X-Men is an American superhero film series based on the fictional superhero team of the same name, who originally appeared in a series of comic books created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and published by Marvel Comics. 20th Century Fox obtained the film rights to the characters in 1994, and after numerous drafts, Bryan Singer was hired to direct X-Men (2000) and its sequel, X2 (2003), while Brett Ratner directed X-Men: The Last Stand (2006).
After each film earned higher box office grosses than its predecessor, several spin-off films were released, including a trilogy focused on the character of Wolverine: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), The Wolverine (2013) and Logan (2017). A prequel, X-Men: First Class, was released in 2011, followed by sequels X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) (also a sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand), and X-Men: Apocalypse (2016). A spin-off film, Deadpool (2016) was also released.