X-Men: 10 Massive Questions About Its Confusing Canon

The continuity of the X-Men franchise has always been a cause for debate and confusion. Even before Fox started making spin-offs and prequels and playing around with multiple timelines, there was still niggling little errors, such as that hairless version of Hank McCoy who showed up in the background of X-Men 2 before appearing as Kelsey Grammer and covered in hair in X-Men: The Last Stand. It€™s a tiny detail, but one that fans noticed. As the demand for superhero cinema continued to grow, Fox carried on making errors. Audiences had to try and make sense of two conflicting accounts of Wolverine getting his powers (X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X2 didn€™t exactly match up), multiple other characters being recast, and lines of dialogue that contradicted previously established events. And now, the double-bill of X-Men: Days Of Future Past and Deadpool have both thrown caution to wind: the former by rewriting the canon and the latter by ignoring continuity altogether (and even pointing out how 'confusing' the timelines have become). There are still these massive questions, though, which the franchise needs to address€

10. Which Sabretooth Counts, Or Are They The Same?

Back in the year 2000, Tyler Mane portrayed Sabretooth in X-Men, the founding film of this franchise. There was no mention of him being Wolverine€™s brother - he fought with Hugh Jackman€™s Logan on a few occasions, but the film never hinted at a familial connection between the two - and he communicated mostly through grunts. This would cause a lot of head scratching when the character reappeared a few years later. In 2009, Liev Schreiber was cast as Sabretooth in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. This prequel version was definitively Wolverine€™s brother, was intelligent enough to speak, and forged a fierce rivalry with Logan. Towards the end of the film, they formed a tentative alliance to stop Stryker€™s latest creation before going their separate ways afterwards. Fans were left puzzled by what this meant for Tyler Mane€™s version? Is he still canon, or is everyone just meant to forget that this vastly different version of the character ever existed? Some believe that Mane and Schreiber€™s versions are actually one and the same, and that Sabretooth somehow lost his memory and was transformed into a more bestial form between Origins and X-Men. However, this theory doesn€™t account for the fact that Schreiber €“ not Mane €“ has apparently been approached for a role in The Wolverine 3 (which is believed to be set in the far-flung future, a la Old Man Logan).