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Deadpool & Wolverine, aka Deadpool 3, is now in theaters, and you may want to catch up on the X-Men franchise before or after you see the new film. Much ado has been made about which order to watch these, based on how the timelines flow or which events in the movies connect the dots (and Deadpool's jokes).
There are several ways to enjoy your mutant marathon, so we've outlined two ways to do it if you want to immerse yourself in the canon. Some fans may want to create alternate options or check out one of the dozens of lists and videos that explain complex timelines. Yes, the much-maligned X-Men Origins: Wolverine is on here, so it's up to you if you want to watch it, but you should absolutely binge X-Men '97 for a little razzle-dazzle.
The best part is that streaming everything is easy because they're all in one place: Disney Plus.
Read more: Now There's a Wolverine Rounded Butt Xbox Controller to Go With Deadpool
Stream X-Men by movie release dates
If you're watching in order of release date, here's the roster, which includes Deadpool, too.
- X-Men (2000)
- X2: X-Men United (2003)
- X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
- X-Men First Class (2011)
- The Wolverine (2013)
- X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
- Deadpool (2016)
- X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
- Logan (2017)
- Deadpool 2 (2018)
- X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)
- The New Mutants (2020)
X-Men order by timeline
Here's one suggestion if you want to stream according to timeline stories, which may tie certain plot points together more efficiently. X-Men: Days of Future Past is one of the most important films in the franchise because it involves time travel. Wolverine lives in 2023, where Sentinels hunt and take out mutants. To prevent this outcome, he jets back in time to 1973 to find Bolivar Trask, creator of the Sentinels. The 2023 X-Men crew knows that Trask's death sets off the chain of events that lead to the glum future. What happens in this film is an adjustment, or reset, for the events in X-Men, X2, Last Stand and the Wolverine movies.
Because Logan is set in 2029, it's listed at the end here.
- X-Men First Class (2011)
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) - this one is optional
- X-Men (2000)
- X2: X-Men United (2003)
- X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
- The Wolverine (2013)
- X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
- X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
- X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)
- Deadpool (both 1 and 2)
- The New Mutants (2020)
- Logan (2017)