TL;DR
- We ranked all 14 movies connected to Fox’s live-action X-Men film universe.
- Dark Phoenix and X-Men Origins: Wolverine occupy the bottom of our list.
- X2, Days of Future Past and Logan remain among the franchise’s greatest achievements.
- Deadpool & Wolverine also makes the cut as the movie that effectively brought the Fox era into the MCU Multiverse.
The X-Men movie franchise has experienced almost every possible version of superhero filmmaking.
It helped kick-start the modern comic-book movie boom in 2000, delivered some of the genre’s best sequels, completely mangled its own continuity, rebooted itself through time travel and eventually ended up colliding with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Along the way, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool became two of the most recognizable Marvel characters ever put on screen.
There have also been some spectacular misses.
For this ranking, we’re counting the 14 live-action movies tied directly to Fox’s X-Men universe, including the Wolverine and Deadpool films, The New Mutants and Deadpool & Wolverine.
Let’s start at the bottom.
14. Dark Phoenix (2019)
Fox somehow adapted the Dark Phoenix Saga twice and failed to do it justice both times. Unfortunately, the second attempt is the weaker movie.
Sophie Turner does what she can with Jean Grey’s transformation, while Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy remain dependable as Magneto and Professor X. The problem is that Dark Phoenix feels strangely lifeless for a story involving cosmic forces, fractured friendships and one of the most important X-Men storylines ever published.
What should have been an emotional conclusion to the younger X-Men era instead feels like a franchise quietly running out of road.
13. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
There are pieces of a good Wolverine movie buried inside X-Men Origins. Hugh Jackman is committed, Liev Schreiber makes an excellent Sabretooth and the opening montage showing the brothers fighting through multiple wars remains one of the coolest sequences in the franchise.
Then everything starts falling apart.
The movie overloads itself with mutant cameos, questionable effects and a version of Deadpool so badly received that Ryan Reynolds eventually spent years making jokes about killing him. Wolverine deserved a compelling origin story. What he received was one of the messiest superhero movies of its era.
12. The New Mutants (2020)
The idea behind The New Mutants remains more interesting than the finished movie. Taking younger mutants and placing them inside a horror story was exactly the kind of experimentation the franchise needed.
There are flashes where that works, particularly with Anya Taylor-Joy’s Magik and the film’s supernatural imagery. Unfortunately, the movie feels caught between teenage drama, superhero adventure and horror without fully committing to any of them.
After years of delays, its eventual release felt more like the final piece of unfinished Fox business than the beginning of a new mutant franchise.
11. X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
Days of Future Past left the younger X-Men series in an almost perfect position. Apocalypse responds by becoming bigger, louder and considerably less interesting.
Oscar Isaac disappears beneath layers of makeup as Apocalypse, while the movie introduces younger versions of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm and Nightcrawler. Quicksilver once again steals the show with another elaborate slow-motion sequence, but much of the remaining story gets buried beneath exposition and destruction.
It is not unwatchable. It is simply disappointing considering the movie that came immediately before it.
10. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
The Last Stand tries to tell two enormous X-Men stories at once: the mutant cure storyline and the Dark Phoenix Saga.
Neither gets enough room.
The film moves at an almost frantic pace, killing major characters and introducing new mutants faster than audiences can process what is happening. Yet there are still effective moments. Ian McKellen remains excellent as Magneto, Kelsey Grammer is inspired casting as Beast and the final battle on Alcatraz provides plenty of mutant spectacle.
It is messy, rushed and frustrating, but at least it never feels dull.
9. The Wolverine (2013)
James Mangold’s first Wolverine movie works best when it forgets that it eventually needs to become a superhero blockbuster.
Sending Logan to Japan gives Hugh Jackman something different to work with, particularly as Wolverine struggles with guilt following Jean Grey’s death. The idea of removing his healing factor also makes Logan unusually vulnerable and gives the action more consequence.
The final act becomes much more conventional once the Silver Samurai arrives, but The Wolverine showed that Logan could carry a more character-focused story. Mangold would take that idea considerably further four years later.
8. Deadpool 2 (2018)
The second Deadpool movie suffers from the usual sequel instinct to do more of everything. There are more mutants, bigger action scenes, more meta jokes and an entire X-Force assembled largely so the movie can immediately destroy it.
Fortunately, Ryan Reynolds remains completely comfortable as Wade Wilson, while Josh Brolin’s Cable and Zazie Beetz’s Domino make strong additions. The comedy occasionally overwhelms the story, but when the movie slows down, there is a surprisingly sincere emotional arc underneath all the violence and jokes.
It does not have the freshness of the first film, but it understands exactly what kind of sequel its audience wanted.
7. X-Men (2000)
The original X-Men looks almost modest compared with modern superhero movies. That is part of its charm.
Rather than immediately throwing dozens of characters and world-ending threats onto the screen, the film introduces the mutant world primarily through Wolverine and Rogue. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen immediately establish Professor X and Magneto as ideological opposites who still care deeply about one another.
Some elements have aged better than others, but its influence is difficult to overstate. Without X-Men succeeding in 2000, the superhero movie landscape that followed might have looked very different.
6. X-Men: First Class (2011)
Matthew Vaughn gave the franchise exactly the energy it needed after The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender take over as younger versions of Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, and their friendship provides the movie with its emotional center. Fassbender is particularly strong, giving Magneto the intensity of a revenge thriller protagonist before gradually moving him toward the villain audiences already know.
The 1960s setting, colorful costumes and Cold War backdrop make First Class feel different without disconnecting it from what came before.
5. Deadpool (2016)
Ryan Reynolds spent years trying to get another chance at Deadpool, and when he finally got it, he made sure nobody would confuse this version with the one from X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
The relatively small budget actually works in the movie’s favor. Instead of trying to compete with the main X-Men films in scale, Deadpool builds itself around Wade Wilson’s personality, fourth-wall-breaking humor and brutally creative action.
It also proved an R-rated superhero movie could become a massive mainstream hit without sanding down everything that made the character popular in the first place.
4. X2: X-Men United (2003)
For years, X2 was considered one of the best comic-book sequels ever made, and much of it still holds up.
The opening Nightcrawler attack on the White House immediately raises the stakes, while William Stryker gives the X-Men and Magneto a common enemy. The movie expands the mutant world without losing focus on the characters established in the first film.
Most importantly, the ideological conflict remains intact. Humans fear mutants, Magneto believes that fear will inevitably become violence and Xavier continues hoping coexistence is possible. The superhero action works because the movie understands the argument underneath it.
3. Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Deadpool & Wolverine should probably collapse beneath the weight of its cameos, timelines, meta commentary and decades of superhero history.
Instead, it works because Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman give all that chaos an emotional center.
Jackman’s return could easily have been a nostalgia stunt after Logan gave Wolverine such a definitive ending. Using an alternate version of the character allows the movie to preserve that conclusion while exploring a Logan who considers himself a failure.
The result serves as both an MCU adventure and an unexpectedly affectionate farewell to the Fox Marvel era. Beneath the jokes about corporate mergers and cinematic universes is a movie made by people who genuinely loved these characters.
2. X-Men: Days Of Future Past (2014)
If the X-Men timeline was already confusing before Days of Future Past, this movie responded by intentionally breaking it.
And somehow, it worked brilliantly.
Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine travels back to 1973 to prevent an assassination that will eventually lead to the Sentinels nearly exterminating mutants. That device allows the original cast and the younger First Class actors to exist inside the same story without feeling like a gimmick.
More importantly, the movie understands that Charles and Erik’s relationship is the heart of the franchise. The future may involve giant mutant-hunting machines, but everything ultimately depends on whether Charles Xavier can rediscover hope and whether Mystique chooses revenge over another path.
Few superhero movies have ever handled a massive ensemble this smoothly.
1. Logan (2017)
Logan barely feels like an X-Men movie, which may be exactly why it is the best one.
James Mangold strips away the costumes, world-ending villains and complicated continuity to tell a story about an exhausted man reaching the end of his life. Wolverine’s healing ability is failing, Professor X is deteriorating mentally and mutants have almost disappeared.
Then Laura enters Logan’s life.
Dafne Keen’s performance gives the movie its future while Hugh Jackman delivers the most vulnerable version of Wolverine he had ever played. Patrick Stewart is equally devastating as an aging Charles Xavier who can no longer fully control the extraordinary mind that once made him one of the world’s most powerful mutants.
The R rating allows the violence to finally match what Wolverine’s claws would realistically do, but the blood is not what makes Logan mature. The movie is about aging, regret, family and whether someone who has spent a lifetime surrounded by violence can leave something better behind.
After nearly two decades of playing Wolverine, Jackman finally got the movie the character deserved.
Even after his eventual return, Logan remains the high point of the X-Men film franchise.
The X-Men Are About To Begin An Entirely New Era
The timing of looking back at the Fox movies could hardly be better. During D23 on August 14, Marvel Studios finally pulled back the curtain on the new generation of X-Men that will carry the mutants into the MCU.
The newly announced lineup includes Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Kit Connor as Scott Summers/Cyclops, Christopher Abbott as Professor Charles Xavier, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette as Rogue and Maya Boyd as Storm. Adam Driver will also enter the mutant side of the MCU as Nathaniel Essex, better known as Mister Sinister.
Those are not easy roles to inherit. Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy each left very different impressions as Professor X, while Famke Janssen and Sophie Turner both spent years playing Jean Grey. James Marsden became the original live-action Cyclops for an entire generation, Halle Berry helped define Storm on the big screen and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine became so inseparable from the franchise that Marvel eventually found a way to bring him into the MCU itself.
The new cast therefore has an unusual challenge. Marvel cannot simply recreate what Fox did with younger actors and expect the characters to feel fresh. The MCU version of the X-Men will need its own personality, relationships and reasons for existing within a superhero world that already includes the Avengers, Fantastic Four and dozens of established characters.
Jake Schreier Gets The Keys To Xavier’s School
Marvel is putting that responsibility in the hands of Jake Schreier, who previously directed Thunderbolts*. Moving from that team to the X-Men makes him one of the more important filmmakers shaping the MCU’s next era.
Mister Sinister’s inclusion is particularly interesting because it also gives the reboot an opportunity to avoid immediately returning to Magneto as its central antagonist. Erik Lehnsherr is fundamental to X-Men mythology, but audiences have already watched Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender explore his relationship with Charles across multiple films.
Nathaniel Essex opens a different door. His obsession with mutant genetics, experimentation and bloodlines could allow Marvel to explore what makes mutants different from the other superpowered people already populating the MCU while introducing a villain who has never received a proper live-action X-Men movie treatment.
The Fox X-Men Aren’t Completely Gone Yet
Marvel’s new cast does not mean the previous generation has vanished overnight. The Multiverse has allowed several Fox-era characters to remain active long after the original movie series came to an end.
Hugh Jackman returned as Wolverine opposite Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool & Wolverine, while Patrick Stewart’s Professor X appeared in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Kelsey Grammer also returned as Beast, and Marvel has continued using its Multiverse Saga to blur what once seemed like a firm line between Fox’s Marvel films and the MCU.
That history becomes even more relevant heading into Avengers: Doomsday, where Marvel’s different worlds are increasingly converging. The transition from one X-Men generation to another may therefore be less of a clean reboot than audiences once expected.
More Than Two Decades Of Mutant Movies
Looking back at all 14 films shows just how strange the X-Men’s cinematic journey has been.
Fox never created the kind of tightly controlled formula that would later define other cinematic universes. That inconsistency gave us movies like Dark Phoenix and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but it also created enough freedom for filmmakers to make something as politically charged as X2, as playful as Deadpool, as ambitious as Days of Future Past and as emotionally devastating as Logan.
Now Sadie Sink, Kit Connor, Christopher Abbott, Samara Weaving, Inde Navarrette, Maya Boyd and Adam Driver are preparing to enter a franchise that already carries more than 25 years of live-action history.
They have plenty to learn from what came before them, including what worked and what absolutely did not.
If Marvel Studios can capture the character relationships that made the best Fox movies work while giving this new team an identity of its own, the top spot on this ranking may eventually have some new competition.
DC Fanboy! Superman is the greatest comic book character of all time. Favorite movies are Man of Steel, Goonies, Back To the Future
