The first known findings of mutant activity occurred in Ancient Egypt, when a young boy named En Sabah Nur telekinetically built a pyramid by himself.[2] This mutant eventually became pharaoh, and even later became worshiped as a god. However, with power, came many enemies. En Sabah Nur's reign was put to an end when a coup and an attempted assassination attempt by his many followers led to him being buried alive within his fallen pyramid.[3]
1962[]
Following this, mutantkind adapted to remain hidden among the members of human society, as to not be cast out or even eradicated. This didn't stop mutants from discreetly using their abilities to help them in their selected career paths, as some fought as soldiers and worked as scientists.[4][5] Additionally, John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States of America, was also a mutant.
However, not all mutants were happy living in fear of those who would oppress them. The Hellfire Club, a group of these mutants led by Sebastian Shaw, sought to change the natural order by starting a nuclear war between countries that would end humankind, leaving mutants to inherit the world. Driven to maintain the peace, Charles Xavier teamed up with Shaw's enemy Erik Lehnsherr to form together the X-Men. The X-Men defeated Shaw and prevented nuclear war, but Lehnsherr and a few other mutants broke off into their own sect, for they had a different vision for the future of mutantkind.[5]
1973[]
Driven by the belief that mutants would one day eradicate the human species, scientist Bolivar Trask commissioned the Sentinel program, a robotic police force designed to hunt down and kill mutants. Mutant shapeshifter Mystique moved to assassinate Trask before the program further developed, but a group of mutants from an apocalyptic future, the X-Men, had pinpointed this as the event that triggered mutant annihilation, and so they sent Wolverine back in time to 1973 to stop her.
Through Wolverine's actions in 1973, the X-Men were reformed, mutants' existence was made public knowledge by the mutant terrorist Magneto, and the timeline was changed, with the dark future diverging into Earth-41578.[2] Mutants became a point of great contention and controversy, Charles Xavier, the X-Men's leader, reopened his school for mutants, and Mystique became celebrated as a hero among mutantkind, for her willingness to spare Trask's life after being talked down by the X-Men.[3]
1983[]
In the wake of mutants' existence becoming public knowledge, much controversy arose among humans, with some forming cults and organizations in response. One such cult discovered the remains of En Sabah Nur, a powerful mutant entombed underground in a hibernation state since 3000 B.C. When he awakened in 1983, En Sabah Nur decided Earth had become weak during his slumber, and gathered together four powerful mutants to "cleanse" the planet and remake it in his image.
In his attacks, En Sabah Nur launched humanity's entire nuclear arsenal into space, left much of the planet in ruins, and killed an unknown number of people, all while combating the X-Men. In the end, he was destroyed by the mutant Jean Grey, using a manifestation of the cosmic Phoenix Force, and his followers disbanded as the X-Men attempted to rebuild the world over the next nine years.[3] The X-Men grew to be figures of great fame and respect, particularly Professor Xavier, and were even endorsed by the president of the United States for important missions.[6]
1992[]
In 1992, while on a rescue mission in space, the X-Men encountered the true Phoenix Force, which bonded with Jean and began fighting her internally and ultimately corrupted her, breaking down her mental barriers that Professor Xavier had established with his telepathy to suppress traumatic memories from her childhood. She accidentally killed Mystique, causing the X-Men to fragment.
They eventually came back together, even recruiting Magneto to help them, when the alien D'bari race began invading Earth, with the intent to harness the Phoenix Force through Jean and use it to conquer the planet. As the X-Men pushed back against the D'bari, Jean destroyed the remaining D'bari and merged with the Phoenix force to become a powerful being of energy. Xavier retired from the school and the X-Men, and the team would continue to operate without Jean for many years.[6]
2010s[]
Sometime between 1992 and 2016,[7] Professor Xavier rejoined the X-Men, as did Jean, returning to her mutant form. The Wolverine of this timeline also joined the team and became a renowned hero, even becoming a history teacher at the school.[2]
Around 2016, Francis Freeman began developing experiments on how to activate through torture the dormant mutant gene within mutants whose powers did not manifest at puberty. He successfully activated several mutants for his criminal organization, and even activated his own mutant abilities. One of his test subjects became the violent and sadistic vigilante Deadpool, who took down Francis' organization with the help of the X-Men before becoming a mercenary-for-hire.[7]
Logan woke up within Xavier Institute in the altered timeline, successful in averting the apocalyptic timeline, but not remembering anything that happened after his body was flung into the water by Magneto in 1973. Logan saw many mutants killed in his timeline, including Cyclops and Jean, alive again due to his actions in the past being successful in many different ways. He was then he met by Professor X, who reas Logan's mind & laughed with him saying they had a lot to catch up on.[10]
Sometimes in the late 2020s, the Essex Corporation had began experimenting on the mutant gene and adolescent effects. They had multiple laboratories and facilities around North America. One facility in particular was the Milbury Hospital, a secure mental institution run by Dr. Cecilia Reyes to evaluate potentially dangerous young mutants who could be killers for Essex. Five young mutants, all of whom believed they were being trained for the X-Men, were detained at the facility but grew increasingly hostile and skeptical due to the nature of the facility. Eventually, they rallied together to escape when one of them unintentionally summoned a Demon Bear, which killed Dr. Reyes. After the Demon Bear was defeated, the group learned Reyes' force field was gone, which allowed them to leave and head to the nearest town.[11]
The film Logan is often presumed to take place in this reality, but according to interviews with Logan star Hugh Jackman and director James Mangold, it was intended to take place in an alternate future set after Days of Future Past, and that reality was later designated Earth-17315.[12][13][14][15][16]
Deadpool 2 primarily takes place on an aborted timeline designated Earth-41633, where Deadpool's girlfriend Vanessa was murdered, before he went back in time to this reality, and prevented it from happening.
In an interview with Empire Magazine, Bryan Singer described X-Men: Days of Future Past as not erasing history but rather creating an alternate timeline, saying "I don't want people to panic about us erasing the movies. I believe in multiverses," explaining the possibility of certain events as they would be part of the history of alternate universes.[17] Despite this, various other interviews have described the new timeline as fully overwriting the original one.[18][19][20][21][22][23]
Despite the apparent divergent point, many historical elements of this reality diverge significantly from that of Earth-41578. For example, this reality's Wade Wilson was born decades later than his counterpart, and rather than being a mutant affiliated with the Weapon X program, he is a mutant roped into an unrelated experiment. Scott Summers, similarly, was born a few years afterhis counterpart.
In December 2017, The Walt Disney Company acquired a significant portion of 21st Century Fox, including its film division 20th Century Fox, for $66.1 billion.[24] Due to this, Disney, who also currently owns Marvel Studios, acquired the film rights for the X-Men and Deadpool, when the deal was completed in March 2019.[25] Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed in December 2017, that the X-Men and Deadpool would be integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.[26][27] This meant that any films that were either planned, or was in development, by Fox were initially put on hold, and eventually canceled by Disney with the exception of Deadpool 3.
In July 2013, director Jeff Wadlow was hired by 20th Century Fox to write a film based on the X-Force comic series.[28]Simon Kinberg later confirmed that the film would feature Deadpool and Cable (both of which had previously appeared in Deadpool 2).[29] However, according to Deadpool writer Rhett Reese, the film would've ultimately been a separate film from a planned third Deadpool film.[30] In September 2017, it was reported that Drew Goddard was hired to write and direct the film.[31]
Gambit film logo
The film Gambit was originally planned to be released on the final planned date of March 13, 2020,[32] with Channing Tatum producing and portraying the title character. Tatum would later portray a different iteration of the character in Deadpool & Wolverine.
In February 2017, Simon Kinberg stated that there were plans to develop films focusing on Alpha Flight and Exiles, respectively.[33][34]
In November 2017, it was announced that Simon Kinberg and James Franco were developing a film centered on the character Multiple Man, with Franco starring and producing, and with Allan Heinberg writing the script.[35]
In early 2018, it was announced that a film focusing on the character Kitty Pryde was being developed, with director Tim Miller and writer Brian Michael Bendis attached to the project.[36]
While working on the film X-Men: Apocalypse, editor and composer John Ottman was pitched by his assistant Byron Burton, with a first draft script he had written involving a spin-off film, focusing on the character Beast titled X-Men: Fear the Beast. Said film would've set up the character Mister Sinister as a villain across multiple films, including in a planned Omega Red film.[37]
According to Josh Boone, in his planned trilogy of The New Mutants films, the third entry would've been a crossover with the main X-Men films, which would've adapted the Inferno storyline.[38]
Trivia
10005 is a zip code in NYC, the city in X-Men takes place.
Earth-10005 has spawned several alternate timelines of its own:
Simon Kinberg: "There's definitely a sort of overall plan that we've all been talking about for the X-Men Universe now, and Deadpool obviously fits into that."
James Mangold: "I gave them many escape valves. We take place in 2029, and X-Men [Days of Future Past] ends in 2024, There's five blank years there that are wide open to seeing how things got from here to there. Or else you could do what I would advocate, which is imagine a different world and create a new movie, and you don't need the permission of the other movies."
↑"THE PAST HAS A HABIT" ["It’s interesting: you’re changing history by changing the past, but you’re bringing the characters closer to what they become in X-Men 1, 2 and even 3,” explains Singer. “I don’t want people to panic about us erasing the movies. I believe in multiverses."] Page 99 Empire Magazine March 2014 (January 30, 2014)
Simon Kinberg: "The gateway was Days of Future Past because even though there isn’t high science fiction, like apocalypse or aliens, time travel is as big a science fiction trope. It sort of opened up what we could do because even though it wasn’t technically the multiverse thing that, ultimately, I think in some ways spawned it, it was outside the bounds of linear storytelling on Earth. It was other dimensions."
