Wolverine became the star of Fox’s X-Men franchise, appearing in the majority of its movies across a sprawling and complicated timeline. Hugh Jackman has played Wolverine in an impressive nine movies. Jackman appeared one more as Wolverine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 2024’s ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine. As ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine addressed Fox’s X-Men timeline after Disney acquired Fox and ended the franchise, it’s worth considering how Logan has developed through the movies in chronological order.

It should be noted that Wolverine reset the X-Men movie timeline in X-Men: Days of Future Past, complicating some of the X-Men chronology. For this article, Wolverine’s timeline will be dictated by his perspective. This places Days of Future Past later in the timeline, as it was Logan’s 2023 consciousness, which has experienced all previous events, that traveled back to 1975. It’s also worth noting that the X-Men movie timeline is notoriously inconsistent, with several X-Men plotholes created throughout the franchise.

Wolverine Movies In Release Date Order

Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine appeared in the first X-Men movie in 2000, with his iconic performance helping to establish the franchise. He subsequently had a leading role in its two sequels, before gaining his one solo movie. Despite X-Men Origins: Wolverine being panned by critics and fans, it did prompt two further sequels with The Wolverine, and the critically acclaimed Logan. Meanwhile, Jackman’s Wolverine made entertaining cameos in two X-Men prequels and reclaimed a leading role in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Wolverine Movies In Chronological Order

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (1845-1970s)

This was the fourth X-Men movie but is set first chronologically. It explored Wolverine’s early life and his time with Weapon X, covering approximately 125 years. It opened with a 12-year-old Wolverine discovering his mutant powers (including bone claws) while avenging his father’s murder. Logan forms a close bond with his half-brother, Victor Creed (Sabretooth), whom he fights alongside in various wars.

X-Men: Origins‘ opening montage shows Logan and Victor participating in major historical conflicts, including the American Civil War, World War I, and World War II, culminating in the D-Day Normandy landings. During the Vietnam War, they are recruited by William Stryker into the black ops unit Team X. This is the first time that Wolverine meets the infamously butchered ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool variant.

Years later, Logan was tricked into rejoining Stryker and consented to an adamantium bonding process. This coated his skeleton and claws in indestructible metal and his escape from the Weapon X facility. X-Men Origins: Wolverine culminated in a confrontation with Reynolds’ mutilated ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool and Logan losing his memory, leading directly into X-Men (2000).

X-Men: First Class (1962)

X-Men: First Class is set in 1962, placing it midway through the X-Men Origins narrative. During one memorable scene, Professor Xavier and Magneto approach Wolverine in a bar, hoping to recruit him into their fledgling team. Logan curtly interrupts with, “Go f*** yourself,” refusing their offer without a second thought. This short scene occurred while Wolverine was still a soldier in the US Army. It is presumably set just before his deployment to Vietnam and his affiliation with Team X.

X-Men Apocalypse (1983)

X-Men: Apocalypse is set in 1983 and features a very brief Wolverine appearance. While Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Nightcrawler navigated Stryker’s Weapon X facility, Xavier directed Jean to release “an old friend” captive in the facility. This is revealed to be Wolverine during the Weapon X experiments that gave him his metal skeleton, leading to his escape in his comic-accurate Weapon X costume.

As X-Men: Apocalypse happens after the timeline is reset in X-Men: Days of Future Past, this scene should technically be considered separately from the main X-Men timeline. As such, there is a discrepancy in the timeline as X-Men: Apocalypse establishes this event as happening in 1983, as opposed to the 1970s in X-Men Origins. However, the difference is inconsequential, and placing it here allows for a far superior Weapon X escape scene and teases Wolverine’s later infatuation with Jean Grey.

X-Men (2000)

Wolverine’s next chronological appearance was in the franchise’s first movie, X-Men (2000). X-Men was set in the present day, following on from X-Men Origins around 20 years later. This began the original X-Men trilogy during which Logan, without his memories, met and was recruited into the X-Men. During this time, Logan learns the benefits of working in a team after his time with Team X and years as a loner, and begins to semi-begrudgingly find his place among the group.

In X-Men (2000), Wolverine encounters Sabretooth, but the two don’t recognize each other – though their enmity is certainly suggested. The movie also establishes Wolverine’s love for Jean Grey and his rivalry with her paramour, Cyclops, both of which play key roles in many of the future movies and their respective storylines. As the very first X-Men movie, several plotholes were created by later X-Men movies and the narrative is missing references to events placed earlier in the timeline.

X2: X-Men United (2003)

X2: X-Men United delved into Wolverine’s past when William Stryker attacks the Xavier Insтιтute for Gifted Children and kidnaps several students. Wolverine was still without his memory of Styker and Weapon X at this point, but Stryker certainly remembers Logan. Logan learns of his ordeal during the Weapon X program and the adamantium bonding process, providing him with an integral part of his backstory that the character had lost his memories of for many years.

In X2: X-Men United’s climax, Wolverine battles Lady Deathstrike, another of Stryker’s creations, and ultimately kills her. Despite Stryker’s manipulations, Wolverine rejects the chance for revenge, choosing instead to save the mutant children and stop Stryker’s plan. This journey solidifies Wolverine’s role as a hero and integral member of the X-Men, further connecting him with his past and the team. However, moments later, Jean Grey sacrificed herself to save the team, devastating Wolverine.

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

In X-Men: The Last Stand, Wolverine faced some of his most challenging trials. The film centered on a newly developed “cure” for mutation, sparking intense debate among mutants about both whether the substance was safe or a ᴅᴇᴀᴅly ploy, and indeed whether the “cure” was needed, with a range of perspectives cropping up on each topic. Throughout the movie, Wolverine struggled with his feelings for Jean Grey, who returned from the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and transformed into the powerful and unstable Dark Phoenix.

This led to the tragic climax in The Last Stand, in which Wolverine confronts the Dark Phoenix. Understanding that Jean is no longer in control, Wolverine is forced to kill her to save countless lives, a heart-wrenching decision that underscores his deep love and enduring sacrifice. This act in X-Men: The Last Stand cements Logan’s role as a hero willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good, and also as a figure whose life is wreathed in tragedy throughout his extensive and event-filled life.

The Wolverine (2013)

The Wolverine opens with a flashback from 1945 in which Logan saves a Japanese soldier named Yashida after the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. The narrative then commences the timeline years later in 2013, after the events of The Last Stand. Haunted by the memories of Jean Grey’s death, Wolverine seeks solitude in the wilderness, distancing himself from the world he once knew. However, his isolation is interrupted when he is summoned to Japan by Yashida.

Upon arriving in Japan, Wolverine becomes entangled in a complex web of intrigue and betrayal. Logan faced off against formidable adversaries, including the enigmatic Viper and the ᴅᴇᴀᴅly Silver Samurai. Throughout his journey, he confronted his own mortality as his healing factor began to falter, leaving him vulnerable for the first time in centuries. With the increasing shutdown of Wolverine’s healing factor in Logan being a crucial part of his story and leading to his death, the introduction of this concept in The Wolverine was vital, even if the two movies aren’t directly connected.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2023 & 1973)

X-Men: Days of Future Past was set in two distinct time periods, 2023 and 1973. In 2023, Earth has been consumed by a dystopian future where mutants are hunted to near extinction by unstoppable Sentinels. With the aid of Kitty Pryde’s phasing abilities, Wolverine’s consciousness was sent back to his younger self in 1973 to prevent the post-apocalyptic future. This is before Wolverine gains his adamantium skeleton, and depicts him learning about his bone claws for the first time since losing his memory.

In 1973, Wolverine navigates a tumultuous era of political upheaval and mutant discrimination, seeking to unite the younger versions of Professor Xavier and Magneto to stop the creation of the Sentinels. Wolverine succeeded and managed to alter the course of history, averting the catastrophic future. This reset the X-Men timeline and restored several deceased characters to life, including Jean Grey and Cyclops, making it a very significant point in the history of both Wolverine and the greater overall X-Men movie story as well.

Logan (2029)

Logan portrays a future later than Days of Future Past where mutants are almost extinct, and Wolverine, now going by his birth name James Howlett, is a shadow of his former self. Set in an alternate universe separate from other X-Men movies, the movie follows an aging and ailing Logan caring for an ailing Charles Xavier in a remote hideout near the Mexican border. Their quiet existence is disrupted when a young mutant named Laura, possessing powers similar to Wolverine’s, enters their lives.

Pursued by ruthless mercenaries, Logan reluctantly takes on the role of protector, leading to a brutal and emotional journey. Ultimately, Logan sacrifices himself to ensure Laura’s safety and the survival of mutantkind, creating a sense of closure and redemption. Though not directly connected with the earlier timeline, Logan was considered the character’s swan song, completing Wolverine’s long and storied narrative – though this notably wasn’t Hugh Jackman’s final movie appearance as Wolverine, as ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine brings the actor back to the big screen as the iconic Marvel hero.

ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine

ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine makes the timeline of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine more outwardly confusing by introducing a new variant of the character into the mix. It’s confirmed that the version of Wolverine audiences last saw in Logan is still canonically ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, as ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool goes as far as to dig up his skeleton and use it in an extensive fight scene.

Needing to find another Wolverine to try and replace his own, as the death of the prior Wolverine is revealed to be bringing about the end of the universe, the Merc With A Mouth ends up teaming with “the worst Wolverine” after the pair find themselves trapped together in the Void. Notably, this variant happens to also be played by Hugh Jackman.

This Wolverine is also provided with a somewhat different backstory, that sees the X-Men having been annihilated while he was out drinking, leaving him with a profound sense of guilt about both not being there and his efforts to keep his distance from the team – constantly wearing the yellow suit they gave him as a testament to his regrets. As such, his story can’t be seen as a continuation of the prior movie Wolverine stories in quite the same way that might have been thought possible before the film’s release.

However, this new Wolverine does serve as the spiritual successor to the previous version of the hero, especially since the ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine ending shows the character living on Earth-10005 with Laura. Living in the Fox universe does make the new variant a replacement of sorts for the prior ᴅᴇᴀᴅ version, and his bond with X-23 also works to draw direct parallels between the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and living Wolverines, especially since Laura herself says the new version is similar to the version she grew close to in that both are more heroic than they perhaps believe themselves to be.

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman ᴀssured audiences that Logan‘s perfect ending would not be interfered with, and while the movie certainly sees ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool address Logan and Wolverine’s death, the story does indeed leave this finale intact. As such, the established Wolverine chronology remains the same – though it does include a new variant of the character – with ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine serving as a celebration of Fox’s superhero legacy.

What’s Next For Wolverine Movies?

Hugh Jackman Will Likely Appear In Secret Wars

Hugh Jackman is synonymous with the character of Wolverine at this point in time, given that he has portrayed the character for 25 years. Still, everyone thought he was done after Logan in 2017, but ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine got him out of retirement. With the tremendous success of that film, it seems likely that Marvel Studios will look to get him back for one more go around in Avengers: Secret Wars before they officially launch their own X-Men team in the main MCU timeline.

Though he wasn’t announced as part of the Avengers: Doomsday cast, the presence of many X-Men from the original Fox films makes it possible for him to have a surprise return in that film as well. There will come a time when Wolverine will have to be recast, especially with Marvel Studios wanting to focus on the X-Men once Avengers: Secret Wars closes out the Multiverse Saga.

Hugh Jackman can’t play the role forever (contrary to what Wade Wilson might believe) and a recast seems all but inevitable in the next few years. Hugh Jackman will always be Wolverine, but the long-term success of the MCU’s X-Men will require a brand-new take on the character, and Marvel Studios has proven time and again their ability to find fantastic talents for all these characters.

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  X-Men

  The X-Men franchise, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, centers on mutants with extraordinary abilities. Led by the powerful telepath Professor Charles Xavier, they battle discrimination and villainous mutants threatening humanity. The series explores themes of diversity and acceptance through a blend of action, drama, and complex characters, spanning comics, animated series, and blockbuster films.

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  Marvel Cinematic Universe

  The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a multimedia superhero franchise that began in 2008 with Paramount’s Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. The franchise quickly grew in popularity, with Disney eventually buying out Marvel Entertainment in 2009. The MCU consists of dozens of movies and TV shows, most notably Avengers: Endgame, WandaVision, and Loki.

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