Wolverine movies ranked
Wolverine is one of the most popular X-Men. So far, we’ve seen three standalone Wolverine movies, in addition to the other X-Men movies and spinoffs.
As of right now, it doesn’t look like Marvel has many plans for more standalone Wolverine movies, so we thought it’d be a great time to rank the Wolverine movies starring Hugh Jackman and spanning about a decade.
We shared the list of Wolverine movies in order:
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
- The Wolverine (2013)
- Logan (2017)
Let’s get the list started with the first (and unfortunately, worst) Wolverine movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
3. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
- Release Year: 2009
- Director: Gavin Hood
- Cast: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Dominic Monaghan, and Ryan Reynolds
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is exactly what it sounds like; the movie tells the origin story of Wolverine and how he joined up with the X-Men after fightings wars for hundreds of years. In the movie, Wolverine originally joins up with a mutant team led by William Stryker known as Team X, but he disagrees with how the group functions and what they do. Wolverine leaves the team, but Stryker and Team X kill Wolverine’s wife. He makes it his mission to stop them, and he’s not alone.
Overall, this movie isn’t that bad, but it’s just not very good either. For all of its potential, it never lived up to the hype. This was right after X-Men, X2, and X-Men: The Last Stand captivated audiences around the world. Unfortuantely, X-Men Origins: Wolverine just wasn’t up to the standard set by those movies, especially the first two movies. But, it looks like the lessons were learned. Jackman never starred in another bad Wolverine movie.
Up next is the second-best Wolverine movie. You probably already know what it is!
2. The Wolverine
- Release Year: 2013
- Director: James Mangold
- Cast: Hugh Jackman, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Famke Janssen, and Will Yun Lee
The Wolverine premiered in theaters in 2013. It’s the second Wolverine movie, following X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009. There’s a four-year gap, and The Wolverine was released two years after X-Men: First Class, which is largely considered one of the best X-Men movies to date.
In the movie, Logan/Wolverine is still grappling with the death of Jean Grey and the events that took place in X-Men: The Last Stand, which was released in 2006, but because the first Wolverine movie was about Logan’s origin story, we don’t get to see how he’s dealing with those events until The Wolverine.
At the request of an old friend, Ichiro, he travels to Japan and tries to protect Mariko (Tao Okamoto) and finds himself in the middle of a problematic situation. Logan is forced to stop the Silver Samuriai to save Mariko.
While not the best of the X-Men movies, this is definitevely a good movie. It has a lot going for it, and it’s so much better than X-Men Origins: Wolverine. We also get so much more of the mental and emotional battle that plagues Logan in this movie, which sets up, in many ways, the final film of the trilogy in Logan.
Now, we’re on to the best Wolverine movie. There’s really no debate about this one!
1. Logan
- Release Year: 2017
- Director: James Mangold
- Cast: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, and Dafne Keen
It’s kind of jarring just how much better Logan is than all of the other Wolverine movies. It might even be the best X-Men movie we’ve ever seen, although Deadpool, X2, X-Men, and a few of the X-Men prequels and sequels are in the conversation, too.
Logan tells the story of Wolverine as he tries to protect a young girl with similar powers to his, Laura, from those who wish her harm. He also tries to take care of an aging and unstable Professor X.
Logan also made history as the first superhero movie to be nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards. There was even some love for Best Picture during the 2018 Awards cycle. That’s high praise, and it definitely deserves it.
Unfortunately, there is no Logan 2 in the works. FOX was going to make it happen, and Mangold was writing a sequel titled Laura, but when FOX was acquired by Disney, the sequel was killed. It’s just a bummer because it would have been amazing!
Logan looked like it might be Hugh Jackman’s last spin as Wolverine, but he will be back in Deadpool 3.