Every X-Men Movie You Need to Watch Before Avengers: Doomsday
If I had to guess, I reckon that even the most Phase-6-sceptical MCU fans are probably excited at the prospect of seeing the original X-Men in Avengers: Doomsday.
Marvel Studios probably would’ve kept the team’s reappearance as a surprise in a more confident era for the franchise (think Civil War up to Spider-Man: No Way Home), but after a few years of unfortunate events on-and-off camera, the studio can perhaps be forgiven for leading with its trump cards this time out.
Whatever the case, we’ve basically known since March 2025 that Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier, Ian McKellen’s Magneto, James Marsden’s Cyclops, Alan Cumming’s Nightcrawler and Rebecca Romijn’s Mystique (or at least some multiversal variant of them) will feature in the upcoming superhero teamup—likely for the purpose of passing the baton on to a new generation of X-Men. More recently, having caught a glimpse of a rather cosy Charles and Erik and a rather worked-up Cyclops in the teaser trailer, even fans who’ve been a bit on the fence about this Avengers movie are allowing themselves to get a little excited.
Need a primer on which X-Men movies to watch before that Doomsday clock finishes its countdown? We’ve got you covered. In the list below, you’ll find every X-Men movie that has the potential to be significant to the Doomsday plot, listed in chronological order. Read on to discover more and use the guide below to find them on services like Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere.
When Stewart and Co. step onto the screen in Doomsday, it will have been more than 26 years since the first time they played these roles. Coming two years before Sam Raimi perfected the formula with Spider-Man, X-Men was arguably the first Marvel movie that really resonated both with regular cinemagoers and comic book fans. It’s important for Doomsday as it serves as a reminder of the legacy of these movies and how much these characters (and the actors’ performances) have developed in that time.
Like most origin stories in the early days of comic-book movies, X-Men offers a pretty straigh-tforward introduction to this world—as seen through the eyes of Anna Paquin’s Rogue, a gifted newcomer at Xavier’s school, and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, a lone wolf whose reluctance to work with the team is only outweighed by his love for Jean Grey—Cyclops’ partner.
Even with 23 years of comic book movies under our belt since X2, nobody who saw this movie in cinemas has ever forgotten the thrill of its opening sequence—in which Nightcrawler attempts to assassinate the president by ducking and diving through a series of smoky teleportations in the corridors of the White House. It was a landmark moment in special effects then, and it still, somehow, looks incredible now.
This excellent sequel might be the most important movie to see before Doomsday, as it’s the X-Men movie that goes deepest into Xavier and Magneto’s relationship and their contrasting approaches to Mutant integration—a compelling clash of non-violent and radical thinking that some believe was inspired by figures like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
If you had to skip one movie on this list, I would easily suggest The Last Stand. It’s not only because this regrettable trilogy-closer was directed by Brett Ratner, a filmmaker back in recent news with Melania. It’s also just not very good.
Having said that, it’s arguably important for Doomsday as it completes the arc of the original trilogy, albeit with none of the brains or charm of the first two movies—or anything else on this list. It does, however, have Vinnie Jones playing the Juggernaut, which, TBF, is objectively funny.
At the time of writing, it looks unlikely that any of the actors from X-Men: First Class will reprise their roles in Doomsday. In case anyone’s forgotten, they are the younger versions of Stewart, McKellen and Co.’s characters—so it wouldn’t make much sense for everyone to show up, unless in flashback.
The movie is good to watch for background, nonetheless, however, as it explains the roots of Magneto’s deep mistrust of humans as well as the basis of his on-again, off-again friendship with Charles. This one is also set during the Cuban Missile Crisis, so if you like when superhero stories interact with historical events (like Wonder Woman or The First Avenger), you’ll probably have a good time with it.
Long before the MCU started playing with multiverses and variants, X-Men: Days of Future Past pulled off the seemingly impossible by squeezing actors from the original trilogy and First Class into the same movie, albeit with the younger and older stars sticking to their own timelines—in the 1970s and the future/present, respectively.
Despite taking place in an alternative future, and a much darker one at that, this 2014 movie shows a scenario where Charles and Erik have at least temporarily let bygones be bygones to face a deadly foe, which might offer some context for the truce we apparently saw in the teaser for Avengers: Doomsday.
Now, this one might be complicated to integrate—not that that has ever stopped Marvel Studios before. Spoiler alert, but Charles Xavier actually dies in James Mangold’s excellent, Oscar-nominated, superhero western, Logan—albeit accidentally, thanks to X-24.
With the Wolverine of that film now canon in the MCU, following the events of Deadpool & Wolverine, is there a chance we might see a heartwrenching reunion of Logan and the professor in Doomsday? Knowing Marvel, I certainly wouldn’t rule it out.
As mentioned above, if you’re watching Logan in preparation for Avengers: Doomsday, it might also be worth brushing up on Deadpool & Wolverine—both to see how Logan ended up emotionally at the end of that movie and to wonder, once again, how Reynolds’ Merc is ever going to land in a superhero movie with real emotional sweep.
All will be revealed on December 18.
