When & Where Was Charles Xavier Born?

Professor X is certainly one of the most popular mutants in Marvel comics and, as such, has a pretty storied history and biography. Charles Xavier is a geneticist, teacher, leader of X-Men, adventurer, and a former soldier. It’s exactly these details from his personal life that led the fans to ask themselves how Charles found the time to do all these things and how old he is anyway. This is why we set out to explore exactly when & where Charles Xavier was born, both in the comics and in the X-Men movie franchise. 

In the comics, Charles Xavier was born in New York City. However, the exact year of his birth is difficult to determine due to the fact that Marvel uses a sliding time scale and due to numerous inconsistencies in the origin story. X-Men movie series, however, states that Charles Xavier was born in London in 1932 and is 91 years old in the original timeline and 97 years old in the revised timeline. 

Now that we’ve given you a brief answer, it’s time to analyze it in more detail. If you’re interested in more detail regarding Professor X’s origin story, stay with us and keep reading!

It’s difficult to determine in the comics when Charles was born 

Charles Xavier is a fairly old character, meaning that he is subjected to a sliding timeline in order for the events from his past to appear more recent than they really are. There are also several inconsistencies regarding his origin story and when some important events happened in his past. Those inconsistencies are due to different storylines, writers, and generally not keeping an accurate timeline because it wasn’t deemed important at the time. 

This is why we have different takes on Xavier’s origin story, including his age. Charles Xavier was born in New York City to Dr. Brian Xavier, a famed and wealthy Nuclear Researcher, and his wife Sharon Xavier. In some storylines, Xavier had powers while he gestated inside his mother’s womb, which is why he was able to sense his malevolent twin sister. 

Xavier also claimed on several instances that his powers came as a side-effect of his parent(s) working on the Manhattan Project, but he was also subject to Mr. Sinster’s experimentation from a young age since The Nuclear Research Facility where Dr. Xavier worked in Alamogordo, New Mexico was actually a front for genetic mutations. 

If Xavier’s powers are truly the result of Nuclear testing, he would have to be either born or conceived around 1942 if his parents truly did take part in the Manhattan Project, but, alas, it’s not so simple. 

In ‘X-Men’ #117, Xavier claims that he was sent to fight in the Korean War, and this aspect of his history is important as it’s basically when Moira MacTaggert breaks up with him. Considering that the Korean War traces its beginning to 1945, you can see how Xavier would be too young to take part in it if his powers were the result of the Manhattan Project.

It’s really confusing, but these are the consequences of some retcons and the sliding timeline. The only “factual” thing that we can rely on when taking into account Xavier’s years is the fact that he graduated from University when he was merely 16 years old. We also know that he founded Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in 1962. However, his exact age at that point is unknown. 

Determining Xavier’s biological age is even harder, what with cases of dying and the X-Men mutant resurrection protocol that effectively makes Xavier far younger than biologically he really is.

We may not know with certainty how old Xavier is, but we do know that he was born in New York City and that he spent most of his childhood following his father’s death at his ancestral mansion in Westchester. Following the deaths of his mother and his stepfather, Dr. Marko Xavier would go on to be abused by his step-brother, Cain Marko, for the majority of his teen years. His step-brother would go on to become the infamous Juggernaut, while Xavier would spend the majority of his life adventuring and eventually start Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.

How old is Charles Xavier in X-Men movies? 

Even though there are some significant differences between the cinematic version of Charles Xavier and the comic one, in Fox’s X-Men movie franchise, we have a good idea of when & where Charles was really born. 

In the X-Men movies, Charles was born in London in 1932. His powers started kicking in when he was nine years old in 1941, and at the age of 12 in 1944, he met Raven, aka Mystique.

By the time he was 30 in 1962, he had finished his thesis on genetic mutations and was approached by Moira MacTaggert to stop Sebastian Shaw. At the age of 33, in 1965, Xavier opened the Xavier School of Gifted Youngsters. Due to the Vietnam War, the school closed down by the early 1970s due to many of its students being drafted into the war. 

The early 1970s was also when Xavier started living his reclusive life. Today, Charles Xavier would’ve been 91 years old according to the original timeline and 97 years old according to the revised timeline. This is understandable, considering that the X-Men timeline is hell at this point. 

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