

Logan takes place in 2029, a time period when the X-Men are a thing of the past.

The Wolverine’s end-credits sequence then takes place two years after the other events in the movie, as Professor Xavier and Magneto return to warn Logan about “dark forces building a weapon that could bring about the end of our kind”. Given the heavy references to Trask Industries, the company behind the mutant-hunting Sentinels, this is clearly setting up the apocalyptic future we see in the 2023-set sequences of X-Men: Days of Future Past. We also know that The Wolverine takes place after X-Men: The Last Stand, as Logan is dealing with the aftermath of killing the love of his life, Jean Grey. Unsurprisingly, X-Men 2 and X-Men: The Last Stand continue from there in linear fashion.

Next, the chronology moves onto the original X-Men, which was set in an undefined “near future” when the film was released in 2000. The prequel saga concludes in the 1992-set X-Men: Dark Phoenix. In fact, an augmented Wolvie with anger management issues then crops up in the 1983-set X-Men: Apocalypse. Then, while some key scenes in X-Men Origins: Wolverine take place in 1973, the majority of the movie – notably the scenes where Logan gets his adamantium skeleton – is set in 1979. Ignoring the numerous flashbacks to the 19th century (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and World War II (X-Men, X-Men: First Class, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Wolverine), the mutants’ screen story begins in the 1962-set X-Men: First Class, continuing into the 1973-set X-Men: Days of Future Past. On the face of it, the chronology is fairly straightforward. This is where things get super complex – even supercomputer Cerebro would struggle to get its circuits around the intricacies of the X-Men timeline.
