X-Men Movies in Order: Chronological & Release Date
Nov. 15, 2023If you are a fan of the X-Men franchise, you would agree that the timeline revolving around its movies is very confusing, making it difficult to understand the correct order to watch the X-Men movies. There’s a lot of time travel involved, along with quite complex characters who we don’t get to understand with a much greater depth.
X-Men is a movie franchise that brought us the very concept of superhero teams with its first movie titledX-Menin 2000, and it became an instant hit starting off the golden era of superhero movies. In this article, I’m gonna help you understand the concept of the X-Men timeline and how to watch all X-Men movies in order. So let’s dive right into it!
What is the X-Men Timeline?
X-Men: First Classis the movie that can be called the beginning of everything that has happened in the X-Men universe. To understand what is happening in the world of X-Men, you should watch this movie before anything else.
X-Men: First Classis the movie that introduces us to the reason behind the enmity between Professor X and Magneto and how their relationship turned from an unbreakable brotherlike bond to that of rivals. It also introduces us to the first X-Men team and how a group of mutants came together to serve a noble cause.
X-Men Days Of Future Past is the movie where we get to see characters from both the 2000s X-Men movies and the newer ones. This movie features time travel making it jump between two different periods in the chronological order of X-Men Movies. However, since most of the movie takes place in 1973, right after everything that happened in X-Men First Class, it can easily be placed here.
In this movie, the X-Men stand against an ancient God-like mutant called Apocalypse who has come to life after 5000 years and is hell-bent on the destruction of the world. He recruits mutants like Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Angel (Ben Hardy), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), and Psylocke (Olivia Munn) to be his 4 horsemen turning them against Professor X and his team of X-Men. This movie was largely based on Professor X but also shows us a small tease for the upcomingDark Phoenixwhen we see Jean slowly getting stronger by the Phoenix force.
Another important detail of this movie is we get to see Jackman’s Wolverine still being held captive as Weapon X who escaped the facility in front of Jean, Nightcrawler, and Cyclops. However, since the newer version of X-Men has totally different timeline, this version of Wolverine is different from the one we see in X-Men Origins Wolverine.
When Wolverine travels back in time to his younger self inDays of Future Past, the year is 1973 and he has not yet gone through the Adamantium experiment. In this timeline, he was never able to escape the facility and now when he does, henever joins the X-Menduring the events we see in the movies. He might have joined them later on after the events of Dark Phoenix and yes, Old Man Logan is none other than the same Weapon X that escapes the facility in Apocalypse.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix shows us a Jean who is completely corrupted by the Dark Phoenix Force which causes Professor X’s mental barrier to break bringing back all of Jean’s trauma at once. She completely loses control over her powers and even kills Mystique.
Cast-Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, Liev Schreiber,Lynn Collins, Danny Huston, Tim Pocock, Dominic MonaghanRelease Date–1 May 2009IMDB/ Rotten Tomatoes-6.5/ 38%
X-Men Origins Wolverine is the first X-Men spinoff movie which is the Origin story of Wolverine. Wolverine’s origin dates back to even before the World War making him one of the oldest mutants in the X-Men Saga. This movie shows us the story of how Wolverine got his Adamantium claws and also features the first-ever adaptation of Ryan Reynold’s as Deadpool. To understand how humongous of an upgrade the Deadpool franchise is, this is amust-watch movie before Deadpool 3.
Cast-Hugh Jackman,Patrick Stewart,Ian McKellen, Famke Jansenne, James Marsden, Anna Paquin, Halle Berry, Rebecca Romijn, Shawn AshmoreRelease Date–14 July 2000IMDB/ Rotten Tomatoes-7.3/ 82%
X-Men,the first X-Men movie released in 2000, was where it all started. This was the movie that gave us the most phenomenal casting of Hugh Jackman for the first time. Jackman grew into a fan favorite almost overnight and to date is the first and last choice for fans to play Wolverine. In this movie, we get to see Professor X and his team of X-Men take a stand against Magneto. It was a pretty classic action flick with astar studded castand is still counted as the OG X-Men movie.
X2: X-Men Unitedis to date considered to be one of the best superhero movies to be made. This movie primarily focuses on the character development Wolverine goes through. From being someone who used to work alone and preferred to be alone and in general, didn’t do very well with people, turned out to be a leader.
He took the young students of Xavier’s school under his wing and made it possible for them to rescue Professor X.
Cast-Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Famke Janssen, Ian McKellen, Elliot Page, James Marsden, Halle Berry, Rebecca Romijn, Anna Paquin, Vinnie Jones, Kelsey Grammer, Shawn AshmoreRelease Date–26 May 2006IMDB/ Rotten Tomatoes-6.6/57%
This movie is considered to be one of the most badly directed X-Men movies to date. X-Men: The Last Stand showcasesa cure for the mutant genethat is being used without the consent of these mutants to eradicate the whole species one by one.
In the movie, Jean Grey kills Professor X under the heavy corruption of the Dark Phoenix Force. However, in the post-credit scene, we see that before being killed, Professor X transfers his cautiousness to a mindless body in a deep coma. Jean is ultimately killed, bringing an end to the original trilogy of X-Men.
However, the truth is quite different than that. This old man wanted to steal Wolverine’s healing factor to prevent himself from dying of chronic illness. The Wolverine was a sequel toX-Men: The Last Stand
Deadpool might be the first movie after Dark Phoenix where we got to see a whole array of mutants, including two members of the official X-Men team, Colossus and Megasonic Teenage Warhead. The movie centers around our favorite R-rated hero, Deadpool who himself is a mutant.
Deadpool is not directly linked to the previous X-Men movies but it seems that it happens in the same universe, since Deadpool is aware of everything that has happened in the X-Men universe.
Deadpool 2 expands the universe of mutants when we see Deadpool trying to protect a kid who is being hunted by a time-traveling Cable. We see an array of other mutants and a much deeper look into the X-Men mansion.
Deadpool 2 is again a fun watch where we witness a lot of A-rated humor and funny action sequences. However, as far as I feel, this movie had the sole purpose of introducing Deadpool to time travel setting up Deadpool 3.
Logan was the final appearance of Jackman as Wolverine but here’s the interesting part. In this movie, Wolverine is the same Weapon X that ran away from the facility inX-Men: Apocalypse. Now you might ask, how did he come across Professor X if he never joined the X-Men in this timeline? Well,he did join the X-Mem but after the events of Dark Phoenix, which we never get to witness on screen.
So, we can expect to see a brand new X-Men franchise from MCU sooner or later. Deadpool 3 is also going to feature Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine after almost 7 years so it indeed is very exciting.
The last thing based on the X-Men universe was Deadpool and Deadpool 2 and yet again bringing the X-Men franchise back as a whole is the upcoming Deadpool 3.
Honestly, we saw this coming when Marvel decided to include Professor Charles Xavier in Doctor Strange 2 as a member of the Illuminati, proving that the X-Men might still exist in both alternate realities. Wherever the mutant verse goes in the future, we’ll be here to witness it but till then, cherish the glorious past of X-Men and binge on!
Shashank Shakya is an Entertainment Writer and has completed his Bachelors(Honours) with English Literature. He is a published writer. He boasts incomparable knowledge about the Marvel and DC universes along with other branches of entertainment with substantial experience in the field of writing.
