The Full X-Men Movie Timeline & Viewing Order Explained

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Successful movies often lead to sequels, and those sequels can lead to reboots. Then, those reboots get their own sequels, and eventually, spin-off movies appear. This cycle seems endless, and it’s especially true for the X-Men franchise. These films have been released for over two decades, and they’re soon joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a quick appearance by Beast in The Marvels and a bigger role planned for Avengers: Doomsday. With 14 X-Men movies already made, newcomers to the series might wonder where to begin.

You can watch the movies in release order, starting with the first one from 2000 and ending with Deadpool & Wolverine. However, if you prefer to watch them in the order the events happen in the Marvel universe, it’s trickier, as the timeline has changed a few times.

14) X-Men: First Class

The first X-Men movie begins with a scene set in Nazi Germany, but primarily focuses on Erik Lehnsherr as an older man. X-Men: First Class also starts with a similar opening, then jumps to when he’s in his thirties. The film is mostly set in 1962, during the height of the Cold War – a particularly tense time. If you want to watch the X-Men movies in chronological order, First Class is the best place to start, and it’s a great introduction for anyone new to the series.

13) X-Men: Days of Future Past

The timeline for these movies gets confusing around X-Men: Days of Future Past. If you separated the scenes with the original X-Men cast from the scenes with the younger cast from the prequel movies (which make up most of the film), it would fit right before Deadpool & Wolverine. Days of Future Past jumps between 1973 and a possible 2023, and its ending essentially rewrites the events of the first three X-Men movies. Because of this, many fans believe the best way to experience the franchise is to watch the films in the order they were released.

12) X-Men Origins: Wolverine

While the opening sequence of X-Men Origins: Wolverine – arguably the film’s strongest part – is set in 1845, that doesn’t make it the earliest point in the timeline. Most of the movie actually takes place in 1979. Plus, everything important from this Origin story was already explained in X2, so it wasn’t really necessary. Ideally, you’d skip this movie altogether.

11) X-Men: Apocalypse

Speaking of disappointing movies, X-Men: Apocalypse is set in 1983, only four years after the events of Wolverine. This movie features a major threat – even bigger than the Sentinels – and focuses on a villain attempting to take over the world. Similar to Wolverine, it begins with a flashback, this time to 3600 BC (even further back than Wolverine‘s 1845 opening), but most of the story takes place in 1983.

10) Dark Phoenix

Okay, so let’s be real, this is the third X-Men movie in a row that feels…skippable. But if you’re like me and gotta see ’em all, Dark Phoenix is set in 1992, nine years after Apocalypse. It’s kinda weird though, because none of the characters seem to have aged at all from that previous movie! There’s a quick flashback to young Jean Grey in 1975, but most of the story happens in ’92.

9) X-Men

Okay, let’s talk about the timeline. Watching the first X-Men movie now, it’s pretty clear it’s set around the year 2000. Which is… interesting, considering how young Professor X and Magneto were in Dark Phoenix. It feels like less than a decade passed between those films, and they’ve aged quite a bit! At most, it’s about ten years after the events of Dark Phoenix, placing everything firmly in the early 2000s.

8) X2: X-Men United

Similar to the first film, X2: X-Men United was designed to feel current for audiences in the early 2000s. Therefore, it makes sense to view X-Men as taking place in 2000 and X2 as happening in 2003.

7) X-Men: The Last Stand

Just a heads-up: Dark Phoenix is set in the 1990s, but it’s a version of the ’90s created by the events of Days of Future Past when Wolverine went back to the 1970s. The Jean Grey you see in Dark Phoenix and Apocalypse isn’t the same Jean Grey who became the Phoenix in X-Men: The Last Stand. It’s a bit of a complicated timeline! Basically, The Last Stand happens in its original timeline – around 2006.

6) The Wolverine

Following Jean’s death in The Last Stand, Wolverine isolates himself in The Wolverine. The film is set in 2013, meaning he’s been mourning for seven years. A key flashback to 1945 is also included, and it’s essential to understanding how the movie’s story ultimately unfolds.

5) Deadpool

Deadpool pretty much convinces you to skip X-Men Origins: Wolverine altogether. The Wolverine barely mentioned it, so there’s not much reason to watch it. While Liev Schreiber was good, the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine is bringing back Tyler Mane instead of him, which says a lot. Ultimately, Deadpool makes the strongest argument against revisiting it. The ending of Wolverine featured a fight with a monstrous Deadpool, but that version was very different from the one we know now. The Deadpool movies mostly exist on their own, but they are connected to the timeline of Deadpool & Wolverine, which directly references Logan. Logan, set in 2016, is the movie you should watch instead.

4) The New Mutants

There’s discussion about the timeline of The New Mutants. Some believe it’s set around 2018 or 2019, when the film was initially planned for release. Others place it around the same time as Logan, meaning the late 2020s. We’ll go with the later timeframe, but honestly, this movie isn’t essential viewing.

3) Deadpool 2

Deadpool is famous for his constant jokes and references, which can make it tricky to figure out when his stories actually happen. He basically acts like he knows everything, and surprisingly, he often does! Even though he mentions Logan’s death in 2029 in Deadpool 2, most fans believe the movie still takes place in 2018.

2) Deadpool & Wolverine

In the new movie Deadpool & Wolverine, Wade Wilson has been stuck selling cars for six years. The story is set in 2024, and seems straightforward at first. However, the film messes with time, showing different versions of events. For example, we see an older version of the character X-23, even though in the movie Logan, she was younger. This is because this X-23 was taken from her own time and put into a strange place called the Void. Essentially, the events of Deadpool & Wolverine happen before the events of Logan.

1) Logan

The movie Logan is set in 2029, making it easy to pinpoint on a timeline of the X-Men films. However, Deadpool & Wolverine complicated things by bringing Hugh Jackman back, even though Logan depicted his character’s death in 2029. Unless future movies explore the 2030s, Logan will likely remain a significant and conclusive film to finish watching the series with.

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2026-01-13 19:13