6 Storylines The X-Men Franchise Started And Never Bothered Finishing

With 17 years of adventures under its belt, the X-Men movie franchise shows no signs of slowing down. It looks like there's another entry in the main series on the way, and there are plenty of spinoffs in various stages of production to fill in the gaps. After nearly 20 years, this franchise has packed in a lot of material, but not everything was necessarily resolved properly. With the upcoming release of Logan, we've decided to look back on the storylines up until this point that have never been finished.

To clarify, this list will be going over plot threads directly started or teased in one of the main X-Men movies or Wolverine spinoffs, rather than continuity problems/inconsistencies. Which, let's be real, the X-Men franchise has A LOT of. Before going any further, we did consider putting Quicksilver and Magneto's father/son relationship on the list since that was unresolved at the end of X-Men: Apocalypse. However, since another X-Men film, reportedly called X-Men: Supernova, is on the horizon, we're holding out hope this side plot will finally be concluded. Oh, and there was also Wade Wilson's severed head at the end of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but there's no need to ever look back on that moment ever again. We have Deadpool now!

Wolverine in X-Men: Days of Future Past

How Wolverine Got His Adamantium Claws Back

In The Wolverine's third act, Silver Samurai used his super-heated adamantium blade to cut off Wolverine's claws. They eventually grew back, but because Wolverine didn't have access to Weapon X resources, they remained in their natural, uncovered bone state for a couple years. However, in X-Men: Days of Future Past, Wolverine's claws are back to being covered in adamantium. What gives? Did Wolverine somehow find himself in another adamantium-bonding procedure while Sentinels were taking over the Earth Did Magneto use his power to coat the claws in the indestructible metal? There are plenty of theories to go around, but since the timeline has been changed, we'll never get a concrete answer.

Yukio in The Wolverine

What Happened To Yukio

Wolverine and Yukio, the precognitive mutant, made a pretty good team in The Wolverine. Keen on keeping their dynamic going, Yukio told Wolverine she would travel with him as his bodyguard. Granted, protecting a guy who can quickly heal is a much easier sign, but it still would have been great to see the two of them adventuring across the globe together. However, in the mid-credits scene, which took place two years after The Wolverine, Yukio is nowhere to be seen. We could attribute that to the two of them somehow being separated at the airport and Yukio having to catch up with Wolverine on another flight, but she was never brought back. What happened to her? Did she and Wolverine have a falling out in those two years? Did Bolivar Trask capture her for experimentation? Regardless, since The Wolverine look like it has been made non-canon, we won't be seeing her again.

Professor X in X-Men: Days of Future Past

How Professor X Reverted To Normal

Okay, technically this one was partly answered. Following his vaporization at the hands of Jean Grey, Professor X was somehow able to transfer his consciousness into the body of the comatose man he talked about with his students earlier in the movie. Keep in mind, though, that X-Men: The Last Stand came out at a time when the superhero movie post-credits scene wasn't popular, so a lot of people (myself included) didn't stick around for that moment. Not only that, but it was only revealed in the DVD commentary that that man was "P. Xavier," Charles' braindead twin brother. So not all the important details were presented up front, but even if we take all those into account, how did Professor X end up back in that wheelchair? Why did it take him so long to re-establish contact with Wolverine? Why does he still have his telepathic powers if he's in a different body? Again, thanks to the changed timeline, it's no longer an issue going forward, but there's a lot of mystery surrounding Xavier from post-The Last Stand to apocalyptic Sentinel times.

The Blob in X-Men Origins: Wolverine boxing gloves

What Happened To Blob

Fred Dukes started out as a well-toned, fit guy when first seen in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but in the years after the disbanding of Team X, he started putting on pounds, and by the time Wolverine reunited with him, he was officially a Blob. Even with that extra weight, as well as his natural mutant power, Fred wasn't able to beat Wolverine in the boxing ring, so he gave the clawed mutant information on where to find Gambit. That's the last we see of Fred in the movie, but later, when John Wraith tells Sabretooth that his creepy black coat doesn't scare him, Sabretooth mentioned that it "worked on Dukes." We can logically assume that Sabretooth intimidated Fred into telling him Wolverine's location, but what then? Did he also kill him? Given that Sabretooth's claws aren't coated in adamantium, it's hard to picture them being able to pierce Fred's flesh. So how exactly did all this go down? Whatever the case, what we do know is in the revised timeline, Blob found himself losing to Angel in a cage fight. So...he wasn't much better off.

Nightcrawler meets Mystique in X-Men: Apocalypse

Nightcrawler's Parentage

The X-Men movies have never actually promised to show who Nightcrawler's mother and father are, but it's surprising why it hasn't been addressed at all. In X2: X-Men United, Nightcrawler and Mystique had a brief conversation about hiding among mutant kind, but there wasn't even a slight tease to indicate that like in the comics, Mystique was Nightcrawler's mother. Okay, that's fine, moving along. Then in X-Men: First Class, Azazel showed up, who has Kurt Wagner's same teleporting power similar skin complexion and prehensile tail. You'd think that with a younger Nightcrawler appearing in X-Men: Apocalypse, they would finally reference who his parents are given that his daddy had appeared two films earlier. Alas, it was not to be. Mystique did save Nightcrawler from those thugs who were forcing him into a cage fight, but once again, there was no indication that she was his mother, and since Azazel was killed off screen between X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past, we wouldn't be hearing anything from him.

Wolverine and Sabretooth claws out X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Wolverine's Feud With Sabretooth

We've left off with Sabretooth on two different occasions in the X-Men movie universe. In 2000's X-Men, he was hit by Cyclops' optic blasts, and we never learned whether he survived or not. Then in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he went his separate ways with Wolverine after they beat Weapon XI, but not before he told his half-brother that only he had the right to kill him. Even if the main events of X-Men Origins: Wolverine have been wiped from continuity, Wolverine and Sabretooth still have history with one another, so it's surprising that their feud hasn't been settled yet. Given that Sabretooth has his own healing factor, he likely survived Cyclops' attack, so where's he been this whole time, and why he hasn't he tried to settle his score with Wolverine? Since Hugh Jackman is playing Wolverine for the last time in Logan, if Sabretooth doesn't pop up for at least a cameo in that spinoff, we won't get any resolution between those two.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.