The franchise first began back in 2000 with Bryan Singer's aptly titled, X-Men. It spawned two sequels, 2002's highly-praised X2: X-Men United, and 2006's widely-disappointing X-Men: The Last Stand.Jackman became a bona fide action-star and reprised his role in two spinoff films, 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the 2013 sequel, The Wolverine.That brings us to the prequel trilogy beginning with 2011's X-Men: First Class, remaining in the same timeline as the originals. It was followed by 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past.

With the exception of a small but memorable cameo from Jackman in this year's Apocalypse, neither of Wolverine's standalone films have a solid connection to the latest X-film.Similarly, the R-rated smash hit Deadpool can also be skipped as the plot has no relation to Apocalypse.What about the original trilogy that started it all? Nope, you can skip all of those as well thanks to the time-traveling plot of Days of Future Past.

So, out of all nine movies, viewers only need to watch First Class and Days of Future Past to fully understand the characters and plot.

Fans were first introduced to shape-shifting Mystique in the original X-Men trilogy. The ultimate femme fatale, Mystique was undoubtedly evil. But that all changed in X-Men: First Class. Instead of working against the X-Men, she was one of them. However, by the end of the film, her alliances shifted towards the much darker Magneto, and by X-Men: Days of Future Past, she returned as the villainous assassin that fans were familiar with. Once again though, by end of that movie, she found her way back to the side of good.

So, which side does the ravenous blue beauty find herself this go-around? You'll have to wait and see for yourself.

The complex relationship between Mystique (Lawrence), Magneto (Fassbender) and Xavier(McAvoy) is once again the main focal point of the film. In First Class, we got to see these characters meet for the first time. In Days of Future Past, Mystique turned on Magneto and thwarted his assassination attempt on the President of the United States.

X-Men: Apocalypse is set 10 years after these events, which were crucial in shaping who these characters have come to be when we catch up with them.

Another returning character is Rose Byrne's CIA agent, Moira MacTaggert. However, one thing missing is her memory. She was critical in First Class, but after the catastrophic events she witnessed, Xavier used his telepathy to wipe away her memories.

After being completely absent and not even mentioned in Days of Future Past, she makes a welcome return in Apocalypse, but with no prior knowledge of any of these characters she has spent so much time with in the past.

While fans of the comics know that Magneto is Quicksilver's father, it was only subtly referenced in Days of Future Past, almost as a passing joke. But now, it is fully addressed and adds a thick layer of context to a character that was previously only used for comic relief. But fear not – he's still incredibly entertaining in Apocalypse.

Yes, this is a superhero film. Yes, there is tons of action. But there's also a lot of heart in this -- particularly when it comes to X-Men's #OTP (One True Pairing) -- Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner).

We met them in the original trilogy, and while they were very much a couple, the majority of the films were spent focusing on their love triangle with Jackman's Wolverine. But in Apocalypse, we finally get to see these young and powerful mutants meet and we get a front-row seat to the beginning sparks of what will eventually become X-Men's super-couple.