10 Biggest Differences Between The MCU Timeline & Fox's X-Men Timeline After Deadpool & Wolverine

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine.

Summary

Deadpool & Wolverine
confirmed that Fox’s X-Men Universe has been designated Earth-10005.
Earth-10005 is very different from the MCU’s main universe of Earth-616.
Biggest differences between Earth-10005 and Earth-616 include the exist of the Avengers in one, but not the other, and vice versa for the X-Men, though this will soon change.

Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine confirmed the existence of Earth-10005, which is very different from the primary universe of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Earth-616. Since the dawn of the Multiverse Saga, Marvel has showcased many different universes in the MCU. Many of these, such as Earth-838 in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Monica Rambeau’s new universe in The Marvels, have been completely new. However, Marvel has also confirmed the designation for 20th Century Fox’s X-Men Universe, naming it Earth-10005.

This designation was officially confirmed in Deadpool & Wolverine, which revealed that Earth-10005 is another alternate reality across the MCU’s multiverse. This ties all of Fox’s previous X-Men franchise movies into the MCU, which could allow heroes, such as Deadpool, Wolverine and many others, to return in the MCU’s future. Earth-10005 is very different from the MCU’s main reality, which was confirmed to be Earth-616 in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

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10 Earth-616 Is The MCU’s Sacred Timeline

Earth-616 Has Become The Most Important Universe

While many different universes have been explored throughout the Multiverse Saga, including Earth-10005, Loki season 1 revealed that Earth-616 is the primary reality of the MCU. Known as the Sacred Timeline, Earth-616 was the timeline that He Who Remains isolated following the Multiversal War. He then established the Time Variance Authority as an organization to protect the Sacred Timeline and deal with any variants that appear, stopping any Kang variants from threatening Earth-616.

The Sacred Timeline was burst open following He Who Remains’ death in Loki season 1, and Loki’s heroic sacrifice in season 2 means the infinite branching realities of the multiverse can live alongside each other. Even so, recent MCU projects, specifically Deadpool & Wolverine, have still referred to Earth-616 as the Sacred Timeline. This means that Earth-616 is still considered the most important reality in the MCU, which means that this universe will likely continue past the Multiverse Saga, while others, such as Earth-10005, may not.

9 Earth-10005’s Continuity Is Much More Confusing

20th Century Fox’s X-Men Franchise Timeline Was A Mess

For the most part, Marvel Studios has managed to avoid any major continuity errors and plot holes in the MCU’s 16-year history, creating a clear continuity. This hasn’t been the case for 20th Century Fox’s X-Men Universe, as the franchise, comprising 13 movies over two decades, contained many confusing continuity problems. This wasn’t helped by Fox’s attempts to try and fix Earth-10005’s timeline, specifically in X-Men: Days of Future Past, which only confused the franchise’s timeline even further.

Earth-10005-Set Movie	Year	Director
X-Men	2000	Bryan Singer
X2: X-Men United	2003	Bryan Singer
X-Men: The Last Stand	2006	Brett Ratner
X-Men Origins: Wolverine	2009	Gavin Hood
X-Men: First Class	2011	Matthew Vaughn
The Wolverine	2013	James Mangold
X-Men: Days of Future Past	2014	Bryan Singer
Deadpool	2016	Tim Miller
X-Men: Apocalypse	2016	Bryan Singer
Logan	2017	James Mangold
Deadpool 2	2018	David Leitch
Dark Phoenix	2019	Simon Kinberg
The New Mutants	2020	Josh Boone
Deadpool & Wolverine	2024	Shawn Levy

2011’s X-Men: First Class was originally planned to be a simple prequel to the original X-Men trilogy. However, it created some serious continuity problems by connecting Charles Xavier and Mystique as children, and putting Wolverine on Professor X and Magneto’s radar much earlier than first thought. This spurred a revision of the entire timeline in X-Men: Days of Future Past. It was first thought that several projects in the franchise took place in different timelines, but Deadpool & Wolverine lumped them all into Earth-10005, perhaps creating more confusion.

8 Captain America Was Earth-616’s First Celebrity Superhero

Captain America Doesn’t Exist In Earth-10005

While Earth-10005 saw mutants and the X-Men become celebrities throughout the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, Marvel Studios’ first celebrity superhero emerged much earlier. 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger marked Steve Rogers’ transformation into the super-soldier Captain America, and he quickly became a well-known figure as took down a HYDRA operative and embarked on a national USO tour. Captain America became such a public figure that his legend would live on for decades after his presumed death.

SHIELD agent Phil Coulson was a huge fan of Captain America, having collected all of his vintage trading cards. These were ultimately used to urge the Avengers to officially band together.

The fact that Captain America didn’t emerge during World War II in Earth-10005 meant that the concept of superheroes wasn’t at the forefront of anybody’s minds when mutants began to exhibit their extraordinary gifts. Had Captain America been around a few decades before the X-Men’s emergence, the mutant team might have faced less discrimination and fewer attacks. Captain America and the X-Men live alongside each other in Marvel Animation’s X-Men ’97 universe, but not in Earth-10005.

7 Mutants Are Common Knowledge In Earth-10005

Mutants Are Very New To The MCU

X-Men: First Class revealed that mutants first came to public knowledge during the 1960s in Earth-10005, and have become more widespread and more well-known since then. Some mutants have even become public figures, while teams such as the X-Men operate as sometime-celebrities. The X-Men’s battles are often very public, such as that against Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants in X-Men: The Last Stand, the attack on President Nixon and Bolivar Trask in Days of Future Past, and their mission to space in Dark Phoenix.

This is a far cry from mutantkind’s existence in the MCU’s Earth-616. Mutants are little-known, having only appeared twice in Earth-616 as of Deadpool & Wolverine’s release. Only Kamala Khan’s Ms. Marvel and Namor have been confirmed to be mutants in the MCU’s main timeline, meaning they are far from common knowledge. Of course, this will soon change, as more mutants are expected to appear in Captain America: Brave New World and subsequent projects, which could begin to reveal them to the public.

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6 Heroes Are Celebrated In Earth-616

Earth-10005’s Heroes Face Discrimination

Themes of discrimination, segregation and racism have always been pivotal to mutant storylines in Marvel Comics, and this was translated perfectly in Fox’s X-Men franchise. These will be important themes to demonstrate in the MCU’s future, too, but there is some confusion about how Marvel Studios will accurately pull this off, as Earth-616’s superheroes are currently celebrated worldwide. The Avengers have saved the world on many occasions, becoming beloved figures in society by many, and they are often idolized because of their gifts.

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The fact that the likes of the Hulk, Doctor Strange and Thor can become popular celebrities in Earth-616, despite their extreme differences to the average human, means introducing mutant discrimination into the MCU will be difficult. This is something that the heroes and villains of Earth-10005 have battled in each one of their movies. This has most notably been an issue in X-Men: The Last Stand, which introduced a mutant cure, X-Men: Days of Future Past, which saw a wartorn future, and Logan, which revealed the mutant gene had been secretly bred out of humanity.

5 Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver Are Magneto’s Children In Earth-10005

MCU’s Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver Are Not Mutants

Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson debuted as Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, in Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s post-credits scene. In a change from their Marvel Comics history, which has also since been retconned, the twins were introduced to the MCU as HYDRA experiments, rather than the mutant children of the Master of Magnetism, Magneto. Olsen’s Scarlet Witch has gone on to fully embrace her gifts, which root from her being a witch in the MCU, but her brother has had a more comic-accurate journey in Earth-10005.

The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were controversially revealed to be genetic experiments of the High Evolutionary in 2015 Marvel Comics story, meaning they were retconned to no longer be mutants, and are no longer the children of Magneto.

While Wanda Maximoff has never actually been named in Earth-10005, she was mentioned in X2: X-Men United and in X-Men: Days of Future Past’s Rogue Cut. Evan Peters’ Quicksilver has had a more prominent role, becoming an official member of the X-Men, and even exploring his familial connection to Magneto. Magneto was confirmed to be Peter and Wanda Maximoff’s father in Earth-10005, though this wasn’t demonstrated to its fullest, which was disappointing. It’s unclear whether this connection will be established in Earth-616 in the MCU’s future.

4 Wolverine Is Earth-10005’s Anchor Being

Earth-616’s Anchor Being Hasn’t Been Revealed

Deadpool & Wolverine introduced the concept of Anchor Beings in the MCU, and revealed Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine to be the Anchor Being of Earth-10005. Anchor Beings are individuals of importance who stabilize their reality simply by existing, which causes their universe to begin to deteriorate after their deaths. Earth-10005’s Wolverine died during 2017’s Logan, which kick-started the deterioration of Earth-10005, leading to the events of Deadpool & Wolverine, as the TVA’s Mr. Paradox wanted to speed up this universe’s death using a “Time Ripper.”

Wolverine’s Movie Appearance	Year	Universe
X-Men	2000	Earth-10005
X2: X-Men United	2003	Earth-10005
X-Men: The Last Stand	2006	Earth-10005
X-Men Origins: Wolverine	2009	Earth-10005
X-Men: First Class	2011	Earth-10005
The Wolverine	2013	Earth-10005
X-Men: Days of Future Past	2014	Earth-10005
X-Men: Apocalypse	2016	Earth-10005
Logan	2017	Earth-10005
Deadpool & Wolverine	2024	TBC

Every reality has an Anchor Being, but while Wolverine fills this role in Earth-10005, the Anchor Being of Earth-616 hasn’t yet been revealed. It seems unlikely that Wolverine would also have this position in the MCU’s main continuity, as Earth-616’s version of the clawed mutant hasn’t debuted. However, theories suggest Earth-616’s Anchor Being could be Peter Parker’s Spider-Man, Steve Rogers’ Captain America or even Tony Stark’s Iron Man, which would mean the universe’s deterioration has already begun, as Stark died during Avengers: Endgame.

3 Earth-10005’s Villains Are Small Compared To Earth-616’s

The MCU’s Villains Have Threatened The Entire Universe (Or Multiverse)

One of the biggest differences between Earth-616 and Earth-10005 has been in the grandeur of the two different universes. The X-Men faced some terrifying villains in Fox’s two-decade-long franchise, but these antagonists paled in comparison to the villains of the MCU. The likes of Magneto, William Stryker, the Brotherhood of Mutants, Sebastian Shaw, the Silver Samurai, the Sentinels and Ajax presented small-scale, grounded threats to the X-Men and Earth-10005’s other mutants, but the MCU’s villains have threatened the entire universe, and even multiverse.

Apocalypse was perhaps Earth-10005’s biggest villain, but even he focused his attention on Earth, which was a far smaller goal than many of Earth-616’s foes.

Thanos was set up as the primary antagonist of the MCU’s Infinity Saga, and he managed to wipe out half the population of the universe in Avengers: Infinity War. For the Multiverse Saga, Kang the Conqueror was seen wiping out entire timelines, the TVA can easily prune branching realities, and Robert Downey Jr.’s upcoming Doctor Doom is expected to branch across the multiverse, too. Other villains, including Malekith, Loki, Dormammu and Kaecilius, Ego, the Dweller-in-Darkness, the Scarlet Witch and the High Evolutionary, among others, have also posed a danger to more than their own corner of the universe.

2 The Avengers Don’t Exist In Earth-10005

Only Mutant Heroes Exist In Earth-10005

While the Avengers have become the core superhero team of the MCU’s Earth-616 since they first came together in 2012’s The Avengers and saved New York, this beloved team doesn’t exist in Earth-10005. The only heroes featured in Earth-10005 have been mutants, so the X-Men have become that reality’s version of the Avengers, with an ever-changing line-up, just like the MCU team. Earth-10005 seems to have fared well without the Avengers, but the presence of this superhero team could have been crucial in many battles.

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The only hero from Earth-10005 who has been confirmed to have knowledge of the Avengers is Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool. Wade Wilson’s fourth wall breaking antics mean he knows about the MCU’s primary superhero team, and Deadpool & Wolverine revealed that he even traveled to Earth-616 in the weeks before Avengers: Infinity War in hopes of joining the then-separated team. He was obviously unsuccessful, but this may have teased his inclusion in the Avengers in the MCU’s future.

1 The X-Men Don’t Exist In Earth-616 (Yet)

The X-Men Will Soon Appear In The MCU

While Earth-10005 might be without the Avengers team, this universe has the X-Men, which is something that the MCU’s Earth-616 can’t claim. Mutants and the X-Men have always been at the core of 20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise, and the X-Men team has been through many iterations following its formation in the 1960s-set X-Men: First Class. When first introduced in 2000, the X-Men team comprised Professor X, Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops and Jean Grey, but none of these heroes have yet been seen in the MCU’s main continuity.

Marvel Studios has confirmed the development of an X-Men reboot for the MCU, meaning the titular superhero team will soon be joining Earth-616, officially. This will be a huge transition for the MCU, which has focused on non-mutant heroes throughout its entire history. Introducing a reinvented version of the X-Men team into live-action will be an adjustment for audiences, but this will help to keep the stories and characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe fresh and exciting, and can eliminate this difference between Earth-616 and Earth-10005.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a multimedia superhero franchise that began in 2008 with Paramount’s Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. The franchise quickly grew in popularity, with Disney eventually buying out Marvel Entertainment in 2009. The MCU consists of dozens of movies and TV shows, most notably Avengers: Endgame, WandaVision, and Loki.

Created by Kevin Feige Upcoming Films Deadpool & Wolverine , Captain America: Brave New World , Thunderbolts (2025) , Blade (2025) , The Fantastic Four (2025) , Avengers 5 , Avengers: Secret Wars Upcoming TV Shows Agatha: Coven of Chaos , Ironheart , Daredevil: Born Again , Wakanda , Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man , Marvel Zombies , Wonder Man , Vision Quest

Upcoming MCU Movies	Release Date
Captain America: Brave New World	February 14, 2025
Thunderbolts*	May 2, 2025
The Fantastic Four: First Steps	July 25, 2025
Blade	November 7, 2025
Avengers: Doomsday	May 1, 2026
Avengers: Secret Wars	May 7, 2027

10 Biggest Differences Between The MCU Timeline & Fox’s X-Men Timeline After Deadpool & Wolverine