My explanation for the X-Men movie timeline. It’s not that complicated.

[Spidercide]

Its less complicated than the Back to the Future Trilogy or your average timey whimey Doctor Who episode.

Basically the future sequences of Days of Future Past along with every X-Men movie before it are in one Timeline.

Then the 1970s sequences of Days of Future Past, X-Men: First Class and every X-Men movie/TV show after DoFP is in the second timeline. All the other X-Movies prior to DoFP were erased.

It’s not that hard and DoFP laid it out pretty plainly.

I know people talk about Deadpool 2 futzing with things but c’mon...that’s a comedy you aren’t supposed to take that entirely seriously considering Deadpool literally interacted with the real world at one point.

[SpiderClops]

Seriously now?

[Jokerz79]

It's a mess basically going by their own timeline it would be

Original Timeline: First Class (Events took placed before Wolverine changed history), X-Men Wolverine Origins, X-Men, X2, Last Stand, the Wolverine, & DOFP (Original Sentinel Future).

New Timeline
First Class.
X-Men Wolverine Origins (up to when Wolverine left in 73 3 Mile Island happened in 79 and Logan left 6 years before 3 Mile Island and it would fit given he came back to 73 which could be right after he left Stryker.).
X-Men DOFP (1973 events).
X-Men Apocalypse.
Dark Phoenix.
Deadpool and Deadpool 2 (But again who knows with his forth wall breaking).
DOFP (New Future with possibly some events of X-Men 2000, X2, and the Wolverine being canon).
Logan (Maybe it's not clearly stated but possible).

TV Shows:
Legion (Who Knows).
Gifted (Given the X-Men are MIA and were weren't in DOFP the most likely if ever tied to a film timeline would be the original and this is the lead up to the Sentinels taking over. But again who knows with Fox it just makes the most sense so probably not.).

Yeah it's a mess.

[Theleviathan]

Gets even messier when you start looking at things like Havok and Cyclops. It's forced them to use obscure characters to fill out movie rosters and caused the teams to lack consistent members.

[Disciple of Redd]

Incongruous timeline? 50 year old characters that don't look it?

That just doesn't work!

[/movie memers]

[AHRNIHAL]

WOW!Why i never think of that.You sir,a genious.Obviously fox is the greater one.

[Rover]

It's simple as long as you don't start looking for inconsistencies.

Wolverine is the most confusing part for me. His consciousness travels back in time to the early 70s in Days of Future Past...so does that mean he has that same older consciousness throughout the entire new timeline? Is he the Wolverine they freed in Apocalypse?

And I thought Logan was an alternate future thing?

I hate comparisons to Back to the Future because BTTF had a well-though out plot and a story neatly contained in three movies. The entire timeline thing can be explained in a 2 minutes scene where Doc draws something on a blackboard. This is the complete opposite of what Fox did.

[Magik]

I don't even think about it.The whole timeline is so messy.

[Colossus1980]

The movies ape the comics. Continuity is thrown out the door. Just watch and don't bother trying to make sense because no effort is made to make a coherent continuity.

[Spidercide]

It's a mess basically going by their own timeline it would be

Original Timeline: First Class (Events took placed before Wolverine changed history), X-Men Wolverine Origins, X-Men, X2, Last Stand, the Wolverine, & DOFP (Original Sentinel Future).

New Timeline
First Class.
X-Men Wolverine Origins (up to when Wolverine left in 73 3 Mile Island happened in 79 and Logan left 6 years before 3 Mile Island and it would fit given he came back to 73 which could be right after he left Stryker.).
X-Men DOFP (1973 events).
X-Men Apocalypse.
Dark Phoenix.
Deadpool and Deadpool 2 (But again who knows with his forth wall breaking).
DOFP (New Future with possibly some events of X-Men 2000, X2, and the Wolverine being canon).
Logan (Maybe it's not clearly stated but possible).

TV Shows:
Legion (Who Knows).
Gifted (Given the X-Men are MIA and were weren't in DOFP the most likely if ever tied to a film timeline would be the original and this is the lead up to the Sentinels taking over. But again who knows with Fox it just makes the most sense so probably not.).

Yeah it's a mess.

That isn't a mess though. You even said Origins fits.

[Spidercide]

It's simple as long as you don't start looking for inconsistencies.

Wolverine is the most confusing part for me. His consciousness travels back in time to the early 70s in Days of Future Past...so does that mean he has that same older consciousness throughout the entire new timeline? Is he the Wolverine they freed in Apocalypse?

And I thought Logan was an alternate future thing?

I hate comparisons to Back to the Future because BTTF had a well-though out plot and a story neatly contained in three movies. The entire timeline thing can be explained in a 2 minutes scene where Doc draws something on a blackboard. This is the complete opposite of what Fox did.

No. Basically the original Logan conciousness reasserts itself when time is altered and the future Wolverine conciousness merely woke up in the new revised future.

So X-Men Apocalypse logan isn't the dude who remembers fighting Sentinels int he future.

[Spidercide]

The movies ape the comics. Continuity is thrown out the door. Just watch and don't bother trying to make sense because no effort is made to make a coherent continuity.

I actually love the movies. I can even guilt watch Last Stand. Its more people unfairly bashing them that grinds my gears.

E.g. someone said in response to the Dark Phoenix trailer that it's so dark it must be a DC movie. This is so idiotic because of course and X-Men movie is dark and serious, the first scene of any of these movies was literally the Holocaust

[Rover]

No. Basically the original Logan conciousness reasserts itself when time is altered and the future Wolverine conciousness merely woke up in the new revised future.

So X-Men Apocalypse logan isn't the dude who remembers fighting Sentinels int he future.

Ok...so X-Men Apocalypse Logan is Logan right after Origins? I was thinking about re-watching all the X-movies soon, hopefully that clears some things for me.

I actually love the movies. I can even guilt watch Last Stand. Its more people unfairly bashing them that grinds my gears.

E.g. someone said in response to the Dark Phoenix trailer that it's so dark it must be a DC movie. This is so idiotic because of course and X-Men movie is dark and serious, the first scene of any of these movies was literally the Holocaust

It's so good to see other X-fans who don't completely hate the movies! The Dark Phoenix trailer had more or less the same tone as Apocalypse, comparing it to a DC movie makes no sense (other than trying to make a Deadpool joke?)

[PrezValentine]

As a long as you understand that everything before First Class is not canon, there's no need to feel confused. What is stupid is how they tried to retcon (IN MOVIES) stuff through their virals, like Quicksilver being busted in the Olympics or something as a mutant. Or Singer saying Apocalypse was the story of how Scott, Jean and Ororo from X1 met, when it's clearly Apocalypse never happened in the old timeline.

[Uncanny X-Man]

As a long as you understand that everything before First Class is not canon, there's no need to feel confused. What is stupid is how they tried to retcon (IN MOVIES) stuff through their virals, like Quicksilver being busted in the Olympics or something as a mutant. Or Singer saying Apocalypse was the story of how Scott, Jean and Ororo from X1 met, when it's clearly Apocalypse never happened in the old timeline.

That's my approach as well. That is, if I'm feeling masochist and try to make sense of something the directors and writers themselves didn't bother giving sense to, I say First Class effectively rebooted the franchise. That's it. Don't get confused by the fact that it's set in the past because it's not a prequel, it simply can't be and the original trilogy can't have happened. Everything flows with a modicum of coherence from First Class (ignoring the non-aging thing), a version of Wolverine Origins can still have happened albeit with significant changes, The Wolverine can still pretty much stand as is and Logan was an alternate future story. Voilà your X-Men movie continuity.