Interesting X-Men Movie Fan Theories That Actually Make A Lot Of Sense

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The X-Men universe has become big and bold in the last twenty years, with a wide array of characters, plots, and mulitple timelines. And they certainly have the fanbase to match. One of fandoms’ favorite things to do is come up with fan theories, and when it comes to the X-Men there are definitely a lot of them. We managed to round up some of the most interesting fan theories surrounding our favorite mutants.

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Wolverine Smokes Cigars To Deal With His Mutation

Part of Wolverine’s mutation is an extremely heightened sense of smell. Logan smokes cigars, known for their pungent odor, to help cut down from being overwhelmed by the thousands of smells he interacts with everyday that his mutant powers crank up to 11. Imagine being stuck in a new car, after stepping in dog poop, driving through a paper mill that was feshly painted… all day.

Wolverine Wears Bright Yellow Spandex So The Foes Will Attack Him And Not The Kids

TL;DR: Wolverine wears a dumb bright yellow costume (that completely does not suit his personality) so that Sentinels will attack him and not teenage X-Men who really shouldn’t even be around.

I was reading this interview with “The Wolverine” director James Mangold, on why after teasing Wolverine’s yellow superhero costume from the comics they have not put it in any of the movies. Specifically, he says:

“Nothing seems less Wolverine-like than the desire to put on a trademarked outfit , particularly canary yellow, and kind of prance about doing good deeds and have people go, “Oh my God! It’s The Wolverine!” At least as I see him, that’s a real struggle for me and always has been.”

I think that this is true, and carries over to the comics. The stoic, grumpy, serious Wolverine doesn’t really have a personality to match the flamboyant bright yellow costume. So why does he wear it? Consider: He only seems to wear the yellow costume when working with the X-Men. When he is working on his own, he usually wears his everyday clothes.

Practically half the X-Men are teenagers, depending on which version of the team. There’s usually at least one underager on the team. The particularly reactive nature of the X-Men as a superhero team made up of oppressed minorities makes putting insanely powerful teenagers in harmful situations look somewhat necessary. Wolverine is ridiculously tough and for all intents and purposes impervious to harm.

Quicksilver Lives In His Mother’s Basement Because Of His Powers

Why Quicksilver, despite having amazing powers, lives in his mother’s basement. In Days of Future Past, we meet Quicksilver and he lives in his mom’s basement playing table tennis and pong. In Apocalypse, ten years after DOFP, we see him again and he’s still living there, watching TV and playing Ms. Pac Man. Now, it makes you wonder why someone who could do basically anything with his life would spend all his time doing nothing.

My theory is that Quicksilver can’t get a job, or go to school, because of how mind numbingly, excruciatingly boring it would be to him. Just look at the media he consumes. He rigged a tape recorder to play music at a thousand times the normal speed of the song. He made Pong move so fast that the audience couldn’t even process him playing it. This is the only way he can be entertained.

Quicksilver doing a 9-5 shift anywhere would basically be like him sitting in a chair for a week straight. Listening to a teacher lecture would be even worse. The only reason anyone convinced him to leave his house to begin with was the thrill of breaking into the pentagon and meeting his father. And he presumably is too moral to just rob a bank or something.

Deadpool Was Always A Mutant

TLDR: Before becoming Deadpool, Wade Wilson was a mutant with the power of super dexterity, and he underwent a secondary mutation to become Deadpool.

Watching the Deadpool movie again it occurs to me that while the healing factor allowed Deadpool to exceed the combat abilities of normal humans it doesn’t fully explain his capabilities on its own.

No amount of regeneration would enable wade to accomplish feats like lining up a side flipping triple headshot, jumping off a three level overpass to land perfectly in the sunroof of a moving vehicle, throw a sword into the wheel of a moving motorcycle while jumping, throw a sword to puncture that oxygen chamber without hurting Vanessa, shoot a grenade out of a man’s hand, or rack up a perfect score on skeeball.

Francis said that the treatment would activate any dormant mutant genes lurking is his DNA, but I don’t think he had any. He had a subtle, but active mutation. That’s why the usual methods of mutating subjects didn’t work on him until they went to the final hail Mary play of the oxygen chamber, which combined with the serum (which I imagine acts to destabilize your DNA) induced a secondary mutation.

The X-Men’s Continuity Is Constantly Changing Because Of Kitty And Deadpool

TL;DR The universe needs certain events to happen or have the same effects on history in order to stay at peace, hints why the X-Men continuity is constantly changing.

The timeline is muddled and features characters looking different and being younger or older in places where they shouldn’t be. Sometimes they’re even undone and brought back to life (like why is Jean alive in DOFP yet she dies in Dark Phoenix?) My theory? In Days of Future Past, it’s confirmed that Kitty has been sending people back into the past multiple times to avoid death and such. Not only that, Deadpool has been using Cable’s watch as shown at the end of DP2.

What if, because of all the time travel from all these different points in time and different areas, the timeline was always changing and therefore couldn’t stay consistent.

Think of it as a the butterfly effect, where one small change in human history has a MASSIVE effect for the future.

The Relative Strength Of A Mutant Is Dependent On The Mutant’s Control Over Their Power, Not The Power Itself

It’s no real secret that some Mutants are stronger than others. Professor X can read your mind, telepathically communicate and even forceably halt your movement. Magneto can control all types of metal, and can even manipulate magnetic fields to levitate and create force fields. But, they didn’t always have these powers. In fact, in the hands of other individuals, these powers wouldn’t be as overwhelmingly powerful as they seem to be with Charles and Erik.

We should consider a Mutant power to be akin to a muscle. With use, it can continue to grow stronger and flourish, and it if is left alone, it will atrophy and weaken. It’s no coincidence that two of the strongest Mutants known to man are also 2 of the oldest. Professor X and Magneto have spent decades using their powers and learning to control them to their full potential. Magneto specifically is a great example of this. Why should the ability to control metal also be shoehorned into the power of levitation and force fields? Because Erik realized on some level he could control his power to make it that way.

As a child at the beginning of X-Men: First Class, Erik struggles to move a single coin without extreme stress. By the end, he’s turning massive satellite dishes and levitating nuclear submarines out of the water. But, it’s not the ability to move massive structures that makes his power compelling. After being imprisoned in X-2, a much older Magneto uses the iron in a prison guard’s blood to create his own escape. A younger, less focused Magneto wouldn’t have even considered this, but because of the laser tight control he has over his power, he was able to separate even the tiniest molecules of metal to use for his own purposes.

Wolverine Killed The X-Men As An Act Of Mercy

It’s heavily implied in Logan that Xavier killed the X-Men due to his old age and mind. However, we never really get a clear answer to why Xavier resents Wolverine so much, with quotes like “Logan… What did you do?” and “What a disappointment you are.” My theory is that Xavier’s attack nearly killed the X-Men but the damage was done and couldn’t be reversed, Wolverine killed each of the X-Men to end their suffering. Xavier, being the pacifist he has been through the series, was strongly against this. Ever since then Xavier has had some resentment towards Wolverine.

Logan’s Memory Loss Isn’t From The Adamantium

In X-Men, Xavier and Logan to start discussing the possibility of Xavier unlocking Logan’s past. Where was the human side of Logan for so many years before? How can a mutant that always heals from every wound never remember who they are or where they came from? Why couldn’t Xavier unlock it? Simple… He killed it, himself.

My theory is that Logan, unable to cope with the guilt and reality of the monstrous things he had done or was subjected to, has tried to kill himself multiple times during his long life.
He heals… I believe even his brain heals. It makes no sense that his “brain” being damaged wouldn’t heal because he literally survived nuclear blasts and concussive blows that would put others in a vegetable state. However, even if the brain tissue heals… Memories don’t come back with it.
Logan had lived through many generations of wars, being a tool for the hatred of others even when he didn’t believe in the cause or desire to take part.
When he couldn’t handle it anymore, he attempted disastrous efforts to try to take his own life, hoping that he would escape the tragedy and pain, always envious of others who could be free from their pain.

The reason Xavier couldn’t see those memories had nothing to do with the Adamantium or Logan’s rage. It was because only pieces and fragments of it were left in his brain, and Xavier could only see the fragments that were left.

Xavier Subconsciously Pacified The People Around Him

If I recall correctly, the X-Men used to be a nicer team. Cyclops was a boyscout. Beast was welcome on the Avengers. Even Wolverine was more “honorable rogue samurai” and less “crazed berserker.” Crossovers were generally friendly affairs, often involving Canada. The X-Men still had some in-fighting, but it was scheduled, civilized, somewhat-controlled sparring in the Danger Room. Honestly, it seems Mutants weren’t “feared and hated” as much back when Magneto was a main villain.

Then, over time, frustration with Xavier’s “mission” led to drifting away from him… and the X-Force/Factor/Men taking on darker, “edgier” missions. This trend continued until Space-Crazy Cyclops killed Xavier, and an apparent tide of a**hole flooded the Marvel Universe.

Now, Xavier was a powerful psychic. He tried to avoid controlling people’s behavior, but wasn’t very good at it. Secret mental locks on Jean Grey’s powers, erasing people’s memories when convenient… I think, at a subtle level, Charles Xavier was constantly pushing the people around him to behave in a more rational, civilized manner. Mutants often have trouble controlling their power, and one of the first prominent mutant leaders would have even more trouble on account of being self-taught. It would be extremely easy for any stray thought of Xavier’s about people to accidentally turn into a nudge in that direction.

Basically: “Curse this Sunday traffic, get out of my way, people! …They got out of my way, nice.”

Mystique’s Default Appearance Is Not What We Think

In Last Stand, after Mystique loses her powers to the ‘cure’ taser dart, she turns into a white lady with dark brown to black hair, but Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique is blonde throughout First Class. My theory is that Raven is a brunette by default, but simply preferred blonde because it’s considered more beautiful (she grew up in the war and ’50s after all).

As Erik points out later in First Class, young Mystique is always using 50% of her mind to normalize her appearance, but that does not indicate that her ‘normal’ appearance is her own. She either puts it on by choice or has simply gone so long with it she’s forgotten what she actually looks like (I don’t think it’s the latter, she’s still Mystique no matter how hammered she tended to get). When stripped of the ability to keep up her appearance, her hair automatically turns black and short (since the X gene manifests at puberty, it is possible she had short black hair in pre-pubescence and she probably doesn’t have the gene to grow or carry out programmed cell death, so she doesn’t die, just replicate cells on injury).

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