The X-Men are a superhero team created by Marvel Comics that appear in comic books and other forms of media. It is one of the highest-grossing media franchises.
Television
Animation 1960s The X-Men made their first animated appearance on The Marvel Super Heroes TV series in 1966 with Professor X commanding the original X-Men line-up of Cyclops, Beast, Marvel Girl, Angel, and Iceman. In this episode the X-Men are not referred to as the X-Men but rather as the Allies for Peace.
1980s The X-Men guest-starred in several episodes of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, starting with a flashback in "The Origin of Iceman". X-Men member Sunfire appeared in a later episode teaming up with the Amazing Friends. The X-Men's next appearance was in "A Firestar is Born", which included appearances from Professor X, Storm, Angel, Cyclops, Wolverine and Juggernaut. The X-Men returned the following season in "The X-Men Adventure", with appearances from Professor X, Cyclops, Kitty Pryde (as Sprite), Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus and Thunderbird. In 1989, Marvel Productions produced a half-hour X-Men pilot episode titled X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men. It related the story of Kitty Pryde's first adventure with Professor X, Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Dazzler as they fought against Magneto, the White Queen, Juggernaut, the Blob, Pyro and Toad. The series was never picked up but the single episode aired infrequently in syndication during the Marvel Action Universe series and was released on video in 1990.
1990s In 1992, Fox, 20th Century Fox Television, and Fox Kids launched an X-Men animated series with the roster of Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue, Storm, Beast, Gambit, Jubilee, Jean Grey and Professor X with Morph making occasional appearances. The two-part pilot episode, "Night of the Sentinels", began a five-season series, ending in 1997. The X-Men guest-starred on Spider-Man: The Animated Series in episodes "The Mutant Agenda" and "Mutants Revenge", when Spider-Man seeks Professor X's help. Storm would later guest-star in the Secret Wars arc. In 1995, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Gambit, Wolverine, Storm, and Juggernaut, along with the Scarlet Spider, made cameos in the Fantastic Four series, in "Nightmare in Green".
2000s In 2000, The WB Network launched X-Men: Evolution, which portrayed many of the X-Men as teenagers attending a regular public high school while training to control their powers at the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. The series ended in 2003 after its fourth season. The main cast of young X-Men comprised Cyclops, Jean Grey, Spyke, Rogue, Kitty Pryde (as Shadowcat), and Nightcrawler. Their adult mutant mentors included Professor X, Storm, Wolverine, and Beast. The series also featured the New Mutants starting in the second season, consisting of Boom Boom, Sunspot, Iceman, Wolfsbane, Magma, Multiple, Jubilee, Berzerker, and Cannonball. Angel also makes appearances. Colossus, X-23 and Gambit appear as villains in this incarnation. The series was released by Warner Bros. Television Studios instead of releasing by 20th Century Fox Television. In 2003, the X-Men and mutant-kind were mentioned in an episode of the short-lived CGI series Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, "The Party". Peter Parker is quoted as saying, "I bet the X-Men get to go to parties." Soon after, he is ambushed by a group of police officers, one of them calling him a "mutant freak". Wolverine and the X-Men debuted in the United States on January 23, 2009. It featured Wolverine, Emma Frost, Cyclops, Beast, Storm, Kitty Pryde (as Shadowcat), Iceman, Rogue, Nightcrawler, Angel/Archangel, Jean Grey and Professor X. The show was cancelled after one season. The X-Men appeared on Cartoon Network's The Super Hero Squad Show. Unlike their comic book counterparts, mutants are not discriminated against in Super Hero City, resulting in Professor X opening "Mutant High", where his students are peacefully tutored by the Professor while helping out other heroes to defend the city from the villains of Villainville led by Doctor Doom. The X-Men are featured heavily in the episode "Mysterious Mayhem at Mutant High!". Wolverine and later Scarlet Witch both appear as main members of the titular Super Hero Squad, while the series also includes appearances from Cyclops, Iceman, Jean Grey, Kitty Pryde, Lockheed, Colossus, Storm, Professor X, X-23, and Firestar.
2010s As part of a four-series collaboration between the Japanese Madhouse animation house and Marvel, the X-Men and Wolverine both starred in two separate 12 episode anime series that premiered in Japan on Animax and in the United States on G4 in 2011. The X-Men series deals with the X-Men coming to Japan to investigate the disappearance of Armor. The antagonists are the U-Men. It featured Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Beast, Emma Frost, Armor and Charles Xavier, as well as frequent flashbacks with Jean Grey. Other X-Men like Colossus and Rogue made cameo appearances in the finale.
2020s On November 12, 2021, Marvel announced a revival of the 1992–1997 animated series titled X-Men '97 produced by Marvel Studios and was released in 2024 on Disney+. Several cast members from the original animated series reprised their roles along with new cast members. Beau DeMayo was the head writer for the first two seasons and executive producer for the series with director Larry Houston, and showrunners and producers Eric and Julia Lewald from the original series acting as consultants. DeMayo was fired as head writer in March 2024 and Matthew Chauncey was hired to replace him that July. X-Men '97 premiered in 2024.
Live-action In 1996, the TV movie Generation X aired on Fox Network. Initially a television pilot, it was later broadcast as a television film. It is based on the Marvel comic book series Generation X. The film featured Banshee and Emma Frost as the headmasters of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and M, Skin, Mondo, Jubilee. The team battled a mad scientist who used a machine to develop psychic powers. In October 2015, 20th Century Fox Television announced that FX had ordered a pilot titled Legion. The series tells the story of David Haller, who is diagnosed as schizophrenic, but following a strange encounter is confronted with the possibility that the voices he hears and the visions he sees might be real. The first season premiered in February 2017. It ended with the third season. The Gifted is a 20th Century Fox Television series that focuses on two parents who discover their children possess mutant powers. Forced to go on the run from a hostile government, the family joins up with an underground network of mutants and must fight to survive. While the X-Men have been disbanded in the series, the underground network of mutants features comic regulars Blink, Polaris, Thunderbird and the Stepford Cuckoos. Fox ended the series after 2 seasons. In WandaVision (2021), Evan Peters appeared as a character named Ralph Bohner who poses as Wanda Maximoff's deceased twin brother Pietro, a reference to his role in the X-Men series as Peter Maximoff.
Motion comics Marvel produced motion comics based on Astonishing X-Men, releasing them on Hulu, iTunes, the PlayStation Store and other video services. These animated episodes were released on DVD through Shout! Factory. It has been announced that Marvel Knights Animation will continue animating Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's run. Starting with the second storyline of the series Astonishing X-Men: Dangerous.
The titles in the series include: Astonishing X-Men: Gifted (2009) Astonishing X-Men: Dangerous (April 2012) Astonishing X-Men: Torn (August 2012) Astonishing X-Men: Unstoppable (November 2012)
Film
X-Men: Darktide In 2006, Minimates released a short animated brickfilm, X-Men: Darktide on DVD with a box set of figures. The story involved the X-Men battling the Brotherhood at an oil rig. The team consists of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Archangel, Wolverine, Beast, Xavier and Storm. The Brotherhood team is Mystique, Magneto and Juggernaut.
Film franchise
From 2000 to 2020, 20th Century Studios (known as 20th Century Fox at the time) released thirteen superhero films as part of the X-Men film series.
The first three films focus on the conflict between Professor Xavier and Magneto, who have opposing views on humanity's relationship with mutants. While Xavier believes humanity and mutants can coexist, Magneto believes a war is coming, which he intends to fight and win. The Bryan Singer-directed X-Men was released on July 14, 2000, with the team roster of Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Cyclops (James Marsden), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Storm (Halle Berry) and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). Singer returned for the sequel X2 released on May 2, 2003, with Rogue (Anna Paquin), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), and Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) joining the team. Singer was replaced by Brett Ratner for X-Men: The Last Stand, released on May 26, 2006, with Beast (Kelsey Grammer), Angel (Ben Foster), Shadowcat (Elliot Page) and Colossus (Daniel Cudmore) joining. Critics praised Singer's films for their dark, realistic tone, and their focus on prejudice as a subtext. Although Ratner's film was met with mixed reviews, it out-grossed both of its predecessors.
A sequel tetralogy that served as a prequel to the original trilogy started with X-Men: First Class. Following a young Professor X (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Havok (Lucas Till) and Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones) as the original team, the film was directed by Matthew Vaughn and released on June 3, 2011. X-Men: Days of Future Past, a sequel to both the original trilogy and X-Men: First Class, with Singer returning to direct, was released on May 23, 2014. The film centered around the original trilogy members using time travel to gain help from their younger counterparts of the prequel tetralogy. X-Men: Apocalypse was released on May 27, 2016, with Mystique leading the team of Beast, Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner). The tetralogy concluded with a fourth film, Dark Phoenix, written and directed by Simon Kinberg and released on June 7, 2019, and featured the same roster as Apocalypse.
Three spin-off films focusing on Wolverine were also released: X-Men Origins: Wolverine, an origin story of Wolverine that was directed by Gavin Hood, was released on May 1, 2009, followed by The Wolverine, directed by James Mangold and set in Japan, released on July 26, 2013. The series concluded with Logan, once again directed by Mangold and released on March 3, 2017. The film was set in 2029.
Two further spin-offs centering around Deadpool were released in 2016 and 2018. Deadpool, which features Colossus (Andre Tricoteux and voiced by Stefan Kapičić) and his X-Men trainee Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) was released on February 12, 2016, while Deadpool 2 was released on May 18, 2018, with returning X-Men members Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead and new member Yukio (Shiori Kutsuna) helping Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) as a X-Men trainee. The film also features cameo appearances of Professor X, Cyclops, Quicksilver, Storm, Nightcrawler and Beast from the sequel tetralogy. An adaptation of X-Force was also in development at 20th, with Jeff Wadlow writing and Drew Goddard directing.
Another spin-off and the final film of the franchise, The New Mutants, was released on August 28, 2020, directed by Josh Boone, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Knate Gwaltney.
Marvel Cinematic Universe