The Fox franchise brought several aberrations and inconsistencies!
Long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe establish itself as a cultural colossus pop that we know today, the Fox launched one of the first successful superhero sagas with its X-Men. What was originally just a trilogy of films soon became spin-offsa saga prequel and even a shared universe on TV.
However, many fans have always been aware of errors in chronology and consistency between these films, which range from paradoxical events in the timeline to plots that are not well resolved. As the franchise is on the rise again, we list it here 9 holes in the films X-Men which prove that this universe was not that shared…
Everything – absolutely everything – about the Wolverine franchise
From the first X-Menfrom 2000, the Wolverine became the main “face” of the franchise, largely thanks to the charisma, dedication and love of Hugh Jackman by paper. It’s no wonder that, among all mutants, he was the first to get a solo franchise from the infamous X-Men Origins: Wolverine2009.
It turns out that the trilogy, as a whole, is full of plot holes and corrupt connections with the mutant films, especially the Original Trilogy It is Days of a forgotten Future. This becomes even clearer in Loganthe third chapter of the saga, which takes place in a desolate future that has nothing to do with what we saw at the end of Days of a forgotten Future.
Logan’s selective amnesia
Another interesting detail concerns the “amnesia” of the Wolverine. Still in the first film of X-Menit is revealed that he doesn’t remember much about his past, and this is later explained in X-Men Originswhere we discover that the hero was shot by adamantium in his head, which made him forget about his history and his origins.
However, this entire amnesic process is very selective. In Wolverine immortal, from 2013, the hero seems to remember his time in Japan during World War II very well, which in itself is never explained, as he never had his memories fully restored. Furthermore, its appearance in X-Men: Apocalypse goes against the already established canon.
Ignored hooks in sequences
The impression that remains, seeing from the outside, is that the producers and screenwriters of the saga of X-Men They never had a plan for the franchise, and only made sequels with whatever came up. This becomes very clear when we consider that several plots and hooks presented in some films are completely forgotten or ignored in their sequels.
For example, the mutant cure is never even mentioned after X-Men: The Last Stand, even in films that take place after these events. The same goes for Wolverine losing its claws adamantium in Wolverine immortalOr the Mystique disguising himself as William Stryker at the end of Days of a forgotten Futureonly to be portrayed as a mutant heroine later.
Cerebro’s confusing origin
For those who don’t know, Brain is the name of the device used by Charles Xavier (and occasionally for jean gray) to amplify his powers and telepathic gifts, allowing him to reach any mutant in the world through his mind. However, even the origin of this device is confusing and makes no sense in the films.
In the original trilogy, Charles says he built the device alongside Magneto, and that’s why it didn’t make sense to try to use it to find the Master of Magnetism, since he knew how to “disguise himself”. Already in X-Men: First Class, we discovered that the device was created solely by Beastwhich only contradicts the revelations of the original saga.
Charles Xavier’s paradoxical paralysis
Another curious detail concerns the paralysis of the Professor X, a very important point in the development of the character. In X-Men: First Classwe discovered that he lost the use of his legs in 1962, during the battle between the X-Men and the Hell’s Club on a beach in Cuba.
However, some appearances of the Professor contradict this information. The telepath appears walking in a scene X-Men Origins: Wolverinewhich takes place in the 70s. The opening scene of X-Men: The Last Stand, set in 1986, also shows the hero without his wheelchair. And these inconsistencies were never explained.
Hmm… this character was a little different…
With two “main” franchises that take place at very different times (the original trilogy is set in the early 2000s, while the saga prequel goes from the 60s to the 90s) it is understandable that new actors were called to play characters we have already seen before. However, the cast selection seems to have no interest in maintaining a minimum of continuity between the two franchises.
In X-Men: The Last Stand, Bolivar Trask appears as a tall, black man. Already in Days of a forgotten Future, he is seen as a white man with dwarfism. A Psylocke in X-Men: Apocalypse is a white woman, even though she was portrayed as Asian in the third film of the original trilogy.
The characters’ ages are also not consistent. For example, in The Final Showdownwe know the Angel as a child in 1996 when he discovers his mutant powers. However, in Apocalypsewhich takes place in the 80s, he is already an adult and discovered his mutant gifts a long time ago…
It was a very difficult ten years…
In fact, speaking of ages, there’s a recurring joke among fans about how difficult the 90s were for kids. X-Men of films – just look at the way the characters are portrayed in Dark Phoenixwhich takes place in 1992, and the first film by X-Menwhich is set at the turn of the century.
It is very interesting to note how the Magneto passes from Michael Fassbender (which, by the way, doesn’t seem to have aged at all in forty years) to Ian McKellen in a period of less than a decade – or even the Professor Xwhich goes from James McAvoy for Patrick Stewart in a blink of an eye.
Interestingly, both Stewart and McKellen have also played Xavier and Magneto before the story of Dark Phoenix – as, for example, in the opening scene of The Final Showdown or in the final battle of X-Men Origins: Wolverine (in Stewart’s case). A Fox never even tried to “hide” this disparity between the actors.
Remember the TV series?
Just before purchasing the Fox for the Disneythe studio noticed all the growing interest in MCU and tried to apply similar formulas to the mutant universe, with the launch of spin-offs as Deadpool It is New Mutants and also through TV series, see the deceased Legion It is The Gifted.
Both series make links and connections with the films (the protagonist of Legion is the son of Professor X and one of the protagonists of The Gifted is the daughter of Magneto), however, these connections are never well explained or developed. In the end, they are interesting works with stories “independent” of the films, but if the idea was to bet on a shared universe, the plan was not achieved…
Everything involving Deadpool
As much as the Deadpool in Ryan Reynolds be one of the best things to come out of the movies Foxthere is no denying that everything involving the character is a great temporal paradox, since his appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine – which later becomes a joke in the Mercenário Gararela solo franchise.
But not only that. The films of Deadpool take place in the present, with some connections to X-Men that we already know, like the Wolverine in Hugh Jackman. However, when the hero visits the headquarters of the Children of the Atom in his second film, we get a glimpse of the team… played by the actors from the franchise prequel.
Of course, the antihero films themselves seem to pay no attention to chronology and purposefully mock it, including a large time zone in the post-credits scene of Deadpool 2. However, by trying to connect so much to the main mutant franchise, the Mercenário Gargarela series only exposes how confusing, messy and disorganized this universe is.
