X-Men Continuity

X-Men Continuity

It’s no big secret that the X-Men franchise has its fair share of controversies, most notably being continuity errors. While your average movie-goer can easily overlook them, it is very important to die-hard fans. This article addresses eight major continuity errors and the simple ways Fox can fix them, if they do it right.

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By eachonman - 1/29/2013
1.) Xavier’s Walking Abilities

Continuity Problem: At the end of First Class (early 60’s), a bullet hits Professor X in the spine, paralyzing him from the waist down. However, in a flashback in X-Men: The Last Stand, we see Professor X walking with Magneto (early 80’s). He also walks toward the end of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Suggested Fix: At a certain scene in FC, Professor X uses his telepathy to make it look like him and the other X-Men are not there, while a soldier is looking directly at them. There’s also a scene where Emma Frost uses her telepathy to make some general believe he’s having sex with her. In the same way, Xavier could use his powers to make it look to others that he can walk.
Or, since First Class was supposed to be the beginning of a prequel trilogy, it could be written into the end of FC3 that he has temporarily regained the ability to walk.

2.) Friendship With Magneto

Continuity Problem: By the end of First Class, Magneto and Charles have officially become enemies. But in that flashback in The Last Stand, they are friends again when they go to Jean Grey’s house.

Suggested Fix: Simple—by the end of FC3, they have set their differences aside. Perhaps there is a greater threat that causes them to unite once more.

3.) Cerebro

Continuity Problem: Xavier stated in the first X-Men movie that Magneto helped him build Cerebro, and that was how Magneto knew how to make a helmet that would block its abilities. But in First Class, Beast is the one who built Cerebro, and Magneto simply took the helmet from Sebastian Shaw.

Suggested Fix: Cerebro was destroyed at the end of First Class by Riptide, which leaves an opportunity for Magneto and Charles to rebuild it together. It’d be a great way for them to become friends again by the end of First Class 3. It would also demonstrate how Magneto could build another, perhaps better, helmet.

4.) When Charles and Magneto Meet

Continuity Problem: In the first X-Men movie, Charles says that he met Magneto at the age of 17. But when they meet in First Class, they are grown men in their late 20’s or early 30’s.

Suggested Fix: I could only think of one way they could fix this one, and it’s a pretty interesting idea. In either Days of Future Past or a third FC sequel, one of the plot elements is that the two have had a run-in before (at the age of 17), and there is a reason Charles kept it to himself. Maybe when Magneto finds out, he’s not happy.

5.) Moira MacTaggert

Continuity Problem: In First Class, Moira MacTaggert is thirty-two-year-old CIA agent. In The Last Stand, set decades later, she is a thirty-eight-year-old doctor/scientist.

Suggested Fix: That’s an easy one—make the MacTaggert in TLS the daughter/niece of the MacTaggert in FC.

6.) Emma Frost

Continuity Problem: In First Class, Emma Frost is Sebastian Shaw’s right-hand woman, clearly at least in her thirties, who has the power to change herself into diamond form. Yet by the end of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which is set awhile later, we see a teenager named Emma who has the same powers. In the credits, she is listed as Emma Frost.

Suggested Fix: Personally, this is one that I would be willing to ignore. She is a very minor character in XMOW, and it never says anywhere else other than the credits that her name is ‘Emma Frost.’ But if you’re one to complain, just do the same thing here as with Moira MacTaggert: Have the FC Emma Frost give birth to a girl in a future sequel named Emma Frost. It’s cheesy, but it’d work.

7.) First Students

Continuity Problem: In X-Men, Xavier claims that Jean Grey, Storm, and Cyclops were among his first students when he opened up his school. But at the end of FC he is about to open his school, which would had to have been at least a decade before the three began school there.

Suggested Fix: In a future FC sequel, there could arise a crisis which prevents him from starting the school, since he hasn’t officially opened it yet. Or perhaps he does open it, but doesn’t actually start teaching there for awhile.


8.) Deadpool

Problem: While not technically a continuity error yet, the way Deadpool was handled in XMOW was definitely a mistake. And if the Deadpool movie ever gets made, it will be a continuity error, since they plan to “reboot it” and stick to the Deadpool we see in the comics.

Suggested Fix: This is another one I’d be willing to ignore, but if you really need an explanation, here goes nothing. Make the ‘Deadpool’ we saw in XMOW not really Wade Wilson. It could be written in to show that Wolverine mistook him for someone else. For example, it could be shown in a future movie that it was in fact a clone of Wade Wilson rather than the actual character.
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12 Comments
Mercwitham0uth - 1/29/2013, 7:58 PM
Only way it can be fixed is if time machines were real or if Fox loses the rights and Marvel delivers a true X-Men film.
superman2013 - 1/29/2013, 8:10 PM
If the time travel elements are there,maybe first class charles or what ever,go back in time and meet eric when hes younger,but unless for a good reason it would be a cheap ass way to fix the issue lol

The eric helment thing I'd say someone breaks his helmet and he has to make a new one after he (for what ever plot reason) help charles make a new cerebro

I dont really know how they could fix the wheel chair thing,Id like to see how or if they do that
DudeGuyMan - 1/29/2013, 8:57 PM
Wow good article.
relentless1 - 1/29/2013, 9:55 PM
all of these things can be fixed in the same way the terminator time paradox differs or the trunks timeline is altered in dbz, all time streams are slightly different there fore in the original x men continuity, things would go one way and in the first class universe, things will go a slightly different path, ive always thought this is an easy problem to fix and figured this is why they are doing the days of future past story in the first place
AnungUnRama - 1/30/2013, 1:12 AM
Nice article. I have been thinking about those things for a while. Came up with some similar ideas e.g. the daughter of Emma frost thing.

Regarding #1 the Xavier walking issue I'd prefer opportunity 2: The paralysis was just from FC was just temporarily and he gets in fact paralyzed years later.

According to Deadpool. What about Striker used the mind control toxin seen in X2 to control him. After XMOW he doesn't get any further injections, recovers from it, regains his conscious, cuts his mouth open, and his healing factor, which formerly was blocked by a/the toxin too restores his usual face and his usual physics meaning it rejects the blades in his arms and his added abilities (optic blast, teleport. etc.)
2Challa - 1/30/2013, 6:13 AM
I like the effort you put into explaining the continuity errors but that wouldn't fix the franchise. We need to start fresh and forget the other movies completely.

Start with Scott as an orphan and have Xavier recruit him out of sympathy and purpose. He teaches him while gathering Hank, Bobby, and Warren telling them just enough about their purpose to keep them pacified. When they go to get Jean, Eric is also trying to recruit her only to be held off by the combined efforts of the boys and Xavier. Jean decides to attend the school out of fascination with Scott, protection and wanting to learn about her powers. Eric puts together a team of mercenaries (Toad, Mesmaro, Avalanche and Mystique) to kidnap Jean because her powers are required to control people. Big show out of powers and at Mansion and end movie 1.

In the Second movie have the team kidnapped by Sinister and held in a manner that Xavier cannot find them and they are completely incapacitated. Xavier is forced to recruit Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Havok, and Wolverine to save his original team. Big showout of powers culminating in Havok and Cyclops taking out Sinister. (Wolverine is 5'3" and is not the STAR of this movie but does have the action sequence)

Apocalypse story with Angel, Polaris, Wolverine, and Xavier as horsemen and Scott having to lead a mixed team in a post apocalypse survival story.
Sturmpionier - 1/30/2013, 6:35 AM
The time travel "alternate timeline" approach used in Star Trek is the way to go. It gives you carte blanche to use whatever characters you want from the canon and then have the "alternate timeline" erase away any elements you from the continuity you want to get rid of. You can have a sequel and reboot all in the same movie.
thefirstavenger97 - 1/31/2013, 6:38 AM
Nice idea.
DrDoom - 1/31/2013, 10:21 AM
While it's great that you put in a lot of effort into fixing some of these plot holes, problems can still be presented. I'm not convinced by your solution to the Magneto and Xavier age situation, or Deadpool as a clone. As well, you didn't mention one of the glaring flaws in First Class: Mystique as Xavier's stepsister, and the implications of that never being brought up in the X-Men trilogy.
eachonman - 2/1/2013, 5:11 AM
I don't recall her being his stepsister, just that they were best friends. Honestly, who cares? Maybe by the first X-Men movie she hates him or something. Not a big deal.
Odin - 2/3/2013, 2:34 PM
How about this for Emma Frost: There is a big telepathic battle(I like to think that it is the legendary battle between prof.Xavier and Shadow king) in which Emma tryes to take a part, but she is getting backfire from the two more powerfull telepaths. She tries to protect herself by going into the diamond-form, but it doesn't help and she ends up being shatterd(like she did in end of Wolverina and the X-men tv-series). As she dies at blast, the last petty remains of her spirit are being attach to two little girls standin in the sidelines. As a result the passive X-gene, that both girls have, activates, the other girl gets Emma's diamond-form and the other girl gets the telepathy(with a modification that it now requires a physical touch). These girls(sisters) would then grow up to be Kayla and Emma that we see in the X-men origins:Wolverine.
RedHood13 - 2/26/2013, 2:01 PM
I think that Days of Future Past will end up rebooting the whole X-Men movie universe except for First Class. They might keep the same actors just different things happen or just reboot everything

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