How ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ Fits Into Continuity Confirmed

This will be 20th Century Fox’s second try at translating the Phoenix Saga to film, which leaves fans curious as to where it sits in the official timeline of X-Men films.

That wouldn’t typically be a big mystery, but the X-Men movies have hopped around a bit in the timeline, with one of the films rewriting parts of the timeline entirely. EW revealed that Dark Phoenix takes place in 1992, a full 10 years after X-Men: Apocalypse. That means it is now before the events of the original X-Men, a change instituted by X-Men: Days of Future Past.

So, for those keeping track, the timeline goes X-Men: First Class (1962), X-Men: Days of Future Past (1973), X-Men: Origins: Wolverine (1981), X-Men: Apocalypse (1983), Dark Phoenix (1992), X-Men (2000), X2 (2003), The Wolverine (2013), Deadpool (2016), The New Mutants (2018), Deadpool 2 (2018), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2023), and Logan (2029).

Originally Dark Phoenix showed up in X-Men: The Last Stand, which ended in Jean Grey’s death at the hands of Wolverine. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only plotline of the film and ended up mashed up with a mutant cure plot thread that dominated big parts of the movie. Fans didn’t react too well to that, so it was subsequently rewritten in Days of Future Past.

Thanks to Wolverine’s trip back in time, the events of X-Men: The Last Stand were essentially wiped from existence, which meant that Cyclps, Professor X, and Story didn’t die, and neither did Jean Grey. It also meant the Phoenix saga in that film never existed, so Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg has free reign to tell the story the way it was meant to be told.

This will be Simon Kinberg’s directorial debut, but he has extensive experience with the X-Men franchise and wanted to get another chance to do the Phoenix saga right on the big screen. The first images have already started showing up, and the plot details released so far are minimal but seem promising.

Hopefully, the second time is truly the charm, as no one wants to have to try it again for the third time.

Dark Phoenix hits theaters on November 2, 2018.