This article contains spoilers for X-Men: Days Of Future Past. Lots of them.

X-Men comics have a reputation within the industry for being a little too complicated. In part, that’s because the original Days Of Future Past storyline made it cool to create possible dystopian futures and mix characters from them into the team. Bishop, Cable and Rachel Summers all joined the X-Men after coming back from the future. Villains like the Dark Beast and Stryfe came from timelines that no longer exist. Keeping it straight requires a lot of work.

And now, with the release of the X-Men: Days Of Future Past movie, the X-Men movies have finally become as complicated as the comics. Despite claims to the contrary, Fox has clearly taken a look at the success of Marvel’s cinematic universe and decided it wants a piece of that action. But in resurrecting a continuity it effectively left for dead in X-Men: The Last Stand, it’s also introduced a few questions about exactly what happened.

In this piece we’re going to look at some of the plot threads X-Men: Days Of Future Past seems to have ignored, aborted or otherwise dropped, so don’t be surprised if you find a spoiler or two in the mix. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, it’s probably best to come back later. We will have to discuss the ending, after all…