With the recent release of X-Men: Days of Future Past looking like a home run for the “X – Franchise”, many are wondering where the franchise will now be heading. And with the timeline changed, how do the events in DOFP affect the first three X films? Many have stated on line that with this recent movie, the events of X-Men: Last Stand will be erased. That is not necessarily so. Bryan Singer early in the development of DOFP stated that he would not try to mess with the past movie continuity. Now, some can say that this was not the case, but for those who follow time travel stories and parallel time lines and time streams, there might now be three concurrent time lines separating all the movies. Follow me on this. (SPOILER ALERT!)
1) ALL THREE X-MEN MOVIES NOW CO EXIST IN A SEPARATE TIMELINE
When X-Men: Days of Future Pasts opens, we see a dystopian future ravaged by Sentinel technology, hunting mutants and humans with the X gene. That future is forever changed with the storyline emanating from Days of Future Past. It doesn’t mean that the present/past movie storyline is changed.
It would seem that the first three X-Men movies are now encased in their own timeline, of which the Wolverine movies belong to as well. As readers of the recent Age of Ultron comic book storyline can attest to, the ending of that series fractured time itself as a ramification of constant time travel, creating several different and alternate time streams where numerous futures are possible. Meaning the actions of time travel doesn’t necessarily mean they change one future. It means the possible creation of a new one.
2) DOES WOLVERINE HAVE AN ADAMANTIUM SKELETON IN THE NEW FUTURE?
When Wolverine wakes up towards the end of the film, he finds himself in the new future with all of his fellow X-Men unharmed and teaching at the institute. As we see him encounter Jean Gray and Cyclops, we also see Professor X as headmaster of the school and he asks Wolverine “Don’t you have a History class to teach?”
That would insinuate that Wolverine never becomes the Wolverine we know, and instead became an instructor at the school. We would assume that the Professor found him and guides him in his teachings and pacifies Wolverine. In this sense, did the X-Men ever really become the X-Men? Or were they all found mutants by the Professor that then become instructors for the students they are teaching? We never see Wolverine extract his claws.
3) IN WHAT TIMELINE WILL THE NEW WOLVERINE MOVIE EXIST?
This is where it’s going to get tricky, if we assume one full timeline for all the movies, then technically Wolverine doesn’t get his Adamantium Exoskeleton. As we see Mystique impersonating William Stryker as they are pulling Wolverine out of the river, this then implies the creation of a whole new origin for Wolverine. (See #2 above)
We see Wolverine with his Adamantium claws in the future, but in “The Wolverine” movie, he doesn’t have them at the end that film. How does he get them back if this is in fact the same timeline? If the discussion on the internet is that DOFP wipes out The Last Stand, then it wipes out the rest of the movies as well. The Wolverine takes place in our present, so it will be interesting to see where the new Wolverine goes from here.
4) THERE ARE NOW 3 TIMELINES RATHER THAN 2
Here me out on this. With the ramifications of Days of Future Pasts ending, we can now assume three different timelines for the movies. The first timeline includes the first three films and the two Wolverine movies. The second timeline would be the Days of Future Past future timeline, and the third would be the Fist Class timeline. Now we can argue that the First Class and Days timelines should be the same, but I would say, not so fast. With that series of movies running through what will now be the 80’s and beyond, we have yet to see what the future will hold for this team. And with the coming of Apocalypse, who is a time traveler, things are about to get a bit more murky. (See #5 below)
5) THE COMING OF APOCOLYPSE WILL THROW EVERYTHING OUT OF WHACK
So if you think things are confusing now, then hold on to your horses, because it’s all about to hit the fan! Apocalypse, for those not in the know, is the oldest known mutant on earth. I won’t go into his whole origin and such as you can easily Google it and digest that morsel of confusion at another time. But at the end of DOFP, we see a young En Sabah Nur rearranging pyramids in ancient Egypt.
On a hill we see his Four Horsemen…Death, Pestilence, Famine and War. So we are to assume that the First Class team will be fighting Apocalypse and The Horseman in the Eighties. It was also just announced that some of the original cast members will be in the film as well. This might work for Wolverine, as he becomes one of The Horseman and is given his Adamantium back in the comic books, and can be a storyline in the movie. But as Apocalypse is a time traveler and has fought and conquered different timelines in the Marvel Universe, it will be interesting to see how the producers will handle him in the movie – verse. I can see them stretching this story over two films. What we do know is that X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) will come out before the next Wolverine movie (2017). So will what happens in Apocalypse reflect the future of Wolverine and his next movie? Only time will tell (no pun intended) Whatever the future holds, it seems that the team behind the X-Films now have a huge array of characters and storylines to play with.
