Deadpool 2 Totally Ruins X-Men’s Already Ludicrous Movie Timeline

Is there anything more difficult to make sense of in
movies than the X-Men film franchise? Whether it’s the initial
trilogy, the three prequels that followed and completely changed
the established timeline, or the three Wolverine spin-offs that are
set all over the place, the X-Men movies are… a lot to deal
with.

And that’s before you throw Deadpool into the mix.
While the Merc with a Mouth makes a mockery of just about
everything–and plenty of meta jokes at the expense of his own
movie universe–Deadpool and Deadpool 2 do exist in the X-Men
franchise. More specifically, they are set in the altered timeline
that follows the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Where in that timeline, though? Based on simply
watching the films, chances are you’d expect they were set in
modern day–2016 for the first movie, 2018 for the second. However,
Deadpool 2 throws a massive wrench in that assumption.
If you have yet to see Deadpool 2, consider this
your spoiler warning as we’re going to dig into the movie’s
events.

First and foremost, Deadpool 2 begins with
Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) playing with a music box designed to
look like Logan’s final moments from the 2017 film Logan, with the
Hugh Jackman character dying. That particular movie is set in the
year 2029, so either Deadpool can see the future or it’s actually
set in a post-post-apocalyptic world. However, neither of these are
the case. Like most things Deadpool-related, this moment can simply
be chalked up to another in a long line of jokes, even if that can
be frustrating to those trying to keep the timeline straight.

However, the movie’s tinkering with the timeline
doesn’t end there. During a scene at Xavier’s School for Gifted
Youngsters, Deadpool jokes–because that’s what he does–that none
of the A-grade X-Men ever show up in his movies. Instead, he’s
saddled with Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and, in this
sequel, new addition Yukio. As he registers his complaint with the
universe, the camera finds Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Professor X
(James McAvoy), Quicksilver (Evan Peters), and Cyclops (Tye
Sheridan) in a room, as Beast quickly closes the door to avoid the
Merc.

It’s a great joke and an excellent set of cameos.
However, it simply makes no sense. These versions of the characters
are from 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse, which was set in 1983.
Are we to believe the X-Men haven’t aged in 35 years? Xavier should
certainly look a bit more like Patrick Stewart at this point.

Continue reading the rest of Chris Hayner’s piece
at GameSpot!