Wolverine

Logan has been the backbone of the Fox X-Men franchise since 2000 — the character who grounds every ensemble film's fantastical premise in a recognisably human (and indestructible) frame. Hugh Jackman's performance across seventeen years and nine films evolved from action-hero archetype to something considerably more complex: a man whose inability to die has made him witness to the deaths of everyone he loves, and whose healing factor means he carries every wound long enough to feel it before it closes.

Logan (2017) is the definitive endpoint of Jackman's Wolverine: a Western-inflected character study in which Logan is dying, his healing factor failing, Charles Xavier has dementia, and the X-Men are gone. It's one of the best superhero films made and works as a standalone regardless of prior X-Men familiarity. Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) then resurrects Jackman for one more appearance — but the film is careful to honour Logan's ending by making this a variant Wolverine rather than a continuation. Watch the Fox X-Men films in release order, then Logan, then Deadpool & Wolverine for the complete arc.