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X-Men Movies in Order: The Complete Timeline, Including Deadpool & Wolverine

Release order is best for a first watch; an approximate chronology helps on a rewatch, but Days of Future Past leaves the X-Men films with branching timelines.
Opened Runtime4 min Written byDocumentaryTube Team
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For a first watch, see the X-Men films in release order: it preserves the cast reveals and story turns as audiences encountered them. For a rewatch, an approximate story chronology can help—but there is no single seamless timeline. X-Men: Days of Future Past connects two generations of characters and changes the future, creating branches rather than a neat reset button. Deadpool & Wolverine is a later multiverse crossover, not proof that every Fox-era X-Men film happened in the MCU’s main timeline.

What is the best order to watch the X-Men movies?

Start with release order if you are new to the films. It follows the franchise’s changing casts and reveals as they appeared on screen. The list below covers the 14 theatrical films in this guide, from X-Men (2000) through Deadpool & Wolverine (2024). The studio’s X-Men catalogue page also connects several of these films.

  1. X-Men (2000)
  2. X2 (2003)
  3. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
  4. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
  5. X-Men: First Class (2011)
  6. The Wolverine (2013)
  7. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
  8. Deadpool (2016)
  9. X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
  10. Logan (2017)
  11. Deadpool 2 (2018)
  12. Dark Phoenix (2019)
  13. The New Mutants (2020)
  14. Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

This answers the common first-watch question, “Should I begin with X-Men or First Class?” Begin with X-Men. First Class is earlier in the story chronology, but it was released after the original trilogy.

Release order or chronological order: which route fits you?

Route What it does best Trade-off
Release order Preserves the audience’s experience of the cast transitions, reveals, and timeline changes. Jumps between story eras, as the films did when released.
Approximate story chronology Groups films by their main story periods, which can make a rewatch or timeline discussion easier. Dates are not all firm, and Days of Future Past crosses eras; a strict single line cannot account for its branching continuity.

Release order is the clearest route for a first viewing. Chronology is a viewing aid, not a definitive canon map. The following placements are approximate where the films do not establish a precise year.

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What is the approximate X-Men movie chronology?

Order the films by their principal story period, while remembering that some span more than one era. Days of Future Past is the major exception to a simple chronological list: it moves between 2023 and 1973, so it cannot be placed at one date without losing half its premise.

  1. X-Men: First Class — primarily 1962.
  2. X-Men Origins: Wolverine — follows Logan across a long stretch of his past; its main story is commonly placed around the 1970s. The studio describes it as a story of Logan’s past, including Weapon X and Victor Creed, on its film page.
  3. X-Men: Days of Future Past — its central past setting is 1973, while its opening future is 2023. Wolverine travels back to change a historical event. The studio describes the film as bringing the original-trilogy characters together with their younger First Class counterparts; see its film page.
  4. X-Men: Apocalypse — 1983, in the younger-cast strand.
  5. Dark Phoenix — set in the 1990s, following the younger-cast films.
  6. X-Men, X2, and X-Men: The Last Stand — the original-cast trilogy, set in the early-to-mid 2000s.
  7. The Wolverine — set in 2013, after the original trilogy’s main events.
  8. Deadpool — around 2016.
  9. Deadpool 2 — around 2018.
  10. The New Mutants — broadly placed in the mid-to-late 2020s in published viewing guides; its exact place in the wider continuity is less secure.
  11. Logan — 2029, a late future for one version of Wolverine.
  12. Deadpool & Wolverine — a later multiverse crossover. It can be watched after Logan as a viewing route, but that placement should not be mistaken for a precise, settled chronology.

Eliana Dockterman’s TIME explanation of the X-Men timelines discusses Logan’s 2029 setting and director James Mangold’s confirmation that it belongs to the Days of Future Past timeline. That makes Logan a late future for that branch, not a reason to force every X-Men film into one uninterrupted history.

How does Days of Future Past split the timeline?

The film begins in a bleak 2023, then sends Wolverine’s consciousness back to 1973 to change a major event. Its younger and original casts make the connection between the two eras explicit. The changed history leads to a different future, so later films cannot all be arranged as though the events of the earlier continuity simply vanished.

A useful way to think about the result is as a branching history: the original trilogy remains part of the films’ story, while the events in 1973 create a revised path for the future. That is more accurate than treating the time-travel plot as a clean erasure of every earlier event. The films do not supply a single, detailed chronology that resolves every inconsistency.

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X-Men Collection: 10 Movie Collection [Blu-ray]
  • X-Men 10 Movie Collection - 10-Disc Box Set ( X-Men / X-Men 2 (X2) / X-Men: The Last Stand / X-Men O
  • X-Men 10 Movie Collection - 10-Disc Box Set
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How do the X-Men branches fit together?

The original trilogy

X-Men, X2, and The Last Stand form the original-cast trilogy. First Class starts a younger-cast strand set decades earlier. Days of Future Past joins those casts through time travel and changes the future.

Wolverine’s solo films

Origins reaches into Logan’s past, while The Wolverine takes place after the original trilogy and Logan follows a version of him in 2029. They occupy different points in the franchise’s history, rather than forming one continuous run of adventures.

Deadpool’s films

Deadpool and Deadpool 2 share the wider Fox-era screen world, but their comedy and fourth-wall breaks make continuity deliberately loose. Also distinguish the character in Origins from the later standalone-film portrayal: 20th Century Studios’ Deadpool page and its Origins page identify separate film entries; the earlier film’s version should not be treated as identical to the later one.

Where Deadpool & Wolverine fits

Released in 2024 as a Marvel Studios film, Deadpool & Wolverine brings Fox-era characters and imagery into an MCU multiverse context. It is best understood as a crossover bridge, not a retroactive claim that the previous Fox films took place in the MCU’s primary timeline. The 20th Century Studios Australia/New Zealand page lists the film for July 25, 2024, in that region; that regional listing is not a U.S. release-date claim. See the regional film page.

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Do Legion and The Gifted belong in the movie order?

No—not in this film checklist. Legion and The Gifted are live-action mutant series, but they are treated as separate branches in the reviewed film-and-series guide rather than required entries in the theatrical movie sequence. The broader catalogue is outlined by Marvel Marathon’s X-Men films and series guide.

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