Attempting to Explain The X - Men movie timeline - Mashable explains

Whereas Marvel has created a linear and cohesive timeline with the Marvel Cinematic Universe thank you Kevin Fiege Fox’s X-men universe is a little trickier to trace. And rightfully so. The first X-Men film preceded Iron Man by eight years and so the idea of universe building just wasn’t on anyone’s radar leading the franchise to play catch-up by the time they rebooted the series in 2011 with First Class. So while there are many inconsistencies within the X-men series I’d like to present a timeline that is most effective for your enjoyment of the new film Apocalypse which means we’ll largely ignore X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I'm sorry, Hugh. I had to. This timeline naturally starts in 1962 with the events of X-Men: First Class where Magneto played by Michael Fassbender and Charles Xavier played by James McAvoy attempt to recruit mutants to stop the villainous Kevin Bacon from causing a global nuclear war. We’re also introduced to Mystique a morally ambiguous shape-shifter and Hank McCoy aka Beast who goes full on beast-mode when his mutant-cure serum backfires Fast forward to 1973 and this is where things get tricky as the timeline converges based on whether Mystique is successful in assassinating Dr. Boliver Trask at the International Summit no, not that Trask from Last Stand Peter Dinklage. In the instance that Mystique is successful in killing Trask then we have a timeline that leads to the events of X-Men, X2, The Last Stand and The Wolverine Scott, Charles and Jean Grey all die in the wasted b-plot that is the Dark Phoenix storyline and Magneto and Mystique are depowered by an actual mutant cure that worked or did it? This sequence of events leads us to “the future” of Days of Future Past where sentinels have killed mutants and enslaved humans and hey look, Xavier is alive Magneto has his powers and Wolverine has his metal claws that got clipped off at the end of the The Wolverine so f*ck continuity, right? Seriously, what are you guys doing? In this terrible future our surviving X-team all meet terrible deaths. However, before that happens, Kitty Pryde sends Wolverine back in time to stop Mystique from assassinating Trask. Which he is successful in doing sending the timeline into a bit of a flux until Mystique confronts Trask again at the end of the movie. When Mystique goes full moral-ambiguity on us yet again and stops herself from killing Trask a beautiful retconn occurs diverging the series into three official timelines one where all of the events of the prior movies are wiped from the continuity A second returning Wolverine to a future where Jean, Scott and Professor X are alive again and a third one leading the First Class X-men into the newest film in the series - Apocalypse. So there you have it. Pretty simple, right? Now don’t ask me why Xavier and Magneto said they met when they were 17 in the first movie but then clearly met as adults in First Class or why Emma Frost was a teenager in the 70s in Origins: Wolverine but an adult in the 60s in First Class or how Deadpool even fits into this, because I don't know! Timey Wimey stuff. Now go enjoy Apocalypse!