How to watch the X-Men“ ”movies in chronological order

While not often getting the most credit among superhero franchises with staying power, the X-Men deserve a spot right alongside icons like Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man. The mutants of the X-Men universe have populated the big screen since 2000’s X-Men, when many audience members first met such characters as Wolverine, Charles Xavier, Magneto, and Storm. Two sequels shortly followed, then a prequel trilogy, some solo Wolverine entries, and spinoffs, expanding the property to billion-dollar heights.

Though a Marvel Comics entity, the first 13 X-Men movies were released by 20th Century Fox and Marvel Entertainment, with Marvel Studios getting the rights in 2019 when Disney bought Fox. It was only then that the X-Men started their integration into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with select characters woven into the plot of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) and mid-credits scene of The Marvels (2023). Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) was the first X-Men-centered movie to be released under the MCU umbrella, and the original X-Men will return en masse in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday (2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027).

A post–Secret Wars X-Men reboot film is already in the works from Thunderbolts* (2025) director Jake Schreier, which will serve as the 15th film in the franchise. As we anticipate the return of our favorite mutants, we’re providing a handy guide to watching the first 14 X-Men films (all available on Disney+) in chronological order of events, from the prequels to Deadpool & Wolverine.

X-Men: First Class (2011)

Before Xavier and Magneto became lifelong enemies, they were brothers. Set during the 1960s, ahead of the Cuban Missile Crisis, X-Men: First Class tells the origin story of Charles Xavier/Professor X (James McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and how they founded the Brotherhood of Mutants, which would become the X-Men. The idea of creating a safer environment for mutants in a discriminatory human society is shattered when Lehnsherr’s foe, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), returns and threatens to start a nuclear war.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Days of Future Past ties together the First Class prequel and the original X-Men movie in an epic time-traveling tale. In the distant future, 2023, the world is dominated by mutant-killing sentinels; Xavier (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), and the X-Men send Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine back in time to the ’70s. There, Wolverine must reunite the younger Xavier (McAvoy) and Magneto (Fassbender) and convince them to stop Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from assassinating Sentinel creator Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), which alters the fate of mutant-kind. 

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

The story of Wolverine/Logan stretches back to 1845, when he was a young boy (Troye Sivan, the only other actor to ever play Logan), but is primarily set during the 1970s, when he was a member of a mutant mercenary unit called Team X. The film chronicles how Logan (Jackman) underwent the ultimate claw upgrade, transitioning from wooden to adamantium claws thanks to Team X founder William Stryker (Danny Huston). Upon Logan’s departure from Team X, however, his brother Victor Creed/Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber) and Stryker terrorize him by killing his girlfriend, Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins), prompting Logan to vow vengeance against them both.

Incidentally, Ryan Reynolds appears here as Wade Wilson, a version of Wilson who infamously has his mouth sewn shut and shoots CG lasers. But even Reynolds wants you to forget that.

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

After Wolverine’s efforts of fixing the entire timeline in Days of Future Past, the First Class team took the torch as the face for the franchise and entered a new timeline of their own.

Jumping from the ’70s to the ’80s Apocalypse follows Xavier’s (McAvoy) new X-Men team — Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) as they, along with Raven (Lawrence), must stop En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) and his new four horsemen — Angel (Ben Hardy), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Magneto (Fassbender), and Psylocke (Olivia Munn) — from causing worldwide destruction. 

X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)

Dark Phoenix retells Jean Grey’s Phoenix tale in a new light. Set a decade following Apocalypse, the X-Men are now well-regarded by humans. Jean Grey (Turner) is imbued with powerful cosmic power after a rescue mission in space goes wrong. Once her powers begin to stir out of control and accidentally kill one of their own, it is a race against Xavier (McAvoy) and Magneto (Fassbender) to stop her.

X-Men (2000)

The one that started it all! Where the evolution began. In the first live-action X-Men movie ever made, Rogue (Anna Paquin) learns she’s a mutant and runs away from home. At a bar in Canada, she meets Logan/Wolverine (Jackman), a fellow mutant who’s forgotten his past. The two soon find themselves in the crosshairs between Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants and Charles Xavier’s (Stewart) X-Men. While sheltering at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, Logan and Rogue must collaborate with the rest of the team — Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), Scott Summers/Cyclops (James Marsden), Ororo Munroe/Storm (Halle Berry), and more — to combat Magneto’s plan to eradicate humanity because of its widespread prejudice against mutants. 

X2: X-Men United (2003)

Approximately three years after the events of X-Men, William Stryker (Brian Cox) kidnaps Charles Xavier (Stewart) and steals his tracking machine, Cerebro, for his own nefarious plans to eradicate all mutants. To save Xavier, the X-Men — Jean (Janssen), Rogue (Paquin), Storm (Berry), Cyclops (Marsden), Ice Man (Shawn Ashmore), and Pyro (Aaron Stanford, who returned to the role in Deadpool & Wolverine) — must team up with Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) and Magneto (McKellen). Meanwhile, Logan (Jackman) investigates his past as Stryker brings back memories of his former self.

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

While X2 ended with the presumed death of Jean Grey (Janssen), The Last Stand, which is set a few months afterward, reveals that she is alive and well…but she’s been reborn as the all-powerful Phoenix. With her newfound (and uncontrollable) abilities, Jean heats up the battle between humans and mutants as Magneto (McKellen) uses her to aid his plan for mutant domination. Logan (Jackman) must reunite the remaining X-Men and save the world from Phoenix’s wrath.

The Wolverine (2013)

Logan (Jackman) returns to Canada, living as a recluse and faced with the guilt of killing Jean Grey at the end of The Last Stand. But in The Wolverine, his days of solitude come to an end when he is invited to Tokyo, Japan, to be thanked by an ailing millionaire Ichiro Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi), whom he once saved in 1945. But when Logan arrives, he finds himself involved in a dangerous plot involving the Yakuza, Yashida’s granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto), and the mutant Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova). To add insult to injury, Logan actually suffers injuries, as his healing factor abilities have been tampered with. 

Deadpool (2016)

“McAvoy or Stewart. This timeline is so confusing,” Wade Wilson (Reynolds) notably says about this point in the X-Men timeline. But Deadpool makes it clear, it’s on its own self-contained terms.

Set in modern times, Deadpool tells the origin story of Wade and his transformation from an ailing mercenary to an immortal mutant. However, with great power comes no beauty, as his face is left horrifically scarred from experimentation by psychopath Francis/Ajax (Ed Skein). With the help of X-Men Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), Wade embarks on a bloody and wisecracking revenge quest.

The New Mutants (2020)

The New Mutants might be the only X-Men movie not to have a clear, discernible fit into the X-Men timeline. Though set within the same world, we can blame the Disney-Fox merger, Dark Phoenix‘s performance, numerous release date delays, and reshoots for that. The infamous recycled footage from Logan seemed more like laziness for exposition than a connection to the timeline.

This self-contained mutant spinoff follows five mutant patients — Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane (Maisie Williams), Illyana Rasputin/Magik (Anya Taylor-Joy), Sam Guthrie/Cannonball (Charlie Heaton), Dani Moonstar/Mirage (Blu Hunt), and Bobby da Costa/Sunspot (Henry Zaga) — who wake up in a hospital, are promised that their “recovery” could land them a spot at Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters, and must face their own personal demons to escape.

Deadpool 2 (2018)

While you see the First Class team in a small cameo, it’s best not to think about the timeline too hard, as Deadpool 2 plays by its own rules again. When a fire-bending mutant named Russell (Julian Dennison) is hunted down by a time-traveling cyborg named Cable (Josh Brolin), it’s up to Deadpool (Reynolds) to form a team of mutant heroes and protect him.

Logan (2017)

Logan goes further into the future, beyond the period pieces of the First Class installments and the contemporary-set Deadpool. In the year 2029, when mutants are considered an endangered species, Wolverine/Logan’s (Jackman) age has begun to take its toll. His healing factor is failing him while he cares for Charles Xavier (Stewart), who is living with Alzheimer’s. When their paths cross with Laura (Dafne Keen), a rage-filled mutant with metal claws akin to Logan’s, the two must protect her from Pierce (Boyd Holbrook) and his team that’s hunting her. 

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

The latest X-Men movie, Deadpool & Wolverine follows Wade (Reynolds) as he enters his midlife crisis. But when a TVA boss named Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) threatens to destroy his world, he and a Wolverine variant (Jackman) he nabbed are thrown into a wasteland called “the Void,” ruled by Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin). Together, they must find a way to get back to Wade’s timeline and save his world.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly