The best way to watch the X-Men movies for the first time is in release order, beginning with X-Men (2000) and continuing through Deadpool & Wolverine (2024).
That sounds simple until you actually start watching.
The X-Men franchise contains an original trilogy, Wolverine solo movies, prequels, time travel, a rewritten timeline, Deadpool spin-offs and a future-set Logan. Deadpool & Wolverine then connects parts of the old Fox universe with Marvel Studios’ multiverse.
So there is no single perfectly chronological X-Men timeline.
For a first viewing, release order preserves character introductions, major deaths, surprises and the impact of X-Men: Days of Future Past. If you have already seen the movies, chronological order can be a fun way to revisit Charles Xavier, Magneto, Wolverine, Jean Grey and the wider mutant story.
X-Men movies in order at a glance
| No. | Movie | Release Year | Part of the Franchise |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | X-Men | 2000 | Original Trilogy |
| 2 | X2: X-Men United | 2003 | Original Trilogy |
| 3 | X-Men: The Last Stand | 2006 | Original Trilogy |
| 4 | X-Men Origins: Wolverine | 2009 | Wolverine |
| 5 | X-Men: First Class | 2011 | Prequel Series |
| 6 | The Wolverine | 2013 | Wolverine |
| 7 | X-Men: Days of Future Past | 2014 | Timeline Crossover |
| 8 | Deadpool | 2016 | Deadpool |
| 9 | X-Men: Apocalypse | 2016 | Prequel Series |
| 10 | Logan | 2017 | Wolverine |
| 11 | Deadpool 2 | 2018 | Deadpool |
| 12 | Dark Phoenix | 2019 | Prequel Series |
| 13 | The New Mutants | 2020 | X-Men Spin-Off |
| 14 | Deadpool & Wolverine | 2024 | Deadpool / MCU Multiverse |
If you are watching everything for the first time, follow this exact order.
X-Men movies in release order
1. X-Men (2000)
The modern live-action X-Men franchise begins with X-Men.
The movie introduces Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier, Ian McKellen’s Magneto, Halle Berry’s Storm, Famke Janssen’s Jean Grey and James Marsden’s Cyclops.
Its central conflict establishes the idea that defines much of the franchise: mutants are becoming part of human society, but fear of their abilities has created a political and social divide.
Professor Xavier believes humans and mutants can coexist. Magneto believes mutants must protect themselves before humanity eventually turns against them.
Wolverine and Rogue enter that conflict from the outside, making them useful audience characters for discovering Xavier’s school and the larger mutant world.
2. X2: X-Men United (2003)
X2 expands the story beyond the ideological conflict between Xavier and Magneto.
A direct attack on Xavier’s school forces former enemies to cooperate against a threat targeting mutants as a group. Wolverine also begins learning more about the mysterious experiments behind his adamantium skeleton and missing memories.
Jean Grey becomes increasingly important, especially as the film begins laying groundwork for the Phoenix storyline.
3. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
The original trilogy concludes with two major conflicts.
A supposed mutant “cure” divides the mutant community, while Jean Grey returns with dangerous powers that become associated with the Phoenix.
That combination pushes Xavier, Magneto, Wolverine and the X-Men toward a confrontation that permanently changes several characters.
Although later movies alter parts of this history, The Last Stand remains essential to understanding Wolverine’s emotional journey into The Wolverine and several references made much later in the franchise.
4. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
The first Wolverine solo film goes backward in time.
It explores Logan’s childhood, his relationship with Victor Creed, his involvement with military operations and the Weapon X experiment that bonds adamantium to his skeleton.
The movie also introduces an early version of Wade Wilson, although the Deadpool films later treat the character very differently.
Because the X-Men continuity changes after Days of Future Past, not every detail introduced here fits neatly with later movies.
5. X-Men: First Class (2011)
First Class moves the franchise back to the early 1960s and introduces younger versions of Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr.
James McAvoy plays Charles while Michael Fassbender takes over as Erik, years before he becomes the Magneto seen in the original trilogy.
Their friendship is the heart of the movie.
Charles wants to build cooperation between mutants and humans. Erik has already experienced the worst of humanity and believes mutants need to be prepared to defend themselves.
The movie also introduces younger Mystique and Beast and explains how Xavier and Magneto move from allies toward ideological opponents.
6. The Wolverine (2013)
The Wolverine takes place after X-Men: The Last Stand.
Logan is emotionally damaged by Jean Grey’s death and has distanced himself from the X-Men. His journey to Japan forces him to confront both his grief and the possibility of losing the healing ability that has made him effectively ageless.
This movie becomes especially important because its ending leads toward X-Men: Days of Future Past.
7. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
This is the movie that changes everything.
A devastated future is dominated by Sentinels capable of hunting mutants with terrifying efficiency. To prevent that future, Wolverine’s consciousness is sent back to 1973.
His mission is to bring younger Charles Xavier and Magneto together long enough to stop an event involving Mystique that will eventually help create the Sentinel-controlled future.
The film connects the original X-Men cast with the younger First Class cast and effectively creates a revised history.
That is why trying to put every X-Men film into one simple timeline causes problems.
There is a before Days of Future Past timeline and a revised timeline created by its ending.
8. Deadpool (2016)
Ryan Reynolds returns as Wade Wilson, but this is effectively a fresh version of Deadpool rather than a continuation of the character seen in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
After an experimental treatment activates his healing abilities and leaves him severely scarred, Wade becomes Deadpool and goes after the man responsible.
The movie exists inside the broader X-Men world. Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead appear, Xavier’s school is part of the story, and Deadpool openly jokes about the franchise’s confusing continuity.
Those jokes are important. The Deadpool movies acknowledge X-Men canon without always obeying it perfectly.
9. X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
The revised prequel timeline continues into the 1980s.
An ancient mutant called Apocalypse awakens and recruits powerful followers, including Magneto.
The movie introduces younger versions of several characters audiences already know from the original trilogy, including Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm and Nightcrawler.
It also continues the relationship between Charles, Erik and Mystique after the events of Days of Future Past.
10. Logan (2017)
Logan takes place in a bleak future where very few mutants remain.
An ageing Logan is caring for an increasingly vulnerable Charles Xavier when he encounters Laura, a young mutant whose abilities closely resemble his own.
The movie works as a deeply personal conclusion to Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine story rather than another traditional team-based X-Men adventure.
It is technically connected to the wider Fox universe, but its future does not fit every other movie without contradictions. It is better to treat Logan as a possible future branch rather than forcing every detail into a single timeline.
11. Deadpool 2 (2018)
The second Deadpool movie expands Wade’s corner of the mutant universe.
Cable arrives from the future to kill a young mutant named Russell, forcing Deadpool to build a team that eventually becomes his version of X-Force.
The movie also uses time travel for comedy, including scenes that deliberately rewrite or mock earlier franchise events.
At this point, strict continuity becomes even less useful. Deadpool understands that he is part of an X-Men movie franchise and regularly treats the timeline as something he can joke about.
12. Dark Phoenix (2019)
Dark Phoenix takes the younger X-Men into 1992 and gives Jean Grey another version of the Phoenix story.
Sophie Turner’s Jean encounters a cosmic force that dramatically increases her abilities while making those powers increasingly difficult to control.
The story revisits ideas previously explored with Famke Janssen’s Jean in The Last Stand, but because Days of Future Past changed history, this is effectively a different version of those events.
13. The New Mutants (2020)
The New Mutants is one of the most standalone entries in the Fox X-Men universe.
Instead of focusing on Xavier’s established team, the movie follows young mutants including Dani Moonstar, Rahne Sinclair, Illyana Rasputin, Sam Guthrie and Roberto da Costa inside a mysterious medical facility.
It mixes superhero elements with psychological horror.
There are connections to the wider mutant world, but you do not need The New Mutants to understand the main Xavier, Magneto or Wolverine storyline.
14. Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Deadpool & Wolverine brings Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool together with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine while expanding the story into Marvel Studios’ multiverse.
The film uses the Time Variance Authority and multiple realities rather than pretending that every previous X-Men movie belongs to one perfectly consistent timeline.
That makes it less of a traditional “X-Men 14” and more of a bridge between the Fox Marvel era and Marvel Studios’ multiverse storytelling.
Marvel describes the story as Wade Wilson being pulled back into action to protect his homeworld while convincing a reluctant Wolverine to help him.
For viewers continuing beyond the Fox films, our complete Marvel movies in order guide explains where Deadpool & Wolverine sits within the wider MCU viewing experience.
X-Men movies in chronological order
Chronological order is much more complicated because the franchise rewrites its own history.
A practical story-based order is:
- X-Men: First Class
- X-Men: Days of Future Past
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine
- X-Men: Apocalypse
- Dark Phoenix
- X-Men
- X2: X-Men United
- X-Men: The Last Stand
- The Wolverine
- Deadpool
- Deadpool 2
- The New Mutants
- Logan
- Deadpool & Wolverine
However, this list needs an important warning.
Watching Days of Future Past second means seeing future versions of characters before watching the movies that established those versions. That is why chronological order is better for a rewatch, not a first viewing.
It also combines movies from histories that stop fitting together after Wolverine changes the past.
Understanding the two X-Men timelines
The simplest way to understand the franchise is to stop thinking of it as one timeline.
The original X-Men timeline
The original history broadly follows:
X-Men: First Class → X-Men Origins: Wolverine → X-Men → X2 → X-Men: The Last Stand → The Wolverine → the dark future of X-Men: Days of Future Past
This is the world Wolverine is trying to save.
The revised X-Men timeline
When Wolverine travels to 1973 in Days of Future Past, history changes.
The revised path broadly becomes:
X-Men: First Class → 1973 events of Days of Future Past → X-Men: Apocalypse → Dark Phoenix → revised future seen at the end of Days of Future Past
This explains how characters whose stories ended tragically in the original trilogy can appear alive in the changed future.
Where do Deadpool movies fit?
Deadpool technically operates inside the Fox X-Men universe, but his movies intentionally play loose with continuity.
Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead connect him directly to the X-Men world. Deadpool 2 even includes a joke involving the younger X-Men cast.
At the same time, Wade openly comments on actors, studios, timelines and movie franchises.
The best approach is therefore:
Watch Deadpool and Deadpool 2 in release order rather than trying to assign them an exact place in Xavier’s timeline.
That also prepares you naturally for Deadpool & Wolverine.
Where does Logan fit in the X-Men timeline?
Logan takes place in 2029, but treating it as the guaranteed future of every X-Men movie creates continuity problems.
The film works much better as a possible future for Wolverine and Charles Xavier.
Its emotional importance is more straightforward than its timeline placement.
If you care about Wolverine’s complete character journey, watch:
X-Men → X2 → The Last Stand → The Wolverine → Days of Future Past → Logan
That gives you the strongest Wolverine-focused story before moving into Deadpool & Wolverine.
What X-Men movies should you watch before Deadpool & Wolverine?
You do not have to watch all 13 previous X-Men-related movies before Deadpool & Wolverine.
For the shortest useful route, watch:
Deadpool → Deadpool 2 → Logan → Deadpool & Wolverine
That gives you Wade Wilson’s story and the emotional context surrounding Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.
For a fuller experience, add:
X-Men, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Wolverine and X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Those movies make many of the legacy references and Wolverine moments more meaningful.
Are the X-Men movies part of the MCU?
The original Fox X-Men movies were not created as part of the main Marvel Cinematic Universe.
For years, the X-Men films and MCU films operated as separate movie franchises.
Multiverse stories eventually allowed characters and concepts from previously separate Marvel universes to interact. Deadpool & Wolverine makes that relationship much more direct without rewriting the old X-Men movies as if they had always happened inside the MCU’s main timeline.
So if you are following both franchises, think of the classic X-Men movies as legacy Marvel universe viewing, not normal MCU chronological entries.
Our Marvel Movies in Order guide keeps the main MCU sequence separate for exactly this reason.
What happens to the X-Men after the Fox movies?
The mutant story is now becoming increasingly important to Marvel Studios.
One particularly important development is Jean Grey. Spider-Man: Brand New Day introduced Sadie Sink’s version of Jean Grey, giving Marvel Studios a new interpretation of a character previously played by Famke Janssen and Sophie Turner.
You can read our full Sadie Sink as Jean Grey guide for how the character’s new MCU story compares with the earlier X-Men versions.
We also have a complete Spider-Man: Brand New Day cast and story guide covering the movie’s place in Marvel’s current timeline.
The important distinction is that Marvel Studios can introduce new versions of famous mutants without deleting the Fox movies. The multiverse allows the older films to remain their own continuity while new interpretations develop elsewhere.
Should you watch the X-Men movies in release or chronological order?
For your first watch, choose release order.
It lets you discover Wolverine, Xavier, Magneto and Jean Grey in the same way movie audiences originally did. More importantly, the major reveal in Days of Future Past works properly because you already understand both generations of X-Men.
Choose chronological order only if you have already seen most of the franchise and want to compare how events unfold across different decades.
Can you skip any X-Men movies?
If your goal is to understand the complete franchise, watch everything once.
If you are only preparing for Wolverine and Deadpool, you can use the shorter route discussed above.
The New Mutants is the easiest film to watch separately because its characters do not drive the main Xavier-Magneto-Wolverine story.
Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix become more important if you want the complete younger X-Men timeline, particularly the stories of Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm, Mystique, Beast and Magneto.
There is no need to skip movies simply because their timeline becomes inconsistent. Some of the contradictions are a consequence of a franchise that expanded over more than two decades and later used time travel to reshape its history.
What should you watch after the X-Men movies?
After completing the Fox X-Men movies and Deadpool & Wolverine, the natural next step is Marvel Studios’ wider multiverse story.
Start with our Marvel movies watch-order guide if you have not completed the MCU.
Viewers specifically preparing for the next major Avengers story can also read our Avengers: Endgame Encore guide, which covers the 2026 theatrical return of Endgame and its connection to Avengers: Doomsday.
X-Men movies in order FAQs
What is the correct order to watch the X-Men movies?
For first-time viewers, release order is the easiest and most satisfying option. Start with X-Men (2000) and continue through Deadpool & Wolverine (2024).
What is the first X-Men movie chronologically?
X-Men: First Class is the best starting point for chronological viewing because most of its story takes place in 1962.
Why is the X-Men timeline so confusing?
The biggest reason is X-Men: Days of Future Past. Wolverine changes events in 1973, creating a revised history that allows later films to contradict or replace events from the original trilogy.
Is X-Men Origins: Wolverine before X-Men?
Yes. Most of X-Men Origins: Wolverine takes place before the events of the original X-Men movie, although the film also includes scenes from much earlier periods of Logan’s life.
Is First Class a prequel to X-Men?
Yes. X-Men: First Class explores younger versions of Charles Xavier and Magneto and takes place decades before the original X-Men trilogy.
Does Days of Future Past reset the X-Men timeline?
Yes. Wolverine travels back to 1973 and changes a crucial chain of events, resulting in a revised future.
Is Logan the last X-Men movie chronologically?
Logan is set in 2029 and represents one possible future for Wolverine and Charles Xavier. Because the franchise contains altered timelines and multiverse elements, it is safer not to describe it as the unavoidable ending of every X-Men continuity.
Is Deadpool part of X-Men?
Yes, Deadpool’s movies exist within the broader Fox mutant franchise and directly feature X-Men characters such as Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead. However, Deadpool intentionally jokes about and bends the franchise’s continuity.
Do I need to watch X-Men before Deadpool?
No. The first Deadpool works without watching the main X-Men films, although knowing the franchise makes several jokes and references more enjoyable.
Do I need to watch all the X-Men movies before Deadpool & Wolverine?
No. Deadpool, Deadpool 2 and Logan provide the most useful short preparation. Watching the earlier Wolverine and X-Men movies gives additional emotional context and makes more legacy references recognizable.
Is Deadpool & Wolverine an X-Men movie or MCU movie?
It is a Marvel Studios MCU movie starring characters strongly connected to the Fox X-Men universe. Its multiverse story allows those previously separate worlds to interact rather than treating the original X-Men films as ordinary MCU timeline entries.
Are the old X-Men movies still important?
Yes. They establish versions of Wolverine, Professor X, Magneto, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm and many other mutants that influenced superhero movies for more than two decades. Their importance also increased again as Marvel’s multiverse stories began revisiting characters from earlier Marvel film franchises.