Tier List
X-Men Movies Ranked: The Complete Tier List (2026)
All 14 films in Fox's X-Men saga, from the 2000 original through Logan, the Deadpool trilogy, and Deadpool & Wolverine, ranked from S-tier to D-tier. Then build your own X-Men tier list with head-to-head comparisons.
The Complete X-Men Tier List
The X-Men franchise practically invented the modern superhero movie, and then spent two decades veering from all-time greats to legendary misfires. Across 14 films and multiple timelines, it gave us Logan, the Deadpool trilogy, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, sometimes within a few years of each other. Here's every Fox-era X-Men film ranked into classic S/A/B/C/D tiers. Disagree with where First Class landed? Settle it yourself in minutes with Shortlist.
Logan
(2017)The greatest X-Men film and one of the best superhero movies ever made. A bleak, R-rated western that gives Hugh Jackman's Wolverine the elegiac send-off he deserved. Earned an Oscar nomination for its screenplay.
X2: X-Men United
(2003)Bryan Singer's sequel perfected the formula: the Nightcrawler White House opening, Magneto's prison break, and a near-perfect ensemble. The high point of the original era.
X-Men: Days of Future Past
(2014)A time-travel epic that united the original and First Class casts and soft-rebooted the timeline. The Quicksilver kitchen sequence alone is worth the price of admission.
Deadpool
(2016)The R-rated, fourth-wall-breaking gamble that became a phenomenon. Ryan Reynolds was born to play Wade Wilson, and its success rewrote the rulebook for comic-book movies.
X-Men: First Class
(2011)A stylish 1960s reboot built on the electric Xavier-Magneto dynamic between James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. Re-energized the franchise after Origins.
Deadpool & Wolverine
(2024)The Merc with a Mouth crashes the MCU and drags a reluctant Wolverine along. A loving, cameo-stuffed sendoff to the Fox X-Men era and a box-office juggernaut.
X-Men
(2000)The film that kicked off the modern superhero era. It took comic-book movies seriously and proved an ensemble of mutants could anchor a blockbuster. Hugely influential.
Deadpool 2
(2018)Bigger, funnier, and home to the X-Force gag. Introduces Cable and Domino while keeping the meta humor sharp, even if it lacks the freshness of the original.
The Wolverine
(2013)A grounded, Japan-set character study that course-corrected after Origins. The bullet-train fight is a highlight; the third act is where it stumbles.
X-Men: The Last Stand
(2006)Brett Ratner's entry fumbled the beloved Dark Phoenix Saga and killed off characters carelessly. Some big set pieces, but a disappointing close to the original trilogy.
X-Men: Apocalypse
(2016)A bloated villain movie with a muddy CGI finale. Oscar Isaac is wasted under heavy makeup, though the second Quicksilver sequence is a bright spot.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
(2009)Infamous for botching Deadpool by sewing his mouth shut. A muddled origin story widely considered the franchise low point, until two more challengers arrived.
Dark Phoenix
(2019)A second, equally unsuccessful crack at the Dark Phoenix Saga. A flat, troubled production that limped the Fox era to a close at the box office.
The New Mutants
(2020)A horror-tinged spin-off stuck in release limbo for years. Interesting ideas, but it arrived as an afterthought and landed with little impact.
Build your own X-Men tier list
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How to Build Your Own X-Men Tier List
Almost everyone puts Logan and X2 at the top and Origins and Dark Phoenix at the bottom, but the huge, messy middle is where the real debates live. Is Days of Future Past better than First Class? Where does Deadpool & Wolverine rank? The fastest way to settle it is head-to-head:
- Open Shortlist and search for each X-Men film by name.
- Add them to a ranking: create a custom "X-Men" list so it only contains these movies.
- Compare head-to-head: the app shows you two films at a time. Pick the one you prefer. That's it.
- Watch your tier list form: your complete X-Men ranking builds itself in a couple of minutes.
- Share it: every ranking gets a shareable link. Post it, argue about it, send it to the group chat.
Read more about the comparison-based approach in our movie tier list guide.
What Order Should You Watch the X-Men Movies In?
The X-Men timeline is famously tangled. For the simplest experience, watch in release order. For a chronological run, start with the prequels: First Class (1962), Days of Future Past (1973), Apocalypse (1983), Dark Phoenix (1992): then the original trilogy (X-Men, X2, The Last Stand), followed by the standalone Wolverine films ending with Logan. The Deadpool films sit loosely alongside, with Deadpool & Wolverine bridging into the MCU.
X-Men Tier List FAQ
What is the best X-Men movie?
Logan (2017) is the most common pick, a critically acclaimed, R-rated character drama that earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. X2: X-Men United (2003) and Days of Future Past (2014) are the usual runners-up.
How many X-Men movies are there?
The Fox X-Men universe includes 14 films: the original trilogy, the three Wolverine solo films, the four First Class-era prequels, The New Mutants, and the three Deadpool movies (counting Deadpool & Wolverine, which carried the saga into the MCU).
Are the Deadpool movies part of the X-Men franchise?
Yes, the Deadpool films were produced under Fox's X-Men license and feature mutants like Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and Cable. Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) explicitly closes out the Fox era while folding the characters into Marvel Studios' MCU.
What is the worst X-Men movie?
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and Dark Phoenix (2019) are the usual picks for the bottom, with The New Mutants (2020) close behind. Origins is especially infamous for its botched version of Deadpool. It's exactly the kind of debate a head-to-head ranking is built to settle.
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