Well, Vaughn himself has already said that he doesn't care about continuity so much, or about X3 or Wolverine.
If it was a different filmverse, why does it still feature Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, and a big round Cerebro, and a blue-scaled Mystique, and the exact same opening footage from X1? This is just a prequel with some relaxed continuity, not a "clean slate".
Exactly. This isn't a "reboot" in any sense of the word.
Are there continuity errors? Yes. But it's really nothing that warrants a "reboot".
The opening sequence is ripped directly from
X-Men, step for step. Obviously it's not rebooting the franchise, since it's literally using material from the franchise for source.
The only thing that contradicts
X-Men: The Last Stand is some timeline issues regarding when Xavier and Magneto recruited for the X-Men, and when they had their falling out and Xavier was crippled. The essence of their friendship remains in tact: Xavier and Magneto recruited students for their school together. As far as the timeline - the movies have always had a very loose timeline, since the moment the movies were first set "In the not too distant future". There is debate over just when that places those movies, with the only physical evidence being pre-2001 due to a New York skyline shot in
X-Men that features the twin towers. Obviously, however, that's an unintentional timeline setting, since there was no way Singer could have known about the 9/11 attacks over a year after his film was released.
As far as the other
X-Men: The Last Stand "contradiction" - yes Beast looks different in
X-Men: First Class than he does
X-Men: The Last Stand - a man who is obviously concerned about his appearance, young when he first mutates, but 40 years later is holding a position in the President's cabinet, it's reasonable to assume that he would take measures to alter his appearance. He is obviously knowledgeable on mutation (something that doesn't contradict
X-Men: The Last Stand, since he is first seen reading a Scientific American magazine, thus showing his interest in science). Also, Beast's story arc in
X-Men: First Class fits in perfectly with his character arc in
X-Men: The Last Stand - the mutant who actually defends the idea of the cure, because not all mutants can hide their mutations so easily. Beast translates perfectly from
X-Men: First Class to
X-Men: The Last Stand.
And as far as Emma Frost goes - Emma Frost wasn't even *named* in
X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Except for a name spot in the commercials, there's no way of solidifying her as *THE* Emma Frost. Yea, her powers are the same. But these movies have shown us (as well as the comics) that there are definitely more than one mutant out there with the same powers. These movies have shown us *4* different mutants who teleport. They've shown us at least *3* mutants with telepathic abilities. We've seen 3 / 4 (considering if you count
X-Men's Sabretooth and
X-Men Origins: Wolverine's Victor Creed as the same character, or 2 separate characters) mutants with healing powers. So, some blonde girl in
X-Men Origins: Wolverine turned to diamond, and
X-Men: First Class has a blonde woman who turns to diamond, has telepathic abilities, and is named Emma Frost.
I'd certainly prefer to see a character of Emma Frost's importance given actual character development and fleshed into a full character, instead of her getting a nameless blink-and-you-missed-it cameo.
Are there continuity issues? Yes. But nothing that call for a reboot. And there have been continuity issues all throughout the series, so it's nothing new.
It's a movie franchise based on nearly 50 years of comics, that have had various retcons, and numerous timelines of it's own. It's had countless writers and artists, and now the film franchise of 11 years and 5 movies has spanned 4 directors, many, MANY different writers, and varying directors. Continuity issues are inevitable.
Most movies aren't
Lord of the Rings, which are really just one big movie broken up into 3 different installments. Most movies aren't even
Star Wars. Yes, I love that kind of continuity from movie franchises, but unfortunately, the
X-Men series just never reached that level of continuity. But just because "reboot" is Hollywood's new "buzzword" to justify their lack of creativity (which is exactly what I consider a reboot to be - a lack of creativity - Nolan's
Batman series being the exception to the rule) doesn't mean every movie with a continuity error is a reboot.
