X-Men Dark Phoenix: Where does it fit into the crazy X-Men movie timeline?

The twelfth instalment in Marvel‘s X-Men franchise will hit cinemas in February next year, but with so many films set across decades – not to mention time travel involved – just where does Dark Phoenix fit in the timeline?

Well the first thing to say is it’s set in 1992, a decade after the events of X-Men Apocalypse.

Dark Phoenix is the fourth film the prequel series of X-Men movies, which kicked off with X-Men First Class, set in 1962.

This was followed by X-Men Days of Future Past which is where it all gets quite confusing.

The film is set primarily in 1973, but also involved Wolverine travelling back in time from 2023 to fix the timeline.

Days of Future Past was then followed by X-Men Apocalypse, a film in the new timeline and set in 1983.

It was this sequel that introduced Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey, the character who is the central focus of Dark Phoenix – a film, as said, that’s set in 1992.

It’s in this upcoming sequel that Jean loses control of her abilities and turns into the dangerous Phoenix, as seen in the trailer.

Now if this all sounds familiar that’s because this is basically the same plot as X-Men The Last Stand, the third film in the original X-Men trilogy, and a film set in the mid-noughties.

In that film Wolverine had to make the difficult decision of putting Jean down when she went Phoenix.

So why are these events happening a good 15 years before in Dark Phoenix?

Well it’s presumably all because Wolverine altered the timeline in Days of Future Past.

After all, when he woke up in 2023 the post-apocalyptic future he had left before heading to 1973 was gone.

But not only that, a number of X-Men who had perished in the original trilogy’s timeline were alive.

And that includes Jean herself. So presumably she’ll make it out alive in Dark Phoenix? Fans will have to wait and see.

Dark Phoenix is released in UK cinemas on February 5, 2019.