In a time when the Marvel Cinematic Universe dominated the superhero genre and DC followed closely, the X-Men franchise carved out its own unique little niche in third place. While the MCU went all in on jokes and hijinks and DC became too grim and dark for its own good, the X-Men films deftly combined these two characteristics to make a series of films that proudly stand on their own two feet. Below, we show you how to watch the X-Men Movies in Order.
With a total of 14 films released since 2000, the X-Men movie timeline is either a complex web or a jumbled mess, depending on who you ask. Time travel, recasts, younger versions of the same characters, and varying timelines all combine to result in a franchise that was too complicated for its own good. So how does one watch these films in order? Well, let us dive into this conundrum below.
The first option to watch these films is pretty straightforward; one watches the films in the order they were released. This entails watching the first X-Men film, Bryan Singer’s X-Men (2000), as the stepping stone, followed by its well-made sequel, X2: X-Men United (2003). Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) is next, followed by the Wolverine prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009). Your next viewing should be the prequel X-Men: First Class (2011), followed by the second Wolverine film, 2013’s The Wolverine.
This is followed by X-Men: Days of the Future Past (2014), which united both the original trilogy cast and the prequel cast in a fantastic time travel adventure. Deadpool (2016) and X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) are next on the list, followed by Logan (2017). Then comes Deadpool 2 (2018), followed by X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019) and The New Mutants (2020). Finally, it's the turn of 2024’s Deadpool and Wolverine (2024) to round out the list.
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However, if one wants to watch these films in chronological order, then they might have a monumental task on their hands. Ignoring the fact that parts of X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) take place literally thousands of years before the present time, we must take into account the time in which most of each film takes place. By this logic, the story begins with X-Men: First Class (2011), which takes place around the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) is next, since most of it takes place in the 70s. Here, it gets a little tricky as half of Days of Future Past (2014) takes place in the 70s as well, around the end of the Vietnam War. X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) is next, taking place in the 80s, and Dark Phoenix (2019) comes up next, taking place in the 90s.
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The first X-Men (2000) is next, taking place during the time it was released, and so were its two sequels, X-2 (2003) and The Last Stand (2006). The Wolverine (2013) is a direct sequel to The Last Stand, as it finds Wolverine wandering around the globe and landing in Japan in the aftermath of the tragic events of The Last Stand. While technically it is Days of the Future Past that is next (as half of it takes place in 2023), we already listed it above. Thus, we have to round out this story with the spectacular Logan (2017).
In chronological order, the Deadpool films, including Deadpool and Wolverine, are a bit hard to firmly place in time, as it seems they take place in an alternate timeline. Deadpool is aware of both the younger and older versions of the X-Men that we have seen uptill now, is aware of his own disastrous debut in the Wolverine origins film, and several of the younger and older X-Men do indeed appear in these films due to time travel hijinks. Thus, it is best to treat this trilogy as its own thing. The same goes for The New Mutants (2020), which is also hard to pinpoint as it tells its own self-contained story without any specific references to the wider X-Men universe.
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If you found the chronological thing confusing, we might have some more bad news for you. Several of the X-Men characters, played by their original actors, have popped up in MCU films recently as well. This includes Charles Xavier in Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness (2023), Kelsey Grammar’s Beast in The Marvels (2023), and Evan Peters’ Quicksilver in WandaVision (2021). How these characters jumped from the X-Men universe into the MCU has only been vaguely explained through the multiverse, and most people, if not all, consider these characters to be variants of their counterparts in the X-Men franchise, even though they are played by the same actors. Diving into the possibility of the effects these variants have on the original franchise timeline will only turn your brain into mush.
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Still with us? Good. While we’re at it, we should mention that several X-Men from the original trilogy will return in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday (2026), which complicates the timeline even further. Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier, James Marsden’s Cyclops, Rebbeca Romijn’s Mystique, Alan Cumming’s Nightcrawler, and Ian McKellen’s Magneto are part of the cast of the massive team-up film, along with Channing Tatum’s Gambit from Deadpool and Wolverine.
To summarize, for first-timers, we would definitely recommend following the release order to avoid the confusion resulting from recasts and time travel. For die-hard fans who want to give the saga another go, looking under its hood for minute details and trivia, the chronological order is the way to go. The chronological viewing will see jarring recasts and irregular special effects, but it won't matter, as you would have already seen the films in release order before.
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With several of the original X-Men returning in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday (2026), we will surely be waiting with our eyes peeled to see where in the timeline our favourite heroes pop up next. Of course, we will have to update this list once Doomsday hits theatres. Let us know in the comments what you guys think is the best way to watch the X-Men films.
