the year 1973. Where does this leave us? Obviously X3 never happened as Jean Gray and Scott Summers are alive, and most of the events of X1, X2, and The Wolverine must have not happened either.  Also, when Mystique takes Wolverine while disguised as William Striker at the end of DOFP, the events of Origins are also put into question.

As of right now the new timeline simply goes like this... First Class, DOFP, Apocalypse, 40 - 50 years of rewritten history, then the final scene of DOFP in which all the X-Men, including Scott and Jean, are still alive.

Even though  X1, X2, X3, Origins, The Wolverine, and the future parts of DOFP may or may not have ever happened, they still exist as memories in Wolverine's mind and some in the mind of Charles.

In summary, even though there are now two different timelines, all of the films are still cannon. The reason I say all of the films are still cannon is because the old timeline is what leads up to the future portions of DOFP, which then leads to the creation of the new timeline.

Since I still consider all of the films cannon, what order do they need to be watched in if you are showing them to someone who has never seen any of the films before, or if you want to marathon them? This is how I would think you would watch these films in that case.

You would start with First Class as it is the first film in both timelines. Then you watch Origins, X1, X2, and X3 as though the timeline has never been reset because it has never reached the year 2023 in either timeline. You then watch The Wolverine as it leads into DOFP. You then go back and re-watch First Class as the begining of the new timeline, since the years in the new timeline line up with years about 40 years in advance with the old timeline. Finally you watch DOFP as part of the new timeline that happens to intersect with the old timeline (since it ends with the new timeline). You then watch whatever films come next from the studio as they are what come next in the new timeline.

In conclusion I believe that the timeline in movie form goes like this... First Class, Origins, X1 X2, X3, The Wolverine, First Class, DOFP, Apocalypse.

So what do you think of my explanation of the X-Men timeline and my explanation of how to watch them? What do you think of the new timelines? Sound off below.

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fastflames
fastflames - 5/24/2014, 6:35 PM
I spent two hours writing this explanation of what I think the implications of DOFP are and put in a lot of work, so I hope it is all clear!
BANE5000
BANE5000 - 5/24/2014, 7:04 PM
@FastFlames

Seems about right, good job

The thing that has me excited about the 50 gap and possibility of new stories to be told within that gap is...

Now that Mystique is disguised as Stryker and saves Logan, will she still somehow put him through a Weapon X progamme of sorts and will we now get a better retelling of him going through the progamme and gaining his adamantium then was told in Origins?

I surely hope so

Also hopefully bringing back Sabretooth at some point and bringing back Liev Shreiber to play him as the more cunning and evil version than the lumbering henchman we got in X1, I enjoyed Shreibers take on the character and hopefully they can bring him back under different circumstances than in Origins now that things have changed
Nick56
Nick56 - 5/24/2014, 7:08 PM
Really happy with how they handled the alt-timeline stuff in DOFP. It was essentially a quasi-reboot for the franchise and an exciting fresh start. Im so pumped for what they can do now in the X universe!
fastflames
fastflames - 5/24/2014, 7:57 PM
@Superhero96 Same here, I had to explain it to my whole group of people I saw it with because not a single one of them had seen X3
TheLokey1
TheLokey1 - 5/24/2014, 9:13 PM
I look at the order like this (well the way I will arrange my blu rays anyway :)

Origins
X1
X2
X3
Wolverine
First class
Days of future past

Even though first class is supposed to be in line with the original timeline, I still consider it part of the alternate timeline. I think with the post credit scene attached to DOFP, there may still be some time distortion in the following apocalypse movie.
SauronsBANE
SauronsBANE - 5/24/2014, 9:23 PM
I brought this up in a separate thread and received some thoughtful, insightful replies but figure I'd post this here as well just to make sure.

So I initially assumed that the timeline that the original X-Men trilogy exists in was different from the apocalyptic future in DoFP. After all, how could it be the same timeline if Mystique killing Trask was the catalyst for the Sentinel program...but that little game-changing event is never even hinted at in the original trilogy? Where were all the Sentinels in that trilogy? Why was Trask an African American?

But I guess that's just more examples of the continuity errors that plague the whole franchise? I guess that's no different than Emma Frost being in both Origins and First Class, or the different origins for Cerebro? Should I should just accept that when I watch X-men through X3, Origins, and The Wolverine, it's the exact same characters and exact same timeline that leads into the dystopian future of DoFP? It certainly makes more sense that way, but I keep getting thrown off by the discrepancies.
DougMcCausland
DougMcCausland - 5/25/2014, 5:39 AM
The old films still do matter, they're the story of how Wolverine was molded into the superhero who risked everything to correct the timeline and save the future.
ager
ager - 5/25/2014, 5:41 PM
So did they ever explain the Havok/Cyclops relationship or why Professor X never mentioned Mystiqe? Oh wait, then maybe TheLokey1@ is onto something with the order. I don't know and I don't know why I care I swore these movies off after First Class.
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