X-Men Fan Theory Explains the Movies’ Insane Timelines

Over the course of the last two decades, fans have had many questions about the course of the X-Men movie franchise. Between two separate series of films and time-skipping spinoffs, it’s fair for fans to question whether or not it’s all a part of a shared universe or if some of the stories deserve to stand on their own.

But with Dark Phoenix about to hit theaters, the second attempt to tell this story after X-Men: The Last Stand, one fan has come up with a great explanation for the different timelines in the series of movies. Take a look below:

While there is little explanation for these timelines and a lot of reading between the lines, this theory does do well in explaining all of the different discrepancies in the franchise.

Some of those discrepancies have stemmed from fan reactions, especially after movies like X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: The Last Stand were released to immense backlash which caused major changes in future projects. The filmmakers understand that reaction and spoke about the franchise missteps earlier this year at WonderCon.

“You let us know when we got it wrong,” said director Simon Kinberg.

Producer Hutch Parker added, “The underlying material is just so good and frankly it’s better than we’ve been as storytellers in some cases. This is a film that aspires to try to tackle the potential of all of that while honoring the legacy and the characters.”

Of course, many X-Men fans might be skeptical about this new movie, especially because Kinberg wrote X-Men: The Last Stand as well as writing and directing Dark Phoenix. But even Parker understands the issues with that oft maligned movie as he explained to ComicBook.com.

“This is pretty different than the third movie,” he explained. “I mean the decision here, it was really Simon [Kinberg]’s decision was to tell the Dark Phoenix story but really tell it as Jean’s story. So that was first and foremost. So it’s a much more thorough investigation of that saga of the story at that heart of the saga and much truer to Jean as a character. I think you’re right that one of the challenges was how do we balance what is in the comics in the galactic and intergalactic nature of that storyline with wanting to stay more Earth centric. And you know, we obviously made the decision to include some of that, but to keep it rooted in and around the characters we’ve come to know and love within the X-Men.”

X-Men: Dark Phoenix premieres in theaters on June 7th.