Why is Professor X in a wheelchair in X-Men Days of Future Past’s future/present?

Question

In X-Men 3: The Last Stand, which was explicitly in continuity in the timeline from which Wolverine was sent back to the past, Jean destroys Xavier's body.

The answers to How can Professor Xavier be alive? and Why did Professor X smile before being killed by the Phoenix? explain that, as shown in the post-credits scene for The Last Stand, Xavier escapes to a comatose body which is actually his identical twin (hence still played by Patrick Stewart).

But surely this twin would never have received the gunshot wound to the spine which causes his paralysis, so why is he still in a wheelchair?

Thanks guys. Editing the question to concentrate on the one aspect that the linked questions don't answer — Shisa, Jun 30 '14 at 16:16
One does not simply understand what the f— is going on with continuity in the X-Men movies. — Paul D. Waite, Jun 30 '14 at 17:01
If I had a levitating chair, I'd be tempted to use it to go everywhere... As long as it had adequate lumbar support, that is. — Dacio, Jun 30 '14 at 19:08
I don't think this is a duplicate of the other questions, because it's dealing with his lack of mobility in essentially a "fresh" body, not why is he alive. — Monty129, Jun 30 '14 at 21:06
Wasn't it more like a psychosomatic issue, and not a physical one? He could physically walk, but would experience agonising pain... http://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/13399/21267 — Möoz, Jul 01 '14 at 01:57
You're assuming facts not in evidence, how do you know DoFP was in the same reality as X-Men Last Stand? In the books it was eventually implied that the reality from the DoFP story arc might have taken place in the future of Earth-811 not the prime reality of Earth-616. — 22nd Century Fza, Jul 01 '14 at 04:38
@22ndCenturyFza: That fact is very very much in evidence in the movie: as seen by when 70s Charles mindreads Logan and sees the events of X3. How does Logan remember events of X3 if he's not from the same reality? — Shisa, Jul 01 '14 at 06:40
@22ndCenturyFza: I am very familiar with the concept of both parallel universes in general and marvel multiverse in particular. Which is why I ask you how the hell can Wolvie have memories of a reality from which he does not hail. — Shisa, Jul 01 '14 at 06:53
@Shisa - forgive me but from your comments you do seem to need some more information on Parallel Universes as you cannot be sure what reality/universe Logan hails from. For all we know every X-Men movie could be a different reality like all the Space Odyssey books. — 22nd Century Fza, Jul 01 '14 at 07:05

DoctorWho22 · Answer 1 · 2014-06-30T19:10:34.867

The reason for this is because Xavier transferred his body into his comatose brain dead twin. It's implied by movie makers that the comatose patient was in fact his twin.

http://marvel.wikia.com/Charles_Xavier_(Earth-10005)

In the beginning of X-Men: The Last Stand, Xavier was teaching a class about mutant ethics and used a case study of Moira's with the very same patient on whether or not it was ethical to put the mind of a dead psychic into the body of a comatose patient, who according to movie-makers was Xavier's twin brother, whose psyche was erased due to growing Professor X's powers during the prenatal state. In the comic books, Xavier had a twin sister, yet during screenplay writing the idea of a sister was changed to a brother, for obvious reasons.

It was implied that the comatose patient was born like that... It was like his body was an empty slate. If this is the case we can assume that the patient's body never really formed properly and most of his body was never used to walking or even standing... His muscles could be atrophied to the point that they do not work so he's effectively paraplegic...

It's a possibility to think of, I guess - though if Charles' twin's body was a paraplegic / suffering from general atrophy, wouldn't he he having trouble with his arms and upper body etc., too? — Shisa, Jul 01 '14 at 06:45
It could be that they were able to do physical therapy to the point that he had some form of mobility but for the most part is confined to the wheelchair. It's also possible that when he transferred himself into the body, since the brother was like a complete blank slate it was as if he just copied himself into that body including all physical maladies. — DoctorWho22, Jul 02 '14 at 14:20

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:43

5

It is important to remember, as pointed out by KHW, that Prof. Xavier cannot walk due to a psychosomatic pain as opposed to the widely believed paraplegia.

In the movie X-Men: Days of Future Past we clearly see that young Charles could in fact walk¹, albeit with extreme difficulty and severe pain.

He takes his 'medicine' to numb the pain, which he says is caused due to the overwhelming amount of pain and suffering he hears from other peoples' minds (psychosomatic pain).

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:43

Community

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answered Jul 01 '14 at 02:29

Möoz

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Is this true outside the comics, in the movie continuity as well? Could you supplement your answer with information from the script? – Shisa Feb 27 '15 at 01:57
Not necessarily exactly the same: the psychosomatic part comes from the comics, whereas the 'can walk but just too painful' part comes from X-Men:DoFP. – Möoz Feb 27 '15 at 02:41
Thanks. I don't think comics continuity can be taken as an answer to movies unless explicitly true in the movies continuity too. For the 'can walk too painful' thing from DoFP, do you have a reference? :) – Shisa Feb 27 '15 at 02:53
In the context of this question, we are discussing the movie universe... In X-Men Days of Future Past the medicine wasn't just to numb the pain it was designed to alter the DNA... from what I understand it effectively was capable of curing a paraplegic's injuries possibly... The Professor was simply taking too much of the drug because he wanted to numb the pain of having his powers and failing to actually stop Magneto. – DoctorWho22 May 25 '16 at 22:03

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 25 '16 at 14:34

Because the spine is part of the central nervous system, and when Charles basically transferred his mind into another body, his mind still couldn't make the connection to his spine to tell his legs to move because his mind is permanently injured and stops him from using his legs. It's a mental injury which cannot be healed. Which also explains how the medicine he takes in DoFP lets him walk. It boosts his mind to make that connection to his spine.

Why is Professor X in a wheelchair in X-Men Days of Future Past’s future/present?

3 Answers3