What is the Chronological order of the X-Men Movies?

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With X-Men: Days of Future Past on the horizon I plan to re watch the other X-Men movies, including the Wolverine movies, both the good and bad ones. However I plan to watch them in chronological and I think I know how they go.

X-Men: First Class (2011)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
X-Men (2000)
X2: X-Men United a.k.a. X-Men 2 (2003)
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
The Wolverine (2013)

This is how I think it goes despite the many continuity errors. Of course if I wanted to be technical I would probably watch the opening to X-Men Origins: Wolverine with the child Logan and probably stop somewhere in the montage and then watch the opening to First Class or X-Men with the death camp and I think you know where it might go from there so it would be a little ridiculous and stressful to keep doing that so it's best to just watch the 6 movies one at a time in either release order or chronological order and despite the opening to the first Wolverine being set before anything that happens in first class, the majority of the Wolverine movie is set after First Class.

That looks about right to me. With X-Men: Days of Future Past taking place between X-Men: First Class and X-Men Origins: Wolverine in the past and taking place after The Wolverine in the present.

This is probably important now, considering I saw Days of Future Past last night.

Bumping this because now the whole issue is starting to bother me.

Well, it seems Singer ignored the bulk of "Origins", but it still considered canon since Kayla Silverfox is referenced in James Mangold's 2013 film. Logan's surprise at seeing Jean alive when he returns from '73 is a direct reference to "The Last Stand" as well.

It's been bothering me since yesterday about what the ending of the movie means.

I think Singer deliberately left it vague, so he could explore it in later films.

Well, the timeline was changed so that The Last Stand didn't happen but the past movies still happened as the original timeline. We're in an alternate timeline now. Anyway, I'm sort of glad that The Last Stand is kind of retconned because I'm not a fan of that film and Brian Singer should really of made a proper adaptation of The Phoenix Saga, elements of which was only haphazardly added to "X-Men: The Last Stand" and he didn't do a good job of it either, neither was it the main focus of the story. In any case, Cyclops and Jean Grey have to be alive for the next X-Men film, featuring the super-villain Apocalypse which is hinted at in the post-credit scene, because that storyline (at least according to the original comic book story) kind of features their time-travelling son from the future as a main protagonist.

Last edited by Jono on 17 Jun 2014, 8:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

See my above post. Cyclops and Jean Grey being alive is crucial to the plot of the next X-Men film, X-Men: Apocalypse, which will come out in 2016. I already sort of know what the plot will be.

Wait, I read that the next film takes place in the 80's and features the younger Xavier and Magneto again. So, a younger Cyclops and Jean will be introduced now I think?

That's right, it does take place in the 80's but they need to be alive in the future as well (post-X-Men 3: The Last Stand) because Cable, who is usually Apocalypse's archenemy is actually the son of Cyclops and Jean Grey. I don't know if a younger version of Cyclops and Jean Grey will be introduced in the 80's, though they probably will according to what I've heard about the film. Whether they are introduced or not though, Cable does not even have to born yet in the 80's (and likely won't be) for the story to work because he's also a time-traveler from the future.

They might introduce Cable but I'm more interested in who'll play Apocalypse (not the kid in the post-credit scene) and what X-Men movie will follow this. Also, IIRC isn't the comic version of why Apocalypse exists is because Professor X was killed in the past of an alternate timeline?

Actually, Apocalypse always existed. You're talking about the alternate timeline in "The Age of Apocalypse" storyline, where Apocalypse sees the opportunity to launch his war early because Xavior is dead and hasn't had the opportunity to negotiate the peace that he constantly tries to do in the original timeline. In the normal timeline, Apocalypse starts that war anyway, just at a later stage. I think that what's likely to happen in the next movie. is that Apocalypse would be awakened after detecting a temporal shift due to Wolverine travelling back in time and his actions in "X-Men: Days of Future Past" and this would explain why the X-Men didn't encounter him in the original timeline covered by the first 3 movies.