All The X-Men Movies In Order And Where To Stream Them
While we’ve definitely had some great superhero movies before the turn of the century–Superman, Batman, Batman Returns, Blade, and so on–X-Men marked the start of a new era for superhero movies that would include Spider-Man, the MCU, Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, and more. But it was really the X-Men that started the fire that Iron Man and The Dark Knight turned into a blazing inferno.
In the following list, you’ll find every Marvel live-action movie that explicitly contains mutant characters so far–primarily the X-Men and Deadpool movies–including a gentle brush up against the MCU at the tail end.
At the end, we’ll suggest a few timelines to help make sense of this 14-film collection, should you be daring enough to try straightening out a series that features two prominent, chaotic instances of time travel and a character who talks to the camera as much as he talks to the other characters in his movies.
If you’re looking to deep dive into some other franchises, we have lots of other breakdowns of huge movie franchises. Make sure to check out our lists of all the James Bond movies,all the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, every Fast and Furious movie, and the entire Star Wars saga.
If you want to know more about the latest Marvel news, meanwhile, San Diego Comic-Con 2024 featured updates on the upcoming Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts, and Captain America movies. Oh, and there are two new Avengers movies coming, featuring a familiar face in a new mask.
X-Men (2000)
Where to Watch: Disney+
The one that started it all, and gave Hugh Jackman the role of a lifetime in Wolverine, a character he would go on to play for almost two full decades. Who could’ve known the casting would be so perfect in that metatextual way back then? This movie also introduces Patrick Stewart’s Professor Xavier and Ian McKellen’s Magneto.
X2: X-Men United (2003)
Where to Watch: Disney+
When Colonel William Styker forces Xavier and Magneto to reveal the locations of the world’s other mutants, the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants must team up to stop mutant genocide.
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Where to Watch: Disney+, STARZ, DirecTV
When word of a mutant “cure” begins to circulate, the X-Men and Brotherhood once again come to blows as Magneto declares war on humanity. Wolverine’s love for Jean Grey is tested when she is resurrected as the Phoenix to fight for the Brotherhood.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
This movie takes us back to the early days of everyone’s favorite mutant, Wolverine, and explores his relationship with his brother, Victor Creed/Sabertooth, as well as his time with William Stryker’s Team X. The timeline starts to get shaky here.
X-Men: First Class (2011)
Where to Watch: Disney+
Jump back to the earliest days of the X-Men, when Professor Xavier began to assemble a team of mutants in hopes of showing the world that mutants are a protector, not a danger, for mundane humans.
The Wolverine (2013)
Where to Watch: Disney+
Set after X-Men: The Last Stand, Wolverine travels to Japan, where he must protect an old friend’s daughter from all manner of assassins.
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Where to Watch: Disney+
Oh no, our precious timeline! This film features many cast members from both the original X-Men trilogy and X-Men: First Class, and is set in multiple timelines. Wolverine must travel back in time to stop the creation of the mutant-killing robotic weapons known as Sentinels.
Deadpool (2016)
Where to Watch: Disney+
Wade Wilson, the chatty former special forces operative and current mercenary, is subjected to a body-scarring experiment that leaves him with a deadly illness, a powerful mutant healing factor, and his most important superpower: the ability to realize he’s in a movie.
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
Where to Watch: Disney+
The first mutant, En Sabah Nur, awakens after thousands of years to see a world he believes is in need of cleansing. Mystique and the X-Men team up to save all of mankind from Apocalypse.
Logan (2017)
Where to Watch: Disney+
The world of 2029 is a dark place for mutants; no new mutants have been born in over 20 years. Wolverine’s healing abilities are failing, and Professor Xavier’s dementia has caused lethal psychic seizures. Logan agrees to transport a young woman named Laura, across the border to a mutant refuge.
Deadpool 2 (2018)
Where to Watch: Disney+
After the death of his girlfriend Vanessa, Deadpool meets a young mutant on the brink of a destructive change, and a mutant from the future who hopes to save his family by stopping the mutant’s change by any means necessary. Deadpool forms the X-Force, which includes a dad named Peter who thought the idea sounded like fun.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)
Where to Watch: Disney+, DirecTV
A mission in outer space subjects the psychic Jean Grey to an intense solar flare that awakens her Phoenix powers, and as she becomes increasingly unstable, alliances shift between the X-Men and Magneto’s mutant factions.
The New Mutants (2020)
Where to Watch: Disney+, DirecTV
Five young mutants being held against their will in a secret facility have to fight to survive their own powers and dangerous hallucinations as they attempt to escape both the facility and the training they were to be given.
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Where to Watch: Theaters (and eventually Disney+)
Deadpool and a version of Wolverine from another timeline have to work together to stop the MCU’s Time Variance Authority from destroying Deadpool’s timeline. They cross a few multiversal boundaries and lots of personal ones, stab each other repeatedly, and meet forgotten heroes as they battle to save their own existence.
How To Watch The X-Men Movies In Timeline Order
The X-Men timeline is messy, thanks in big part to the X-Men series’ penchant for time travel. It doesn’t matter if you’re reading the comics, watching the cartoons, or sitting down for a movie marathon–some mutant is going to muck things up with time travel. And so as we break down the timelines, some of these movies are going to appear more than once, as they matter to more than one timeline, while others only matter to a single one. X-Men Origins: Wolverine, meanwhile, takes place both before and during these timelines. And then there’s the whole Deadpool problem. This character exists both inside and out of the X-Men timelines.
Even then, there are plot holes. We’re often not that worried about some minor inconsistencies here and there, but there are weird things all over. Emma Frost is an adult in 1962 in X-Men: First Class, but then in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a character named Emma, who can turn her skin into ice/diamond, is there in 1979 as a teenager. Silver Samurai chops off Wolverine’s adamantium claws at the end of The Wolverine, but Days of Future Past restores them without ever acknowledging the change. Wolverine is pulled from a river by known anti-mutant leader William Stryker in Days of Future Past, and the yellow flash in his eyes tells us that it’s really a shape-shifted Mystique. In X-Men: Apocalypse, however, he’s being held captive by the real William Stryker.
Our real recommendation is to just enjoy the ride and watch the movies in the order they were released. The writers behind these movies were working within the constraints of casting, budgets, studio executive choices, and the growing shadow of the MCU. They had to recast actors in ways that don’t seem to make any sense–Bill Duke and Peter Dinklage both play Bolivar Trask, and the two could hardly be more different for any number of reasons. Trying to make them make sense just doesn’t make sense.
Logan and The New Mutants, meanwhile, are in their own timelines–despite Logan prominently featuring two actors reprising their beloved roles. You could consider Logan a coda to multiple timelines.
With that said, here are a few additional timelines you could follow if the above release chronological order doesn’t quite work for you:
Original X-Men Timeline
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)X-Men: First Class (2011)X-Men (2000)X2: X-Men United (2003)X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)The Wolverine (2013)X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)Logan (2017)
X-Men First Class Timeline
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)X-Men: First Class (2011)X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)
Deadpool Timeline
Deadpool (2016)Deadpool 2 (2018)Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Wolverine Timeline
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)X-Men: First Class (2011)X2: X-Men United (2003)X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)The Wolverine (2013)X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)Logan (2017)Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)