Before the MCU, the X-Men movies were some of the biggest superhero films in the world. The first X-Men helped kick-start the comic book boom that made superhero movies so popular, and each film grew to be bigger and more profitable. Yet after the MCU started and a series of poor reactions to X-Men films, the franchise struggled, and while it found its footing for a bit it never quite reached the same heights as it once had. The X-Men series had ups and downs in terms of quality that, by the time the franchises ended with X-Men: Dark Phoenix and New Mutants, it went out with less of a bang and more of a whimper (or rather, a big bomb).
The X-Men franchise has an interesting continuity, as oftentimes the movies contradict one another, and the presence of time travel, multiple timelines, and different versions of the characters can make for a confusing watch for those wanting to see the story movies in chronological order, simplified. However, there is a way to watch the 13 X-Men movies in order following one timeline and set of events.
The series starts and propels forward, only to go back and branch out, but tells the same story of the X-Men's struggle to fight for and against a world that wants to destroy them. They will face countless genocides, change the course of their fates, and in the end light the beacon of hope for a new generation. This is the chronological order of the X-Men film series' confusing timeline.
13 X-Men: First Class
While the X-Men movies splits off into two timelines, both start off with X-Men: First Class at the central point where the branches will begin to form. Set in 1963 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the film shows the origin story of how Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr (Magneto) meet, the founding of the X-Men and the Xavier Institute, and what will put them down the path to becoming Professor X and Magneto. The film establishes Beast and Mystique as founders of the X-Men and as major characters throughout the series. The film is important for forming the spine of the storyline that will play out across both timelines shown in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
12 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Following a straight path leads to X-Men Origins: Wolverine. While the film's prologue takes place before First Class, spanning across the Civil War and into Vietnam, the primary action takes place in 1979. The movie explores Logan (Hugh Jackman) and his history with the Weapon X program and how he got the adamantium on his bones, becoming the character Wolverine.
Origins: Wolverine introduce some strong X-Men characters like Cyclops and Deadpool, and Professor X (played by Patrick Stewar) is shown saving a group of students with the ability to walk (likely from the serum in Days of Future Past). While much of this will change with later films, it shows where the timeline is and how much will change after Days of Future Past.
11 X-Men
The first X-Men movie does not have a specific date but takes place in the not-too-distant future. This is where the two origin stories of X-Men: First Class and X-Men Origins: Wolverine meet, as the film sees Wolverine joining the X-Men after Magneto attempts to attack him and a young mutant named Rogue (Anna Paquin). Magneto is assisted by the Brotherhood, which includes Mystique (as seen in X-Men: First Class) and Sabertooth, who was Wolverine's brother in the previous film, having given into his more animalistic tendencies.
This X-Men movie offers a unique perspective on how the world has changed since the events of X-Men: First Class, and how the world has responded to mutants since the Cuban Missile Crisis. 20 years later, people still credit the first X-Men movie for opening the superhero floodgates, and many still prefer the cast of the original movie today.
10 X2: X-Men United
A direct sequel to X-Men, X2: X-Men United sees the X-Men and Magneto team up to stop William Stryker (Brian Cox) from killing the world's mutants. Following the events of X-Men and what X-Men Origins: Wolverine fills out in detail, X2: X-Men United does line up pretty well with the trajectory of the series and the other timeline, despite some continuity issues. Stryker's computer hints at a whole host of mutants he has been studying, including Gambit, who audiences saw in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It also fills in some details about Xavier's early students between X-Men: First Class and X-Men, with Jason Stryker being one of the students who are frozen on ice in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
9 X-Men: The Last Stand
X-Men: The Last Stand is the final film in the original X-Men trilogy, this movie marks a big grand finale for the X-Men that ends with a triumph, but later films will sadly consider this the last great moment for the X-Men. The film sees the war between the X-Men and the Brotherhood in full force as a new cure for mutation causes a sharp divide on both sides. In addition, Jean Grey has returned from the dead in the form of the Phoenix, killing Cyclops and Professor X. The movie ends on a heroic note, hinting at a brighter future for mutant-kind as the X-Men have saved the day and mutants appear to be welcomed into society. Yet the end shows that the cure may not fully work, and Professor Xavier somehow alive after dying in a new body, and that this moment of victory will be brief as the darkest timeline is in store for everyone.
8 The Wolverine
The Wolverine takes place years after X-Men: The Last Stand and sees Logan living as a hermit in the woods, being haunted by the death of Jean Grey at his own hands. He is summoned to Japan at the request of an old acquaintance he saved during World War 2. The movie is very much a standalone piece, but an after-credit ending scene set two years after the present-day film shows Wolverine encountering a re-powered Magneto and being confronted by Xavier, resurrected as teased in the end credits of X-Men: The Last Stand. This sets up the storyline that will take place in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
7 X-Men: Days of Future Past
X-Men: Days of Future Past is where the timeline becomes both tricky and more clear in some instances. The film follows two timelines, one in 2023 where mutants have been hunted to the brink of extinction by the Sentinels, and this forces them to make the last hope of sending Wolverine back in time to 1973 to change the future.
Days of Future Past thus creates two timelines. The future scenes are all following the events of all the previous X-Men films listed above. Once Wolverine travels back in time, he begins to create a new branch in reality, and once he meets Xavier and Beast, the timeline begins to splinter off into the new timeline which the following films will pick up. Yet everything in the previous movies has to happen in order to lead to Wolverine going back in time. The film's epilogue, with Wolverine waking up in a brighter future, takes place in the new timeline, hinting at stories in the two following films: X-Men Apocalypse and X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
6 X-Men: Apocalypse
X-Men Apocalypse takes place in the new timeline set by X-Men: Days of Future Past and 10 years after in 1983. The film's central plot focuses on the ancient mutant Apocalypse being awoken in the 1980s, and his assemblage of four horsemen to take over the world unless the X-Men stop him.
The film very much embraces the new timeline, introducing younger versions of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Angel, and Nightcrawler, who were all seen in the previous trilogy. This allows them to stick close to those portrayals but chart new paths for them given the new timeline. This is most evident in the ending, when Xavier in this timeline does what his older version does not. In X-Men: The Last Stand, it is revealed that Xavier tried to suppress the Phoenix in Jean, whereas this younger incarnation learned the mistake his older counterpart did not and tells Jean to fully embrace her power, bringing everything full circle and setting up a new host of adventures, one that will be similar to the previous films but also different.
The after-credit moment of the end scene, featuring the Essex Corporation collecting DNA samples from Wolverine's attack in his new timeline origin, then sets the stage for films like Logan, Deadpool 2, and New Mutants later in the timeline.
5 X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Set nine years after X-Men: Apocalypse, X-Men: Dark Phoenix is another attempt at doing the Dark Phoenix storyline from the comics, including introducing cosmic elements into the franchise while also repeating a lot of plot points from X-Men: The Last Stand. Interestingly, the previous film established that Jean Grey already had the Phoenix inside her, but now just encounters it for the first time. The movie also features the X-Men as a more classic superhero team known by the public, a stark contrast to the original timeline and also something future films will explore in side stories.
The movie ends with Jean as the Phoenix flying off into the sky, Xavier leaving the school and joining Magneto off on their own adventure, and Beast taking over the school, renamed The Jean Grey Institute of Higher Learning. While this is the last adventure for these X-Men, the future witnessed in Days of Future Past shows that at some point everyone will be reunited at the school and have a short brief period of happiness.
4 Deadpool
Set in the modern day, Deadpool sees Wade Wilson's story in the timeline moved up from where it was in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is diagnosed with cancer and undergoes an experimental treatment that activates his mutant ability to heal, but he can't heal previous wounds, which include his disfigured face that prevents him from reuniting with the love of his life.
Joining Deadpool are X-Men members Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and it is established that the X-Men appear to be well-known heroes, continuing the plot line from X-Men: Dark Phoenix and featuring a Colossus very different from the one seen in the previous X-Men trilogy. Deadpool is aware of how confusing all these timelines are; when Colossus says he is bringing him to the Professor, Deadpool calls out if it will be the one played by actor James McAvoy or Patrick Stewart.
3 The New Mutants
While The New Mutants' exact place in the timeline is unclear, as the movie was originally pitched as taking place in the '80s but was rejected and bumped up to the present-day, it can be assumed to be taking place in the modern-day and the time jump for Deadpool 2 makes The New Mutants a good fit between films.
The New Mutants focuses on five mutants who are being held at a secret facility to keep them safe, only for the five kids to discover they are really just being held prisoners. The film makes open acknowledgment of the X-Men, as by this point they are an established super team in the universe, and the Essex Corporation that collected the samples at the end of X-Men: Apocalypse are running the facility where the students are kept.
2 Deadpool 2
Deadpool 2 fittingly takes place two years after Deadpool, and sees Wade Wilson fighting to protect a young boy named Russell (Julian Dennison) from the time-traveling killer Cable (Josh Brolin), who says the boy will grow up into the villainous Firefist. Deadpool forms X-Force in order to protect the boy and attempt to change the future.
While featuring more X-Men connections (including a cameo by the cast of X-Men: Dark Phoenix), the school in which a young Russell is held is a mutant Re-education Center owned by the Essex Corporation, a shadowy organization that was also behind the facility in The New Mutants. The mutant inhibitor collars, introduced in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, are present in this film, and a new Juggernaut is shown in this timeline.
1 Logan
Logan takes place in the year 2029, just six years after the happy ending seen in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Sometime shortly after, Xavier's mind started to deteriorate and all the X-Men except for Wolverine (Logan) died after Xavier has a seizure. Mutants haven't been born in years, and now Wolverine is taking care of a sick Xavier while he himself is dying of adamantium poisoning. Logan is then put in charge of protecting a young girl named Laura who was made by the Essex Corporation, operating out of a shell company named Transigen, using Logan's genetic DNA following the events of X-Men: Apocalypse. Logan must now protect Laura and a group of mutant children and get them to safety, at a fabled mutant sanctuary in Canada.
Logan shows Laura reading X-Men comics, which indicates that the X-Men have become mythic heroes in the universe, characters whose exploits have become the stuff of legends. The creation of Laura and other mutant kids shows the long-term plan of the Essex Corporation across New Mutants and the Deadpool films has come to pass. Logan is the dark, bleak final chapter in the entire X-Men saga; is Xavier's dream of mutant and human co-existence destined to fail in a world filled with prejudice?
In the fitting, final Logan scene, Wolverine gives his life doing what he has done best throughout the course of the franchise. While many, and even himself, think he is a killer, he goes out as a protector, saving the kids the same way he saved Rogue, the kids at the X-Mansion, and countless others. He does not die a mindless killing machine or a broken man, but a hero to children. As Laura buries him, she turns the cross sideways to form an X. The ultimate symbol to close out the X-Men saga shows that, while the future looks bleak, the idea of the X-Men live on in hope, and there is always a chance for a better tomorrow.