Trying to figure out the timeline of the X-Men Universe requires a genius level IQ and a lot of patience, and where Logan fits into things is hard to say. It seems to reference X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a movie wiped out of continuity by X-Men: Days of Future Past, while also loosely tying into both that and The Wolverine.
Confused, yet? Well, one thing which fans have been questioning for a while now is how and why Stephen Merchant could be Caliban after Tómas Lemarquis played the same character – a good 50 or so years earlier in history terms – during the events of X-Men: Apocalypse. Thankfully, Logan director James Mangold has now offered an explanation, but those of you hoping for one which will make sense of this muddled timeline will probably be disappointed by what he has to say.
“It’s a funny, messy story of how so often these things are not as coordinated as everyone thinks. I actually had written him into our movie, and they didn’t know [he was] in Apocalypse, and then they kind of wrote it in their movie, and they cast someone in their movie and I had not seen it and was working away on mine.”
That’s understandable, but it also just goes to show how disorganized Fox is when it comes to releasing these movies. X-Men: Apocalypse writer Simon Kinberg served as a producer on Logan, yet somehow, he failed to weigh in on the fact that he had already introduced Caliban in Bryan Singer’s 1980s set release – it’s no wonder why the timeline keeps getting muddled.
As great as Logan was, things like this are why fans and regular moviegoers alike struggle to get invested in this universe, especially when the characters are all supposed to exist in the same world. That aside, at least an answer has now been provided, allowing us to cross off one more plot hole from our list.
