How to Watch the X-Men Movies in Order, Including Wolverine, Deadpool and New Mutants

The X-Men movie universe is a glorious messin the best way. It’s got superpowered teens, government paranoia,
time travel, a man who heals faster than your Wi-Fi reconnects, and at least one character who treats the fourth wall
like it owes him money. The only real villain? Trying to figure out what to watch next without accidentally spoiling
a major twist… or watching a “prequel” that somehow assumes you’ve already seen the sequel.

Here’s the good news: you can absolutely watch the X-Men movies in a clean, satisfying order. The better news:
I’m giving you three optionsRelease Order (best for first-timers), Chronological-ish Order
(best for timeline detectives), and a Two-Timeline Order (best for people who want the story to make sense
without needing a corkboard and red string).

Quick Answer: The Best X-Men Movie Order for Most People

If you want the most enjoyable, least confusing experience, start with release order.
That’s how audiences originally met characters, reveals, and twistsand it prevents “Wait… why is this person alive?”
questions from multiplying like sentinels at a factory sale.

Option 1: Watch the X-Men Movies in Release Order (Recommended)

Release order is the most beginner-friendly way to watch the X-Men movies in order because it matches how the franchise
evolved. You’ll see how the tone shifts from early-2000s leather-and-lectures to sleek prequels, then into
R-rated, genre-bending side quests (hello, Deadpool), and finally into late-era experiments like The New Mutants.

Release Order Checklist (All Main X-Men Films + Wolverine + Deadpool + New Mutants)

1. X-Men (2000)
2. X2: X-Men United (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)

Why release order works so well

• Character introductions land properly. The franchise expects you to “meet” people in the order they were released,
  even when later movies jump backward in time.
• Big reveals stay big. Certain relationships, power reveals, and “this changes everything” moments are timed for maximum impact.
• You feel the franchise evolve. Watching the movies in order is like watching Hollywood change its mind in real time:
  darker, funnier, weirder, and occasionally more emotional than you expected from a movie featuring metal claws.

Option 2: Watch the X-Men Movies in Chronological Order (Timeline Order)

Chronological order sounds simpleuntil you realize several movies include flashbacks, retcons, and timeline resets.
Still, if you enjoy watching events “in-universe” from earliest to latest, this order gets you close enough that your brain
won’t file a formal complaint.

Chronological-ish Order (Simplified and Watchable)

1. X-Men: First Class (mostly set in the 1960s)
2. X-Men: Days of Future Past (starts in the future, but the main story jumps to the 1970s)
3. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (covers decades, but key events land in the late 1970s)
4. X-Men: Apocalypse (1980s)
5. Dark Phoenix (1990s)
6. X-Men (early 2000s)
7. X2: X-Men United
8. X-Men: The Last Stand
9. The Wolverine (2010s)
10. Deadpool (2010s, with its own attitude about continuity)
11. The New Mutants (late-era side story)
12. Deadpool 2
13. Logan (near-future, emotionally devastating)
14. Deadpool & Wolverine (multiverse-adjacent chaos)

A friendly warning about “chronological”

If you watch strictly by in-universe years, you’ll run into contradictionsespecially around character ages, backstories,
and who should (theoretically) recognize whom. The movies weren’t built like a single, neatly pre-planned saga.
They were built like a mutant ability: powerful, unpredictable, and sometimes activated under stress.

Option 3: The Two-Timeline Watch Order (Least Confusing, Most Satisfying)

Want a viewing order that respects the franchise’s biggest continuity “fork in the road”? Use the two-timeline approach.
One key film functions like a continuity reset button. After that, you can treat the franchise as having
an older timeline and a revised timeline.

Timeline A: The “Original” Road (Builds to the Big Reset)

1. X-Men: First Class
2. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (optional, but fits here best)
3. X-Men
4. X2: X-Men United
5. X-Men: The Last Stand
6. The Wolverine
7. X-Men: Days of Future Past (the timeline pivot)

Timeline B: The “Revised” Road (Where Things Get Rewritten)

1. X-Men: Apocalypse
2. Dark Phoenix
3. Deadpool
4. Deadpool 2
5. The New Mutants (side mission, but it lives comfortably here)
6. Logan (best saved for late because of its tone and finality)
7. Deadpool & Wolverine

This “two-timeline” method is a sweet spot: you get the full story arc of the early films, you experience the big pivot
the way it’s designed to hit, and then you enjoy the later era without constantly comparing every detail to the original trilogy.

Where the Wolverine Movies Fit (Because Claws Deserve a Map)

Wolverine has a mini-trilogy inside the larger franchise. If your main goal is “more Logan, less homework,” you can watch
these three in a row as a compact character arcwith a couple of key X-Men films added for context.

Wolverine-Focused Order (Fast, Fun, and Frequently Pointy)

1. X-Men (meet him properly)
2. X2: X-Men United (his past becomes a mystery worth caring about)
3. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (backstorymessy, but informative)
4. The Wolverine (Japan-set character study with action fireworks)
5. X-Men: Days of Future Past (he becomes the franchise’s human USB drive for time travel)
6. Logan (the “bring tissues” finale)

Pro tip: If you’re watching with friends, warn them that Logan is not “a normal superhero movie night.”
It’s closer to “award-worthy western drama that happens to include adamantium.”

Where the Deadpool Movies Fit (Because Continuity Is Optional When You’re Deadpool)

Deadpool’s corner of the universe is canon-adjacent. It references X-Men characters and events, but it also happily
breaks rules, mocks timelines, and treats serious continuity discussions like a setup for a punchline.

Deadpool Order (Simple, Glorious, and R-Rated)

1. Deadpool
2. Deadpool 2
3. Deadpool & Wolverine

If you’re watching the whole franchise, slot Deadpool after Days of Future Past (release order does this naturally).
You’ll appreciate the jokes more once you’ve met the “serious” version of this world first.

Where The New Mutants Fits (And Why It Feels Different)

The New Mutants is the franchise’s genre curveball: a teen-horror-leaning story that feels more like a haunted house
with superpowers than a traditional team-up blockbuster. It’s also relatively standalone, which means you can watch it
near the end without missing major context.

Best placement for The New Mutants

• Release order: Watch it after Dark Phoenix and before Deadpool & Wolverine.
• Two-timeline order: Put it in Timeline B after the Deadpool films (or between them if you want a tonal palate cleanser).
• One-night experiment: Watch it as a standalone “mutant horror” night when you want something shorter and stranger.

Streaming and Marathon Tips (So You Don’t Burn Out)

A full X-Men marathon is a commitment. Fourteen films is a lot of exploding buildings and existential dread.
To keep it fun, try one of these approaches:

1) The “Weekend Warrior” Plan

• Friday night: X-Men + X2 (classic double feature)
• Saturday: Prequel block + timeline pivot (First Class, The Wolverine, Days of Future Past)
• Sunday: Modern era and finales (Deadpool, Logan, plus whatever you’re missing)

2) The “Theme Nights” Plan

• School vs. Government Night: X-Men, X2
• Time Travel Night: Days of Future Past
• Wolverine Night: The Wolverine or Logan
• Comedy Chaos Night: Deadpool, Deadpool 2
• Spooky Side Quest Night: The New Mutants

3) The “First-Timer Safe Mode” Plan

If someone in your group has never seen these movies, stick to release order. It’s the best way to avoid confusing them
or accidentally ruining a major character reveal. You can always do a second run later in timeline order once everyone
speaks fluent “X-Men continuity.”

FAQs (Because Someone Always Asks These)

Do I need to watch every movie to understand Deadpool & Wolverine?

Not every movie, but you’ll enjoy it more if you’ve seen at least Deadpool, Deadpool 2, and a few Wolverine-heavy entries
like X-Men, X2, and Logan. The fun of the movie is partly in recognizing what it’s remixing.

Should I watch Dark Phoenix and The Last Stand if people argue about them online?

If you want the full franchise experience, yes. Even the most debated entries add context, themes, and character beats.
Also, it’s hard to enjoy fandom debates properly if you haven’t seen what everyone is dramatically yelling about.

Are TV shows included in this order?

This guide focuses on the movie franchise (including Wolverine, Deadpool, and The New Mutants).
Shows like Legion or The Gifted are separate experiences, and animated series live in their own lanes.
Consider them bonus content once you finish the films.

Real-World Viewing Experiences ( of “What It Feels Like”)

Watching the X-Men movies in order is a little like moving into a new neighborhood where every house has a different architect,
but everybody insists it’s the same street. The first experience most viewers report is surprise at how grounded the early films feel.
The 2000 X-Men and 2003 X2 play like tense sci-fi dramas with superhero abilitiesmore “fear and prejudice” than “glitter explosions.”
If you start in release order, you can practically feel the franchise learning what it wants to be.

Then comes the second common experience: the timeline whiplash. People usually don’t mind prequelsuntil a prequel quietly
rewrites something you thought was settled, and suddenly your group chat is asking, “Wait… didn’t this character already…?”
That’s when the “two-timeline” method becomes a sanity saver. Viewers tend to enjoy the franchise more when they stop trying to force
every detail into one flawless chronology and instead treat it like comic book storytelling: eras, reinterpretations, and occasional “oops, anyway.”

Another universal viewing experience is the Wolverine effect. Even if you begin as a casual fan, the moment you hit
The Wolverine and especially Logan, many viewers find themselves unexpectedly invested. It’s not just the action;
it’s the weariness, the loyalty, the sense that immortality is less “cool superpower” and more “long-term emotional subscription you forgot to cancel.”
People often describe Logan as the movie that turns an X-Men marathon into a real eventbecause it’s intense, intimate, and
the kind of film that makes you sit quietly afterward like you just finished a great book.

Then Deadpool shows up and the emotional tone gets thrown out a window (lovingly). A lot of viewers say this is where the marathon becomes
fun again in a different way. After several movies of heavy themesidentity, discrimination, power, lossDeadpool acts like
the friend who arrives late to dinner, makes an inappropriate joke, and somehow gets everyone laughing again. Watching Deadpool movies after
the more serious entries can feel like taking off a tight tie: same world, different oxygen level. It’s also where group marathons thrive,
because the humor plays better with people, and the references hit harder when you’ve just watched the films being teased.

And yes, The New Mutants often produces the most interesting reactions. Some viewers love it as a moody side story;
others feel it’s a tonal left turn. But in a long marathon, it can be a welcome change of flavorlike sorbet between courses.
One of the best “experienced marathoner” tips is to treat certain films as palate cleansers: when you’re tired of
world-ending stakes, a smaller, stranger story can be exactly what keeps you going.

The final shared experience is the sense of completionbecause when you finish the whole set, you don’t just feel like you watched movies.
You feel like you traveled through decades of blockbuster history, watched a franchise reinvent itself multiple times, and still came out the other
side with favorite characters, favorite moments, and at least one scene you will quote forever. The secret is choosing the order that matches your vibe:
release order for maximum enjoyment, timeline order for maximum puzzle-solving, and two-timeline order for maximum sanity.

Final Take

If you’re only going to do one run, go with release order. It’s the smoothest ride, it respects how the story was revealed,
and it naturally folds in the Wolverine movies, the Deadpool trilogy, and The New Mutants without forcing you to argue with a timeline.
If you love lore, try the two-timeline approach nextbecause the X-Men are fun, but they’re even more fun when you’re not pausing every 15 minutes
to ask, “So… which decade is this supposed to be again?”