The Best Order To Watch The X-Men Movies

The X-Men movies are rising in relevance again as mutants continue to appear throughout the Multiverse Saga, but for anyone who wants to revisit the Fox films, there are a couple of possible viewing orders to choose from. The Fox Marvel movie universe contains thirteen different movies, with the oldest being X-Men from 2000, and the most recent, The New Mutants from 2020. These films cover the stories of many X-Men characters from the comics, including some that focus primarily on fan favorites, Wolverine and Deadpool.

The thirteen X-Men movies contain multiple time jumps, with the timeline starting all the way back in 1944, to over eighty years later in 2029. The number of prequels and reboots this timeline includes can make it difficult to follow the continuity of the Fox X-Men movies. The content of these movies is complex when it comes to their time-traveling aspects and different versions of the characters appearing, but the movies do a phenomenal job of focusing on developing the X-Men universe as a whole. Below are two different ways to watch the X-Men movies based on release date order and the film timelines.

How To Watch X-Men Movies In Release Order

• X-Men (2000)
• X2: X-Men United (2003)
• X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
• X-Men: First Class (2011)
• The Wolverine (2013)
• X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
• Deadpool (2016)
• X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
• Logan (2017)
• Deadpool 2 (2018)
• Dark Phoenix (2019)
• The New Mutants (2020)

The release order of these films gets a bit muddled with the timeline once X-Men Origins: Wolverine comes up. This isn’t abnormal to see in large franchises such as the MCU where this also happens quite a bit, and also the Star Wars franchise with the original trilogy taking place after the prequels despite coming out way before them. The stand-alone movies featuring Wolverine and Deadpool hold their connections to the overall universe of the X-Men, but their stories don’t really continue the storylines of the ensemble movies. Especially Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool movies as his character isn’t seen in any of the other movies. However, Reynolds does actually appear in Wolverine’s first solo movie as a much less comic accurate variant of Deadpool, but the solo movies do not follow that version of the character.

It’s worth noting that after the first X-Men trilogy, the following X-Men movies follow most of the original characters, but greater focus is placed on their early years and the formation of the X-Men team. They focus more on the past and how mutants came to be in the world. Hugh Jackman does make a major appearance in X-Men: Days of Future Past, as does Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier and Ian McKellen’s Magneto, but besides that most of the characters are portrayed by new actors or don’t appear at all.

How To Watch X-Men Movies In Chronological Order

• 

  X-Men: First Class

• X-Men: Days of Future Past
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine
• X-Men: Apocalypse
• X-Men: Dark Phoenix
• X-Men
• X2: X-Men United
• X-Men: The Last Stand
• The Wolverine
• Deadpool
• Deadpool 2
• The New Mutants
• Logan

Following the franchise in chronological order does offer a different viewing experience as it opens with early years and origins before continuing into massive battles between armies of mutants. The first half of the list shows the formation of the X-Men up until their final battle in X-Men: The Last Stand. After that, it’s heavily focused on the characters of Wolverine and Deadpool and doesn’t necessarily move forward with the overall group. Despite being put into chronological order, the timeline of these movies is still very difficult to follow.

The New Mutants is the most recent non-MCU Marvel movie from 2020, and it doesn’t really affect the franchise’s overall timeline. It focuses on its own story outside the X-Men, which is very similar to how the two Deadpool films are in this universe. Those three movies can be watched at any point without giving spoilers to the remaining movies.

The Best Viewing Order For X-Men Movies

Ultimately, it comes down to preference. Some individuals prefer to watch a movie franchise in chronological order, so the storytelling flows smoothly. On the other hand, some people enjoy watching movies in a particular universe, like Marvel, based on release dates. A big part of watching a movie franchise in the release order is the quality of the movies usually increases as the list goes on. Not necessarily the plot or the storytelling, but at least with how the visuals look on the screen with HD, color, and so on. The thirteen movies have come out over the course of twenty years, and their visual characteristics do progress throughout that time.

The X-Men movies are all available on Disney+, except for The New Mutants and the first two Wolverine movies, which are available on Amazon Prime Video and a few other streaming platforms. There is no right or wrong way to watch them as again, it all comes down to preference. Perhaps there is a different way to watch these movies that aren’t based on release dates or chronological order. Deadpool 3 is the next installment of the X-Men universe but will be the first film of that franchise to be officially a part of the MCU. With Hugh Jackman’s return in that film, it may be a good idea to catch up on the X-Men timeline.