How do you watch all the Marvel movies in order? It was bad enough with all the MCU films, but now that we have the Disney Plus shows and one-off specials, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is starting to get a tad unruly. Between battling the Nazis in WWII, fighting living planets, a legitimate sitcom, and whatever’s going on in the Asgard, the franchise of Earth’s mightiest heroes stretches continues to grow and expand.
As fun as all of this is, it does make catching up hard. Imagine just now learning about Iron Man and Captain America and the other core MCU characters, before getting flung into space for the Guardians of the Galaxy MCU movies, it’s a trip! And that’s without mentioning the revolving door of Marvel villains.
That’s where we come in, and using our handy guide, you’ll know the best way to watch all the MCU Marvel movies in order, as well as all the Marvel series. Our list flows chronologically, starting with the story set earliest in Earth’s history right up to the present day, and the year each film is set is given with the title. Fantasy movies, science fiction movies, sci-fi series, and animated series all are part of the universe now, so let’s map it all out.
Captain America: The First Avenger (1943-1945)
The introductions of Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, the Red Skull, and Agent Carter, in a period movie about Captain America helping to stop the Nazis from harnessing an Infinity Stone for nefarious use. Firmly in WWII, between the eyars of 1943 and 1945. We’re sure nobody involved quite understood what they were helping kick off, but the lively energy here makes a perfect way to start the universe.
Agent Carter seasons 1 and 2 (1946 and 1947)
In the first season of Agent Carter, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), Edwin Jarvis (James D’Arcy), and Howard Stark (Dominic West) investigate a possible Soviet terrorist attack. The two seasons follow the aftermath of WWII and Steve’s sacrifice, and together they help flesh out the post-Steve Rogers, pre-Tony Stark world.
Captain Marvel (1995)
The birth of the Avengers Initiative, or at least, what inspired Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to start putting it together. As a stopgap between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel is a throwback to the mid ’90s, setting up the shapeshifting Skrulls, while also lining up some new heroes.
Iron Man (2010)
The Marvel film, directed by Jon Favreau, that started it all, taking the franchise into the 21st century. What more can be said about Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark in the Iron Man cast, and the eccentric world his fortune bankrolled? Even now, when Nick Fury pops up in that post-credits scene, it’s spine-tingling stuff.
Iron Man 2 (2011)
Iron Man 2 is almsot consecutive to its prequel, only moving forward by one year. Mickey Rourke in a superhero flick is a novelty, of course, and let’s not forget Don Cheadle taking up the mantle of James ‘War Machine’ Rhodes from Terrence Howard.
The Incredible Hulk (2011)
William Hurt’s Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross is just about all that still ties this to the MCU as a whole, originally happening around the same time as Iron Man 2. Studio politics mean we may never see Mark Ruffalo get to lead a Hulk movie like Edward Norton does here, which is a shame, and any further significance has been downplayed since this came out.
Thor (2011)
Like Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor does a lot of work in setting up the overall mythology of the MCU, jumping in right when Iron Man 2 and Incredible Hulk are occurring. We get the Tesseract, multiple dimensions, and, of course, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, the latter becoming an early fan-favourite. It doesn’t hurt Anthony Hopkins, Idris Elba, and Kat Dennings are involved as Thor characters, either.
The Avengers (aka Avengers Assemble) (2012)
Maybe the most important blockbuster this century? Certainly not far off. Watching the heroes come together for the invasion of New York does everything you expect it to, turning everyone into household names in the process, matching the release year in 2012, on the heels of the previous phase of movies.
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The changing of leadership from Stark to Rogers starts here, and the upcoming Loki spin-off draws from these events. The 360-degree shot of Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye, and Black Widow rallying together for the first time still absolutely rules, and we get our first look at Thanos in the post-credits scene. Cinema.
Iron Man 3 (2012)
The end of Tony Stark’s trilogy is contentious among the fanbase, but it’s a crucial piece of character work in the shadow of The Avengers that separates Tony from the suit. Indeed, the guilt and resentment that would lead Tony astray in later movies is established, and we get some great action scenes besides.
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Right after Tony’s existential crisis is Thor’s second outing, which is down beside The Incredible Hulk for the least consequential MCU movie. The reveal of the Reality Stone, and Benicio Del Toro’s first appearance as The Collector give it some substance, but on the whole, it doesn’t add much.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Bucky Barnes returns as The Winter Soldier in the MCU sequel that reshapes the universe as we know it, just two years after the events in New York City. SHIELD turns out to be Hydra, which is then dismantled by Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Sam Wilson. Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, this was a turning point for Marvel Studios, and in proper order, it still ramps up the action.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Next, we take to the stars for a space-bound team of misfits, lowlifes, and thieves who’d become crucial in the war against Thanos, that’s around the same time as The Winter Soldier. It’s hard to pick favourites, of course, but Groot (Vin Diesel) and Drax (Dave Bautista) do have a tendency to steal the show.
We get another Infinity Stone, and Josh Brolin’s first appearance as Thanos, who’s the adopted father of Gamora (Zoe Saldana). We are Groot.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2014)
Sticking to space, James Gunn’s follow-up is right on the trot of the previous film, and it has Kurt Russell as Ego, The Living Planet, so you know it’s good. The second volume contains more personal drama than the first, and the familial conflict between Gamora and Nebula (Karen Gillan) directly ties into the oncoming face-off against Thanos. In the post-credits scenes, we learn cosmic Marvel hero Adam Warlock is on the way, from the gold-skinned Sovereign race – exciting times ahead.
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Back down to Earth for the team’s fight against Ultron in 2015, and the start of their unravelling. Tony Stark makes it clear he’s looking for a way out of the avenging business, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff join the fray, and Vision is born via the Mind Stone. Very much a setup for the third phase of the universe.
Ant-Man (2015)
Away from the planet-threatening stakes of the Avengers is Ant-Man, led by Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang, right after Age of Ultron. Some of the 70-odd year gap between The first Avenger and now is explored, showing Hank Pym’s separation from SHIELD, and the tech market away from the shadow of Stark Industries.
Not all superhero stories need to be about the end of the world, and Lang’s story of a dad trying to do right by his daughter grounds the franchise before we head into even grander territory.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
The rift between Stark and Rogers tears the Avengers apart in the months after Age of Ultron. Bucky’s dark past as the Winter Soldier is exposed, and Spider-Man actor Tom Holland and Black Panther are introduced. Civil War covers a lot of ground and delivers on the action to boot.
Spidey takes on Captain America, The Falcon tests Vision’s accuracy, and Iron Man and War Machine have to wrangle Giant-Man in the central hero-on-hero fight. The big second act tragedy heading into Thanos showing up.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2016)
Fresh from web-slinging through Civil War, Tom Holland, the MCU’s Peter Parker, gets his own Spider-Man movie set in the same year. Everyone’s favourite friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, hellbent on becoming an Avenger, learns balancing heroism with being a decent student isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
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Vulture’s plan may be thwarted by the webhead, but Michael Keaton’s performance as the working class crook gives Holland a real run for his money.
Doctor Strange (2016)
We can surmise that Civil War, Far From Home, and Doctor Strange all have considerable overlap with each other in 2016. After getting an offhand mention in The Winter Soldier, Doctor Strange finally enters the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film shows his complete origin story, from world-famous surgeon to master of the mystic arts and, like Guardians of the Galaxy, it widens the palette for Marvel Studios productions.
Characters flow in and out of cascading realities, and physics becomes a kaleidoscope, controlled by those who have done the appropriate training. The Time Stone is revealed, and Strange takes his place in New York’s Sanctum Sanctorum as a protector of Earth.
Black Panther (2018)
We’ll be honest, things get a little fuzzy around here. The Ryan Coogler-directed Black Panther seems to shortly after Civil War, but the director states it’s in 2017. We’ll just call it as around 2016 and 2017.
Newly crowned King T’Challa, played by Chadwick Boseman, reckons with Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) challenging him for the throne. The vibrant kingdom of Wakanda, now a crucial region of the MCU, is brought to life in all its glory.
BLACK WIDOW (2017)
Black Widow is comfortably after Civil War, though safely before Infinity War as well, and by order of elimination, that places it in 2017. Coming out of Civil War, Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross is on the hunt for Natasha Romanoff after she and Steve went off the grid as wanted fugitives.
Natasha’s sister Yelena (Florence Pugh) reappears, and together they take down the Red Room, with a little help from mom Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz) and dad, Alexei ‘Red Guardian’ Shostakov (David Harbour). Worth noting the post-credits scene is later, post-Avengers: Endgame.
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Taika Waititi’s threequel for the God of Thunder pushes us forward, towards the end of 2017 and into 2018, and Infinity War. The brezzy energy is best exemplified by Thor exclaiming “He’s a friend from work!” when he finds Hulk is his challenger for space gladiatorial combat.
Silly, madcap, eccentric, and thrilling, Thor: Ragnarok’s burning of Asgard is the cosmic equivalent of Civil War, throwing characters to the wind for the burgeoning showdown. Appearances by Doctor Strange, Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), and The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) only add to the spectacle.
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
The second Scott Lang adventure pairs him up with Hope Pym, the titular Wasp, against the elusive Ghost literally on the cusp of Infinity War. Some very comic-book-y science is deployed to explain the Quantum Realm, a microscopic layer of reality that Hope’s mother vanished into, and more of SHIELD’s shady underbelly is exposed. By the end, the Pym family is reunited, but just before Thanos’ snap vanishes all but Lang.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
The first of a massive two-parter brings many of the hanging threads together in 2018. Thor, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Hulk, and Captain America join Wakanda against an invasion of Thanos’ Black Order, while Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and the Guardians of the Galaxy challenge Thanos himself on his ruined homeworld, Titan.
Ultimately, it’s all for naught when the Mad Titan manages to gather all the Infinity Stones, ripping the last from Vision’s head, and performs the Snap, removing half of all life in the Universe.
Avengers: Endgame (2018 and 2023)
The climax to the MCU’s three-phase journey features our heroes in 2023 learning to cope with a world in which they lost. Some moved on, like Tony Stark, others, like Hawkeye or Thor, not so much. Building a second gauntlet out of Infinity Stones gathered from throughout time allows those lost in the snap to be brought back for the final showdown, a fists-in-the-air battle that gives everyone a second to shine. One that’s always worth a fresh bag of popcorn.
Loki (2012 and 2023)
This can go a couple of different places in the MCU timeline, but the easiest is right after Avengers: Endgame in 2023. Loki becomes part of the Time Variance Authority to track down other variants of himself, leading to a confrontation with the time-consuming Alioth, and Kang the Conqueror. By the end, the multiverse is descending into madness.
WandaVision (2021)
The first of Disney’s Marvel shows is WandaVision, which is a continuation from Endgame. A broadly surrealist piece of sci-fi, the six episodes show more of Wanda’s backstory, and her struggling with Vision’s death. More than a couple of new faces are brought into the universe, as well as some welcome returns, and a foreboding future is teased at the end.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021)
Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) takes up the mantle of Captain America in this quasi-buddy cop action series that starts six months after Endgame. Wilson’s forced to work with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) to stop a mysterious terrorist cell, all the while contending with John Walker, a US Government-appointed replacement for Steve Rogers. Amid all of this, Wilson learns of the racially unjust history of the Captain America moniker, vowing to do better by what it stands for.
SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS (2021)
After the fake-out in Iron Man 3, Shangi-Chi gives us the actual Mandarin, and introduces the Ten Rings. The plot doesn’t have a fixed point, but all the mentions of the Snap put it safely around the same time as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
The Abomination returns to the universe, and we get a swathe of Asian mythology to add Marvel’s cinematic tapestry. Destin Daniel Cretton directs Simu Liu as the lead martial artist who, without spoiling anything, definitely has a future in the franchise.
SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (2019)
Tom Holland’s Spider-Man sequel takes the MCU out of Phase 3, some eight months after the Avengers fought Thanos. He tries to win over MJ’s heart but gets interrupted by Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio.
The death of Tony Stark looms large, in more ways than one, forcing Peter to create resources of his own to outwit the baddies that confront him. An affirmation of a bright future, and one that’s still full of surprises, if a certain last-minute cameo’s anything to go by.
Eternals (2024)
Around the same time as the webhead is dealing with Spider-Man villain Mysterio, we have Eternals, featuring Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Barry Keoghan, Kumail Nanjiani and more as the cosmic team in their battle against the evil Deviants.
The history of Eternals goes back millennia, but the important part is that Chloé Zhao’s film takes place around eight months after the second snap, placing it concurrently with Spidey’s second big MCU feature, in early 2024.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2024)
Soon after dealing with Mysterio, Peter Parker gets himself in more trouble, shattering the multiverse with Doctor Strange. Spider-Man: No Way Home is set around the autumn of 2024, further delving into a post-Snap universe that has plenty more oddities to deal with.
Hawkeye (2024)
Kate Bishop comes to the MCU in Hawkeye, Clint Barton’s headline project, set during the holiday period of 2024. Their Christmas misadventure has Kate find out in no uncertain terms that being an Avenger is a tough business without many friends. That is, except for Lucky the Pizza Dog and heroes like Clint.
Moon Knight (2025)
We don’t get an exact point in time for Moon Knight, but we know it’s after The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Disney Plus has it after Hawkeye. Vague, but we’re sure there’ll be clarification eventually.
Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac) can’t tell the difference between waking life and dreams and soon discovers that he is, in fact, Marc Spector, AKA Moon Knight, a mercenary with several different identities. His adversary is Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke), a religious zealot.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2025)
The second Doctor Strange movie is set after the events of No Way Home in 2025. As the last Spider-Man movie and Hawkeye both end around the Christmas period, we can guess then that Doctor Strange 2 is in the spring of the following year.
This film has the Bleeker Street magician go on a dimension-jumping adventure that sees him come face to face with one of the greatest threats the multiverse has ever faced.
She-Hulk (2025)
The adventures of Jennifer Walters, aka the savage She-Hulk, happen between the events of Moon Knight and Ms Marvel in 2025. We’ve put it after Doctor Strange, as the show has a fun summer vibe to it, although that might be because it’s set in LA.
Ms Marvel (2025)
Kamala Khan’s grand induction to MCU, starring Iman Vellani, also takes place in 2025. She lives in a world that celebrates the Avengers, where their accomplishments are well remembered, and commodified. Marvel has been reluctant to put an exact date on it, but we surmise this happens around the same time as Multiverse of Madness.
Thor: Love and Thunder (2026)
Another one that’s sketchy to narrow down, Thor: Love and Thunder, would logically fit in around 2025 to 2026. This leaves enough time for the eight years since Thor last saw Jane and for his questing with the Guardians of the Galaxy. But we might have to wait until Thor 5 to learn more.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2026)
The second Black Panther movie is more or less a bridging point between Thor 4 and Ant-Man 3. The conflict between Wakanda and Talokan might no ripple much further into the universe at large, but have a new Black Panther certainly will.
For more new releases, here are all the new movies heading our way in 2023. Or why not head to the streaming service Disney Plus, by clicking the button above, so that you can watch all the Marvel movies for yourself?
