Summary

• Logan's complex timeline spans over 100 years, showcasing various comic book forms and his death in Logan.
• X-Men movie timeline is confusing with prequels, sequels, and spin-offs, making it hard for audiences to unravel the knotty timeline.
• Wolverine's journey from 1832-2029 across the course of 9 movies includes pivotal moments like meeting Ichirō Yashida and being recruited into the X-Men.

Hugh Jackman has been in more X-Men movies than any other actor ever since playing Wolverine in the original 2000 movie, and as a result, the powerful superhero has such a complex timeline in the universe. Audiences were introduced to Logan in the snowy outback of Alberta in the first film in the Fox X-Men movie roster, but his timeline begins well over 100 years before that. Over the course of nine films, Logan has taken up many different comic book forms, such as Old Man Logan and Weapon X, all the way up to his death in Logan.

The X-Men movie timeline is undoubtedly confusing, as the series is full of prequels, movies that are part-prequel and part-sequel, and spin-offs that stretch over the course of 100+ years. That means that it can be hard for general audiences to unravel the knotty timeline and lay it out chronologically. It doesn't make it any easier that some movies split the X-Men movie universe into different timelines either. And given that one of Logan's mutant abilities is immortality, the character has certainly lived a full life.

Hugh Jackman's Wolverine story spans from 1832-2029, across the course of 9 movies.

Logan's Early Life & Fighting Alongside Sabretooth (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)

1832-1944

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the fourth X-Men movie, but the very first one in the chronological timeline. While 112 years is much longer than most people's whole lives, that timeframe only represents Logan's early life. The movie depicts Logan's birth in 1832 with the name James Howlett, and in the following 12 years, he meets and forms a close bond with his half-brother, Victor Creed, aka Sabretooth.

In 1845, the 12-year-old mutant kills Thomas Logan, the groundskeeper who murdered Logan and Sabretooth's father. After the murder, the brothers run away and become soldiers in several wars, as the movie cuts forward to the Civil War, and given their mutant powers, they don't age a day.

Considering that the movie was critically scathed when it was released, the opening sequence is arguably the only good X-Men Origins: Wolverine scene, as it then jumps decades later to World War I in 1914, and then decades later again to 1944 during World War II where the duo is part of the D-Day Normandy Landings. It's in this montage where Logan and Victor's relationship begins to crack, as Victor starts enjoying the violence and terrors of war.

Logan Meets And Saves Ichirō Yashida (The Wolverine)

1945

The opening of the black sheep of the X-Men franchise, The Wolverine, picks up in the middle of the opening montage of X-Men Origins: Wolverine where he's a U.S. soldier during World War II. Logan is trapped in a prisoner-of-war camp in Nagasaki, Japan, where an atomic bomb is about to be dropped and will wipe out the entire city, including Japanese military officer Ichirō Yashida.

Logan saves Yashida from the blast, and Yashida then watches in astonishment when Logan uses his healing powers. But Yashida doesn't get to enjoy the entire spectacle, as it's still set before the main events of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Logan hasn't got his adamantium claws yet.

Logan Does Not Get Recruited By Charles And Erik (X-Men: First Class)

1962

Professor Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr first assemble the X-Men in 1962 in X-Men: First Class. The Mark Millar-directed comic book movie features Professor X and Magneto hiring Angel, Darwin, Havok, and Banshee, but there's one mutant who doesn't accept their offer.

Charles and Erik find Logan in a bar and attempt to recruit him. It goes to show how much of a valuable asset Logan is even without his adamantium claws. This scene again takes place within the timeframe of X-Men Origins: Wolverine when Logan was a soldier for the U.S. Army. The location of the bar isn't totally clear, but it's either in Vietnam or in the U.S. right before he's deployed to Vietnam.

Logan Is Recruited Into Team X & Gets Adamantium Claws (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)

Early-Late 1970s

When Wolverine and Sabretooth inevitably end up fighting in the Vietnam War, other soldiers cotton on to their healing powers. This leads to the mutants getting recruited by Stryker and put into his black ops military unit known as Team X. Logan leaves the team due to its sketchy methods of combat and its cavalier attitude toward civilians' lives. William Stryker first appeared in the X-Men franchise in X2 and was played by Brian Cox, but the character's first chronological appearance is years earlier, and Cox was recast in X-Men Origins: Wolverine with a younger Danny Huston.

Years later, under the impression that Victor murdered his girlfriend, Kayla, Logan meets with Stryker once again due to their common threat: Sabretooth. Logan agrees to the Weapon X experiment and has adamantium bonded to his bones, which will help him kill his half-brother.

However, it's revealed that Kayla is still alive and being held captive by Stryker, who shoots Logan with an adamantium bullet. Though that doesn't kill Logan, he does lose his memory. While the movie is often criticized, it does give insight into why Logan was aimlessly living paycheck to paycheck in X-Men, and it seamlessly leads into the first movie.

Logan Becomes Weapon X (X-Men: Apocalypse)

1983

Jackman has an uncredited cameo in X-Men: Apocalypse, as he plays the Weapon X version of Wolverine. A brief digression in X-Men: Apocalypse sees a group of mutants locked inside Stryker's Weapon X base, which hides some untethered beasts.

Weapon X is completely uncaged, as he runs rampant around the base picking off Stryker's henchmen. While this takes place before the events of the original trilogy, it's in a different timeline following the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past. But as that movie ends with Raven freeing Logan from captivity, it requires a lot of suspension of disbelief that he somehow found his way back into Stryker's hands within those 10 years.

Logan Is Recruited Into The X-Men (X-Men)

2003

The first released X-Men Marvel movie is actually the eighth X-Men film in the chronological timeline. Though it's the first time Wolverine is introduced, it directly follows on from X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was over 20 years earlier.

In that time, it can only be assumed that he had been struggling with the pain that the adamantium causes him following Stryker's experiment, wandering around Alberta with amnesia, and barely making a living as a cage fighter. But after a quick run-in with Sabretooth, Logan is whisked away to Xavier's Mansion where he meets Jean Grey for the first time in this timeline, and after some hesitance, he officially becomes a member of the X-Men.

Logan's Relationship With Jean Grey (X-Men 2 & X-Men: The Last Stand)

2003-2006

The climax of X-Men 2 ends in an epic face-off at Alkali Lake, a historical location for Logan. After falling in love with Jean, Logan watches her sacrifice herself to save her friends, family, and colleagues. However, after a flashback of a young Jean Grey with a badly de-aged Patrick Stewart as Professor X, the mutant returns in X-Men: The Last Stand, but as her evil Dark Phoenix alter ego. She works closely with Magneto and even kills Cyclops and Professor X. In a Shakespearean tragedy-like ending, Jean convinces Logan to kill her before she can do any more damage.

Logan Reunites With Ichirō Yashida (The Wolverine)

2013

The Wolverine is more of a sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand than X-Men Origins: Wolverine, as it's set 10 years after Jean's death, and Logan is still tormented by the hallucinations of killing her. The mutant reunites with Ichirō, whom he had saved from an atomic bomb 68 years earlier, one of the many severe injuries that Wolverine survived.

Ichirō offers to transfer Logan's healing abilities to himself, as the power has become a burden on the mutant. That's hardly surprising given that Logan has taken part in so many wars and watched two loves of his life get violently killed. But he refuses, and after fighting Silver Samurai, he retains his immortality and learns to let go of Jean.

Logan's Subconscious Is Put Into His 1973 Self (X-Men: Days Of Future Past)

2023

X-Men: Days of Future Past is part-prequel, part-sequel, as it brings back characters from the original trilogy and X-Men: First Class, as well as being a direct follow-up to The Wolverine. But the 2014 movie was the first proper X-Men film starring Wolverine in eight years.

There's even more Wolverine content in the Rogue Cut, which features Logan meeting Quicksilver's sister and an introspective conversation between him and Beast. In the 2014 movie, Logan rejoins Charles Xavier to protect the mutant race. And the only way to restore the world back to the way it was is for Kitty Pryde to put Logan's subconscious into his 1973 self.

Logan awakens in 1973 where he successfully stops Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinels, and he reawakens back in 2023 in the Xavier Mansion where everyone is alive, including Jean Grey. Logan essentially changed the future where X-Men: The Last Stand doesn't exist, meaning he gets to live happily ever after with Jean and his life isn't all that tragic after all.

That is until the very next time he appears chronologically in Logan where, due to Professor X's dark fate, his life goes back to being a Shakespearean-like tragedy all over again. Nevertheless, X-Men: Days of Future Past is the perfect follow-up to X2 and is the satisfying conclusion that the original movies deserve.

Logan Dies From Adamantium Poisoning (Logan)

2028-2029

Logan is the very last movie in the franchise when it comes to chronological order, which is why the film has so much emotional weight, as it sees him burdened with caring for Xavier in his twilight years following X-Men: Days of Future Past. After eight movies, seeing Logan losing his healing power is absolutely grueling. His healing power had served him well for almost 200 years and all the way up to 2028, as he was the only one of his friends who wasn't killed by Professor Xavier's seizure, also known as the Westchester Incident. But his luck was about to run out in Logan.

Logan loses his healing power in the 2017 movie due to adamantium poisoning and dies after being fatally wounded by X-24. In a poetic ending, if Logan had never had his bones coated in adamantium, which is the very thing that makes the character iconic, he could have lived for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years longer.

However, though it still isn't clear how the character will return or if he'll appear in the MCU's X-Men, Jackman will reprise his role as Wolverine in Deadpool & Wolverine, continuing the mutant's already astonishing legacy. And maybe it'll give finally give him the uplifting ending that he deserves.

Key Release Dates

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  Deadpool & Wolverine

  Release Date:

  2024-07-26