The X-Men franchise has always been free and easy with their timelines. In a pop-culture age defined by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, fans have never been more obsessed with continuity and timelines. However, the X-Men franchise has never given two hoots, casually changing and retconning things from movie to movie as it pleases.
I mean think about it. In the first three X-Men movies, it’s established that Cerebro was created by Magneto and Charles Xavier, but in X-Men: First Class, we learn that it’s engineered by Hank McCoy AKA Beast. What about the brilliant scene at the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past in which we see Mystique, disguised as Stryker pull Wolverine out of the water. That plot point is completely dropped and forgotten about in X-Men: Apocalypse.
Continuity, schmontinuity.
So, what about the upcoming New Mutants? In an interview with Digital Spy, producer Karen Rosenfelt talked about when exactly the film is taking place. Rosenfelt said:
It’s contemporary timeless. We don’t define where we are, but it is today. It’s contemporary. It’s not way in the future and it’s not in the past.
Rosenfelt was then asked if New Mutants was set within the same timeline as X-Men: First Class. She said:
I think it’s safe to say. But again, what we’re striving for, as they did with Deadpool, is what Fox and Simon [Kinberg] are doing with each of the franchises in the X-Men universe is making them all signature unique.
The New Mutants official synopsis:
20th Century Fox in association with Marvel Entertainment presents “The New Mutants,” an original horror thriller set in an isolated hospital where a group of young mutants is being held for psychiatric monitoring. When strange occurrences begin to take place, both their new mutant abilities and their friendships will be tested as they battle to try and make it out alive.
The New Mutants is set to hit Malaysian cinemas on 2 April 2020.
