 |
| You should watch this, but don't tell me I didn't warn you (I haven't warned you...) |
WARNING: The next paragraph assumes you are familiar with the weird timey-wimey shenanigans of the X-Men universe...
I initially hoped to have Legion pre-Days of Future Past, and then wiped out (so we could all ignore any and all of Charles Xavier's attempts to get jiggy), but then after Dark Phoenix I thought it could still fit into the 90s after that, and before Logan (at least as part of a Viewing Order, if not a strictly correct Chronological Order), assuming that David was born in the 60s or 70s, so he could be in his twenties in the 90s (i.e., post-Dark Phoenix). It would have involved yet another reset before Deadpool (and then Logan still coming after, reasoning that Legion could potentially still fit in the Logan timeline, assuming Charles didn’t know anything about David (or had forgotten)).
But I liked Deadpool following Dark Phoenix too much. Aaaand now that the finale of Season 3 has come out, it's very clear it can't go there (ummm....spoilers ahoy*!)
In fact, in light of the ending of Legion, I think it can really only go in two possible places (and I know it's meant to be in its own universe, but I'm trying to put together one cohesive viewing order, ya galah).
And those places are:
- right at the beginning (i.e., before X-Men: First Class) - which I think makes the most sense chronologically (because there's a reset (spoilers*!) that then allows the rest of the chronology to mostly work), but the least sense if we want first-time viewers to actually get into the X-Men and actually watch the rest of the things (even the biggest Legion fans should admit that it's not the most viewer-friendly introduction to the X-Men); OR
- right at the end - which makes less sense chronologically (though I think if we turn a blind eye, this MAY work), but I think makes total sense from a viewing perspective.
But here is where I explain this decision to all the nerds: As a starting point, the décor and setting throughout Legion is all retro-futuristic, and the period in which it occurs is deliberately ambiguous. If you were to ask me outright ("Outright? OUTRIGHT?!?"), I'd probably say that it's meant to take place sometime in the 70s … ish … but that's already wrong, and I'm not going to stick to that.
In terms of specific references regarding when it takes place, I can only really think of two:
1. In Season 2, Melanie tells Oliver that Bombay is Mumbai now – implying that Oliver was frozen while it was still Bombay. This name change happened in 1995, so in theory, the series needs to be after that (putting it in the 90s).
2. However, it also appears that David's parents (Charles Xavier and Gabrielle Heller) got together just after World War II (and Xavier fought in it?) but that can’t be right, because that would mean Xavier was born in, like, the 20s (which has never been a thing, although Charles and Gabrielle meeting in an institution post-war (in the 60s) definitely has been a thing). So with that scene, either he was in someone else’s head who was in the War, or it’s a different war that looks the same (or the X-Men universe has no correlation to our universe, but we nerds will not accept that). In terms of the war timing, Legion creator and showrunner Noah Hawley addressed this thusly: "When we meet Professor X in this season, he has been a soldier in a war--a war that probably feels a bit like World War II, I guess I would say, though we never commit to what it is".
So, it should be post-1995, and I think we can ignore the war thing. But I think it could still take place post-Logan, chronologically, if we ignore some things – in particular, we need to assume that Division 3 (and the Summerland peeps) were also very secretive, and possibly in a completely different part of the country, which is why we don’t hear about them in the X-Men movies (the X-Men Prequel: Rogue even has a secret government-approved anti-mutant facility). We also need to assume that Charles and Gabrielle did indeed meet after a war and had a child at a time when he had the use of his legs (maybe after Dark Phoenix, meaning David can be in his 20s or 30s post-Logan?). Finally, we need to assume that time travel works differently in DoFP, Legion AND Deadpool 2! And why not? IT'S COMICS PEOPLE!
But, even if it’s not in the same timeline (and it's in, say, the 70s or 90s), it still works well to watch post-Logan. Plus, it really is the last X-Men thing that Fox made before Disney took it over, so it works well as a final capstone.
In terms of time travel, note that the below timeline (ironically) now includes at least three distinct instances of time travel, all of which change the timeline in different ways:
- The time travel in Days of Future Past, which involves the biggest change to the timeline;
- The time travel shenanigans in Deadpool 2, which don't alter the main timeline too much (though they do involve bringing Cable's family, Deadpool and Vanessa all back to life in some way, not to mention killing Weapon-11 and actor Ryan Reynolds (and Hitler?)); and
- The time travel in Legion.
So, just to reiterate, what I've tried to do is put together a coherent viewing/reading/listening/playing order (depending the medium), rather than a strict chronological order. Ignore it as much as you like/can!:
X-MEN X-PLAINED
Note that, in the below "viewing" order, the movies are in bold (but I'm not sure that's apparent - trust me, they're bold), everything else is in italics (e.g., comics and TV shows), the ones with an asterisk have basically been ‘erased’ as a result of the time travel in Days of Future Past (although similar events might have then happened again…), and most of the links are to Amazon/Amazon Prime.
X-Men First Class – The High Hand (prequel digital comic)
X-Men: First Class (in the 60s)
The Bent Bullet: JFK and the Mutant Conspiracy (a short video on Youtube, I think as part of the marketing for Days of Future Past (DoFP))
X-Men Origins: Wolverine* (in the 70s and 80s. Note – there's an accompanying game which is not exactly canon, but pretty fun...)
X-Men Prequel: Magneto comic*
X-Men Prequel: Rogue comic*
X-Men Prequel: Wolverine comic*
X-Men* (in the 2000s)
X-Men 2 Prequel: Wolverine comic* (incidentally, this confirms that the Sabretooth from the first X-Men movie is Victor Creed (who has also been experimented on by the Government and ALSO then got amnesia!))
X-Men 2 Prequel: Nightcrawler comic* (fantastic prequel comic (finally!) – leads directly into X2, and includes a wonderful story about Kurt and his circus, and also includes Stryker and Deathstrike).
X2: X-Men United*
X-Men: The Official Game*
X-Men: The Last Stand* (this happens in 2006, according to http://www.25moments.com/(see below))
The Wolverine* – I'll be watching the Unleashed Extended Edition.
The Gifted TV series* (I reckon this fits well in the 'old' timeline, especially since it includes a young Blink just developing her powers, who shows up in DoFP below, too…)
At this point, it's good to check out http://www.25moments.com/, which runs through 25 moments involving mutants in history from 1962 to 2018, including most of the above events, as well as some that are revealed in DoFP below...
X-Men: Days of Future Past (starts in the future, then mostly in the 70s, but the end is back in the present time, having rebooted the franchise thanks to time travel) – I'll be watching the Rogue Cut...
X-Men: Apocalypse (in the 80s)
X-Men: Dark Phoenix (in the 90s)
Deadpool
Deadpool 2 (and/or Once Upon a Deadpool!)
New Mutants?
Wolverine: The Long Night (podcast). Wolverine is in Alaska on the run from Weapon X. I think this works OK in this timeline, as we don’t see Wolverine after he escapes from Alkali Lake in Apocalypse. Note that the Sentinels are slightly different than we’ve seen before (but that’s still OK).
Wolverine: The Lost Trail (podcast). After the events of The Long Night, Logan went to Russia, Japan and elsewhere, but ends up returning to New Orleans, still on the run from Weapon X. Includes Gambit (who refers to some business with Mr Sinister in Massachusetts in episode 6 (again works post-Apocalypse), and also to their mutual X-Men activities). Very much works in a Logan-world, not so much in a Deadpool-world, though…but that's still OK...
Logan (set in the year 2029, possibly not in the same timeline but whatevs). I'm also tempted to watch Children of Men beforehand (it’s in the UK in the year 2027, and with very similar themes).
Legion TV series (if it's going to go anywhere*...)
And that's that! As I noted in my previous post, once you've watched them you can then free up space in your brain and just forget them all, as Disney is almost certainly going to completely reboot them all when incorporating the X-Men into the MCU in a few years!
Huzzah!
* SPOILERS! Legion Season 3 finale ends with everything being reset thanks to time travel (where has that happened before?). Importantly, the Shadow King will not infect David as a baby, and Charles will take a more active role as a father...for a bit. This also works exceptionally well here, since Disney will be rebooting everything anyway!
** Soundgarden FTW.
