What you need to know before watching Logan

Timelines and time travel are incredibly complicated even for Flash fans. The X-Men movie timeline is even worse. Below on the left is the order of the films released. And on the right is the chronological order of the story line. 

For keen-eyed readers, you would notice that the main purpose of X-Men: Days of Future Past (DOFP) is to mess everything up. While its title is as confusing as its plot, it’s safe to say that the movie single-handedly wiped out most, if not all, the happenings in the original X-Men trilogy.

Remember when Wolverine shish-tawooked Jean Grey at the end of X-Men: The Last Stand? Well, it didn’t happen quite the way Wolverine planned, because Jean is still very much alive. How? Time travel and general ‘coz why not’.

Here’s the trailer of everything that didn’t happen. Yes Cyclops is alive too.

All right. If you’re still with us, let’s get down to explaining what exactly is going on with Wolverine and what Logan’s all about in one, very, very confusing paragraph.

Wolverine was introduced into the X-Men cinematic universe in X-Men 17 years ago in the year 2000 (it was a much simpler time back then). Two movies later and we could still follow everything that was happening including Cyclops’ death and Wolverine killing Jean Grey. Then the prequel to the original trilogy, the X-Men Origins: Wolverine released in 2009. It gives us a bit of backstory to the character, though isn’t very important in the ‘i-have-no-idea-what's-going-on' timeline. The following two movies, X-Men: First Class and The Wolverine are almost standalone movies that are entertaining but don’t mess up the timeline. Then comes X-Men: DOFP where Mystique assassinated Trask in 1973 and everything that happened, including the original trilogy and Cyclops and Jean Grey’s deaths occur. The events in the Age of Apocalypse is sketchy as well as is summed up as an alternative timeline, which is probably for the best due to its several inconsistencies. When Collider asked director Bryan Singer to explain the Apocalypse timeline, he threw quantum physics into the mix. So yeah. Let’s not go there. All this doesn’t matter though, since Wolverine and a younger Professor X create an alternative timeline in DOFP by preventing Mystique from killing Trask. This, in most ways, cancels out the events of original trilogy, X-Men Origins Wolverine (and that horrible rendition of Deadpool), The Wolverine and reinstates The Age of Apocalypse. This, then, paves the way for 2016’s Deadpool and 2017’s Logan.

Tired? I am too. Now…

…here’s what you need to watch before Logan

X-Men: There’s no point, but it’s the movie that kicked it off.

X-Men: The Last Stand: While this movie gets a lot of flak, the emotional ending is worth it.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine: If you’re setting out to watch the end, watch the beginning first.

The Wolverine: Standalone, independent and probably didn’t even happen. If you don’t have time to watch the entire movie, watch this fight scene instead.

X-Men: Days of Future Past: Optional.

Notes:

This could be Jackman’s final casting as Wolverine. However he could make an appearance in a Deadpool sequel due to the chemistry between Deadpool and Wolverine, and Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman.

Logan takes place in the year 2029. Where the X-Men are no more and he works as a limo driver.

It is an R-rated movie, prepare for a fair bit of violence and profanity. Leave the kids at home.

The little girl is Laura Kinney (X-23) – a female clone/daughter of Wolverine.

Logan Releases this weekend in all cinemas across the UAE