Yesterday Bryan Singer, known to be directing the X-Men: First Class sequel Days of Future Past, tweeted to confirm that Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart would be reprising their roles as Magneto and Professor X, respectively, implying that the film will indeed adhere to its comic origin as a time-travel narrative. As a fan of the franchise I couldn't help but geek out over this...to the extent that I tried to see if I could retcon the series' otherwise messy continuity. Tell me if I missed anything...
X-Men Film
Continuity Problems
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Possible
Explanations
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The Last Stand and First
Class depict Beast as an early member of the team, transformed in
his youth. This is contrary to X2, where he is briefly shown in a
television interview, pre-transformation.
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The Hank McCoy seen on the TV could be a double because
the real Hank is still too ashamed of his appearance.
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Mystique and Xavier's brother/sister relationship as
shown in First Class has no basis in the other films, where
Mystique is coldly antagonistic toward Xavier (poisoning him via Cerebro
in X-Men).
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Events transpiring during Days of Future Past could
further polarize their relationship.
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In First Class, Hank creates Cerebro, but
in X-Men, Xavier says that he and Magneto built it.
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The one featured in First Class isn't the
same as the one in the X-Mansion, which we haven't seen constructed. Maybe
Charles and Erik build it in the interim or in Days of Future Past.
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Magneto acquires his telepathy-canceling helmet in First
Class and uses it against Xavier, but in X-Men, Xavier
claims he's unfamiliar with it.
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He forgot?
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Being portrayed by different actors is one thing, but
Sabretooth in Origins is far more interesting, witty, and
dangerous than in X-Men, where he doesn't even seem to know who
Wolverine is.
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Wolverine's excuse is his amnesia, so maybe Sabretooth has
it, too? Or he does recognize Wolverine (he
seems possessive of his military tag, after all) but has been tamed and
manipulated by Magneto.
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Last Stand and Origins depict
a bald, standing Xavier older than James McAvoy in First Class,
who is paralyzed and put in a wheel chair (with hair!).
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Xavier’s paralysis is temporarily cured in the interim, so
he ages without his wheel chair. Somehow he needs it again by the events of X-Men.
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Emma Frost—or a character very much like her—is depicted
in Origins as a teenager, yet she appears in First
Class as an adult.
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The Origins character isn’t actually Emma
Frost, proven by the fact that she is never named in dialogue or the credits.
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Moira MacTaggert is appropriately depicted as Scottish in Last
Stand but American in First Class (and too close in
age). Also, she’s a doctor in the former and a CIA agent in the latter.
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Maybe the Last Stand Moira is a
relative/daughter of the First Class Moira, raised in
Scotland for some reason, and looked after from afar by Xavier.
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The experiment that gives Wolverine his adamantium
skeleton is depicted differently between X2 and Origins.
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Wolverine’s amnesia made his memory of the event
unreliable in X2 (even though it was more interesting).
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When Jean Grey “dies” at the end of X2, her flaming Phoenix figure is foreshadowed. However, the same
flaming figure is completely absent from Phoenix in Last Stand.
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Not sure how to fix this one. This is more of a complaint
about how the character was treated, which is really a whole different
subject…
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Interesting read. I'd go so far as to say Last Stand is being written out of the continuity altogether. Now if only I could erase it from my brain...
ReplyDeleteOne thing - "Last Stand and Origins depict a bald, standing Xavier older than James McAvoy in First Class, who is paralyzed and put in a wheel chair (with hair!)." I don't recall Xavier in Origins at all?
He had a small cameo at the end when all the mutants were escaping Stryker's facility. He contacted Scott telepathically and guided him to the X-jet, where he was briefly shown standing (with a cane, I believe). Seems like they also used the same computer aging technology on him as Last Stand to make him look younger.
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