Across the seven films depicting the X-Men universe, many years have been covered, from the early 19th century, to the year 2023. From the civil war to the future war, here is the tortured timeline of the X-Men universe.
Legend
Red - X-Men (2000)
Orange - X2: X-Men United (2003)
Yellow - X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Green - X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Cyan - X-Men: First Class (2011)
Grey - The Wolverine (2013)
Blue - X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
1832: James Howlett born in North-western Canada.
1845: James Howlett witnesses his father John Howlett’s murder at the hands of his groundkeeper Thomas Creed, and first exhibits bone-claw mutation. In a fit of rage, he kills Thomas Creed, who reveals that he is James’ biological father. James then runs away from home with Thomas’ son Victor Creed, also his half-brother.
1861 – 1865: James and Victor fight in the American Civil War, where they discover their own healing factors.
1917 – 1918: James and Victor fight in World War 1.
1930s: Charles Francis Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, Raven Darkholme and Henry “Hank” McCoy are born.
1944: Charles befriends shapeshifter Raven Darkholme, who lives with him as his stepsister. Erik’s magnetic powers first manifest when he was separated from his parents in Nazi-occupied Poland. Sebastian Shaw, a powerful mutant posing as a Nazi scientist, kills Erik’s mother in an attempt to use his power.
1944 – 1945: James and Victor fight in World War 2.
August 1945: James is imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp. He rescues a soldier named Ichiro Yashida from the Nagasaki atomic bomb.
1962:
- Charles earns Ph.D.s in Genetics, Biophysics, and Psychology from Oxford University. He agrees to help Agent Moira MacTaggert search for Sebastian Shaw and his Hellfire Club.
- Erik and Charles meet for the first time and become friends. The CIA forms a mutant team named Division X with Mystique, Hank McCoy, Angel Salvadore, Armando “Darwin” Munoz, Alex “Havok” Summers and Sean “Banshee” Cassidy. They also encounter Wolverine for the first time, who rudely dismisses them when they attempt to recruit him.
- Sebastian Shaw and his Hellfire Club infiltrate the CIA base and offer to recruit them. Angel Salvadore defects to the Hellfire Club, and Shaw kills Darwin. Charles relocates his team to his mansion, where he trains them to control their powers.
- Shaw tries to start World War 3 by causing the Cuban Missile Crisis. Division X defeat the Hellfire Club, and Erik avenges his parents’ deaths by killing Shaw. In a final stand-off, Erik nearly destroys the US and Soviet fleet with a barrage of missiles, and injures Xavier, causing him to be wheelchair-bound. Erik takes on the name of Magneto and forms his Brotherhood of Mutants with Mystique and the remnants of the Hellfire Club. Charles takes on the name Professor X and renames his team as the X-Men.
1963: Magneto is implicated in the assassination of President John F Kennedy, being incarcerated in a cell located in the deep underground of the Pentagon. Most of his Brotherhood teammates are killed by Project Wide Awake operatives.
1965: Professor X converts his mansion into his School for Gifted Youngsters, to ensure that young mutants have a safe haven to have an education, as well as learn to safely develop their powers.
1965-1970: Many of the mutants at Xavier's school have been drafted into the US army and shipped off to join the Vietnam War.
1967: Track Industries is founded.
1971: James and Victor fight in the Vietnam War and escape execution from killing a few fellow soldiers. Colonel William Stryker approaches them to join his mutant squad, Team X.
1973
While on a mission to search for a rare metal alloy known as adamantium in Africa, Team X start killing villagers to obtain more information. James Howlett quits Team X in disgust and returns to the US, adopting the name Logan. Team X disbands soon after.
Industrialist Bolivar Trask introduces Mark I – robot Sentinels designed to hunt and kill mutants.
Wolverine from the future is projected back in time from 2023 to his younger Watergate-era body, to convince Magneto and Professor X to team up against the threat of an apocalyptic future.
March 1979
- Logan, who has been living peacefully for 6 years with another mutant named Kayla Silverfox, is persuaded into Stryker’s Weapon X programme that laces his skeleton with adamantium, in order to make him strong enough for revenge against Victor. He also adopts the codename Wolverine. Elsewhere, Victor, now known as Sabretooth, captures several young mutants like Scott “Cyclops” Summers, so that Stryker can acquire their abilities into his Weapon XI project, formerly Wade Wilson.
- Wolverine escapes from Stryker, and is taken in by an elderly couple, who are unfortunately killed by Agent Zero the next day. Wolverine then swears revenge on Victor and Stryker, before finishng off Agent Zero.
- Wolverine goes to Stryker’s facility at Three Mile Island with help from Gambit, to find out that Kayla is working for Stryker, and later freed the captive mutants. Stryker unleashes Weapon XI aka Deadpool to try finishing off Wolverine, but Deadpool is defeated by both Wolverine and Sabretooth. The battle leaves the facility destroyed, and renders Wolverine amnesiac.
- Professor X shows up at Three Mile Island to recruit Cyclops and the other mutants under his wing. Stryker is later taken in by the military police for questioning, with regards to the murder of General Munson.
1980s: Mutants like Colossus, Iceman, Rogue and Shadowcat are born.
1981 or 1982: Professor X and Magneto meet Jean Grey, a powerful telepath.
1984: Popular televangelist minister, Bob Bell, and his organization, “The Human Majority,” champion a strong anti-mutant movement. Among their principles is the belief that disease is God’s curse for mutant integration.
1986: The Soviet Union Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster causes an increase in infant mutation, with Colossus being one of them.
1988: A few renegade mutants knock down a mile-long section of the Berlin Wall in an act of protest, killing 23 people and injuring over 200. The protest alarmed citizens of West Germany, sparking anti-mutant policies. The Berlin Wall stands today and East Germany has been designated as a mutant zone.
1989: In partnership with Trask Industries, the FBI unveils a method of using DNA evidence at crime scenes to identify criminals. Off the record, Trask Industries also begins building a private Mutant Registry from this database of DNA, with plans to sell the information to wealthy world governments.
Early 1990s: Sabretooth is recruited into the Brotherhood of Mutants.
1991: As the global conversation on mutant-human relations grows, South Africa proudly declares their country a unified and united refuge for all.
1994: Genetically engineered food products enter the US market. The Zapatista resistance, aided by mutant freedom fighters, engages in armed conflict against the Mexican government in Southern Mexico.
1996
A young Warren Worthington III attempts to remove his wings, but is found out by his father.
Trask Industries attempts to cure the X-gene. An early attempt causes animal testing to go awry, leading to global Mad Cow Disease Outbreak.
2001: Guantanamo Bay detention centre is expanded to house more mutants dangerous enough to be deemed national security threats.
2005
- US Senate discusses a Mutant registration Act. Magneto sends his mutants to kidnap Senator Robert Kelly, and he uses a special device to transform the Senator into a mutant. The Senator’s genetic structure rejects the process and he becomes a jellyfish-like specimen. He escapes from Magneto and goes to search for Professor X.
- Rogue runs away from home after her life-absorbing powers manifest, and she meets Wolverine in a bar. They are later rescued by Cyclops and Storm, and taken in the X-Mansion, where they join the X-Men.
- Rogue attempts to run away by boarding a train (having been reprimanded by Bobby Drake, actually Mystique in disguise), where Magneto overpowers Wolverine and kidnaps Rogue. Meanwhile, Mystique gains access into the Cerebro room and adds a vial of poison into the system.
- Senator Kelly finds the X-Mansion, where Professor X enters his mind and learns that the machine used to transform humans into mutants weakened Magneto and nearly killed him, and that Magneto plans to lend his powers to Rogue, where she will die after powering the machine. Senator Kelly later dies in the X-Men's lab, by evaporating into water.
- Professor X is poisoned by Cerebro while trying to locate Magneto and Rogue. Jean Grey uses Cerebro to search for Rogue, and the device nearly kills her.
- The X-Men battle Magneto and his Brotherhood on the Statue of Liberty, preventing them from turning world leaders into mutants. Wolverine saves Rogue by letting her absorb his healing factor. Magneto is imprisoned in a plastic cell, while Mystique disguises herself as Senator Kelly.
2006
- Teleporting mutant Nightcrawler, under the control of Stryker, attempts to assassinate the US President in the White House in the name of Mutant Freedom.
- Stryker uses this as a reason to invade the X-Mansion. He hatches a plot to kidnap Professor X and Cyclops during a visit in Magneto’s cell.
- Magneto escapes from prison and alongside Mystique, he convinces the X-Men to join forces with them, to stop Stryker from killing all mutants. Professor X nearly kills all the mutants with Dark Cerebro, under the hypnosis of Jason Stryker. After Magneto and Mystique foil Jason’s plans, they changed the plan and Jason instructs Professor X to kill all humans.
- Stryker attempts to flee, but is chained to a large block of debris by Magneto. After a final talk with Wolverine, Stryker is killed by the immense water pressure released by the dam. Professor X and the X-Men give the President the files from Stryker’s office containing evidence of his crimes.
- Wolverine battles Lady Deathstrike, and along with the other X-Men, go out to save Professor X.
- The dam collapses, but the X-Jet loses power. Jean Grey sacrifices herself to ensure her teammates’ survival from the collapse of Alkali Lake.
2007
- A cure to suppress the X-gene is created from the DNA of a young mutant named Leech by Worthington Labs. The move splits the mutant community. Magneto gathers an army of mutant outcasts in protest. New members include Callisto, Quill, Arclight, Psylocke, Multiple Man and Juggernaut. Mystique is de-powered and abandoned by Magneto. In revenge, Raven goes to the US military and reveals the hidden base to them, not knowing that the Brothehood has relocated and that they used Multiple Man to pose as them.
- Jean Grey resurrects as Phoenix, but her powers are too much for her to handle. She kills Cyclops and Professor X with her disintegration wave. She is later recruited into Magneto's Brotherhood.
- Magneto bends the Golden Gate Bridge and mounts an all-out attack on Worthington’s Alcatraz Island laboratories.
- The X-Men (comprising of Wolverine, Storm, Beast, Colossus, Ieeman, Shadowcat and Angel) regroup to join the US army in battling Magneto and his mutant army, as well as stop them from capturing and killing Leech.
- The Phoenix destroys Alcatraz Island and Wolverine is forced to kill her. Magneto is apparently de-powered, along with the majority of the evil mutants.
- Storm takes over leadership of Professor X’s school. Realizing the need to imrpove human-mutant relations, the President appoints Hank McCoy as United States Ambassador for the United Nations. Professor X’s consciousness is transferred into the mind and body of his comatose twin brother.
2009: Trask Industries develops a collar to inhibit mutant abilities.
2010: Xavier’s School for Gifted youngsters closes. Trask Industries renovates the mansion into a research facility.
2011: To protest the billion dollar “mutant cure” arms race led by Trask industries, Yashida Corp and other multinational pharmaceutical companies, Occupy Wall Street marches from the X-Mansion to Zuccotti Park. Sentinels attack the peaceful mutant demonstration. In the ensuing chaos, Warren Worthington III, the mutant known as "Angel", is killed.
2012: Clarice Ferguson, aka Blink, is instrumental in smuggling 30 detained mutants out of Trask prison camps.
2013
Wolverine, who left the X-Men after the events of 2007, is discovered living in the forests of Canada.
Wolverine is found by Yukio and brought over to Japan to visit an old and dying Yashida. At the same time, he saves Yashida’s granddaughter Mariko from a suicide attempt. Yashida’s doctor, codename Viper, implants a parasite into Wolverine’s body that suppresses his healing factor. The next morning, Wolverine saves Mariko from being kidnapped by Yakuza gangsters, and realizes that his healing factor isn't working as fast as before. Wolverin and Mariko seek refuge at the Yashida seaside house in Nagasaki.
After Mariko is kidnapped by the Yakuza gang, Wolverine finds out from Mariko’s unfaithful fiance Noburo Mori that Yashida’s son Shingen was the one who arranged for the kidnap of his own daughter Mariko. He and Yukio then head back to the Yashida household, where he removes the parasite latched near his heart. Wolverine kills Shingen and moves over to Yashida’s research facility to save Mariko.
In the research facility, Wolverine battles the Silver Samurai, only to get his adamantium claws sliced off by the Samurai’s super-heated sword. The Samurai is revealed to be Yashida, who had faked his own death and is being kept alive in the armor. He then kills Harada and extracts Wolverine’s healing ability, but is eventually stabbed by Mariko. Wolverine’s bone claws regrow from inside his forearms, and he kills Yashida by throwing him and his armor off the mountainside. Elsewhere, Yukio battles Viper and defeats her by tying a cord around her neck and hangs her over an elevator shaft, where the counterweight breaks her neck.
Mariko becomes the new CEO of Yashida Corporation, and Wolverine along with Yukio (his new bodyguard) leave Japan, to unknown places.
2014: A new sentinel, Mark X, is introduced, with a groundbreaking ability to duplicate mutant DNA.
2015: Magneto, with his powers restored to full strength, and a resurrected Professor X find Wolverine to warn him of massive impending danger.
Beast is dragged from his home and murdered by an angry mob of angry Huamn majority protestors.
2018: The first miltant mutant organization called “Free Mutants” is formed by Bishop, a Camp X-Ray refugee.
2023: The world has become a dystopia, with Sentinels interring and killing both mutants and humans alike (particularly those who have the genes to potentially spwn mutants). With the help of Professor X and Magneto, Wolverine is projected back in time to 1973, to prevent the introduction of Sentinels.
