It wiped out all three of the original X-Men films. Guess we know how Fox is going to reboot X-Men.


This was probably inevitable, since the X-Men prequels were lurching closer and closer to when the 2000 movie took place. After the 80s-based Apocalypse they either had the choice to ditch the “one movie per decade” formula they’d set up and do a bunch of movies set in the 90s or reboot. Just saying we’re in an alternate universe now also avoids the many messy continuity problems all the X-Men films were creating.

On a set visit, writer-producer Simon Kinberg told Digital Spy:

Everything is an alternate timeline at this point, but the one thing we have established is the end of Days of Future Past, where Wolverine wakes up in the future mansion - that is the destination of this new timeline. So ultimately they are going to become who you see at the end of that movie.


This does give the films both a lot more freedom but also means that certain characters have to survive. We see Professor X, Jean Grey, Scott Summers, Hank McCoy, Rogue, Iceman, Kitty Pryde, Wolverine—so a lot of characters are pretty safe. Assuming we don’t get another alternate universe. But it also means that everyone new has uncertain futures.

People destined to be around forever are Bryan Singer, who says in the same article that he’s “directing these movies til he’s dead,” and possibly Hugh Jackman, of whom Kinberg also says, “either we would try to entice Hugh to come back and eat more chicken and work out for a few months, or we would have to figure out a creative way to move forward. Honestly, I can’t imagine anybody else playing the part.”

All of which adds up to Jackman’s Wolverine being the only thing to survive all these movies intact. Of course.

Contact the author at katharine@io9.com .