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How to watch the Marvel movies in order
Here's a chronological guide to the Marvel Cinematic Universe
(Image: © Sony Pictures/Marvel Studios)
Figuring out how to watch the Marvel movies in order is starting to become a complicated endeavour. With Spider-Man: No Way Home finally releasing in theaters, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is fully making way for the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse (MCM). And that means that working out where each film fits on the franchise's timeline is getting trickier to work out.
That's before we factor in Marvel Studios' Disney Plus shows like Hawkeye, too. In total, there are 27 MCU movies and five Marvel TV series to add to the franchise's main timeline. And learning how to watch the Marvel movies in order is only going to get more difficult as more productions are released in 2022 and beyond, as part of Marvel's Phase 4 plans.
If you're at a loss with where to start with watching the Marvel films in order – chronologically or in the order that they've been released – we're here to help.
Below, we go through how you can watch the Marvel movies in order no matter your preferred method of doing so. That includes every MCU film and TV show released so far, too. So, if you're planning a major Marvel Studios binge watch at any point, this is your definitive guide to watching the Marvel films in order. Load up Disney Plus or grab your MCU DVD or Blu-Ray collection, and let's begin.
After taking a pandemic-induced break in 2020, Marvel movies has had an extremely busy 2021. Black Widow, Shang-Chi, Eternals, and Spider-Man: No Way Home have all launched in theaters this year, while five MCU TV series have also arrived on Disney Plus.
Heading into 2022, Marvel has lots of other projects in the pipeline: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will be released in early May; Thor: Love and Thunder is due out in July, and Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever is arriving in November. We can look forward to a spate of new TV series, too, including Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Moon Knight and Secret Invasion.
So, how should you watch every Marvel movie in order while you wait for those to arrive? The Marvel movies' chronological order kicks off with Captain America fighting the Red Skull, while the MCU release order starts with Tony Stark becoming Iron Man in the 2008 movie. Whichever you pick, you're in for a fun journey through some of the best superhero movies ever made.
How to watch the Marvel movies in order: chronological order
Let's start with a Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) timeline, now including Black Widow, Shang-Chi, Eternals, and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Below, we explain how to watch the 27 Marvel movies in chronological order, starting with Captain America's origin in WWII, and ending with the latest MCU flick in No Way Home.
The arrival of the Eternals, in November 2021, made things a little murky, as there are flashbacks to periods in time that precede Captain America's WWII origins. But, to save you from getting too confused about where you should watch Eternals in order of chronology, we've slotted it in at the end of our list just before Spider-Man: No Way Home.
This is how you'll want to watch the Marvel movies in order if you're a continuity buff as it lets you enjoy the sequence of events as they happened. We've listed the MCU shows order below, too, so you can see how they fit around the movies.
Here's the chronological viewing order of the Marvel movies as of December 2021:
- Captain America: The First Avenger – takes place during WWII
- Captain Marvel – occurs in 1995
- Iron Man – takes place in 2008
- Iron Man 2 – takes place after Iron Man
- The Incredible Hulk – time unspecified, pre-Avengers
- Thor – events occur six months before Avengers
- The Avengers – takes place in 2012
- Iron Man 3 – takes place six months after The Avengers
- Thor: Dark World – post-Avengers, pre-Ultron
- Captain America: Winter Soldier – post-Avengers, pre-Ultron
- Guardians of the Galaxy – sometime in 2014
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – set after Guardians
- Avengers: Age of Ultron – occurs in 2015
- Ant-Man – takes place in 2015
- Captain America: Civil War – post-Ultron, pre-Infinity War
- Black Widow – takes place right after Civil War
- Spider-Man: Homecoming – post-Civil War, pre-Infinity War
- Doctor Strange – takes place in 2016
- Black Panther – takes place in 2017
- Thor: Ragnarok – post-Ultron, pre-Infinity War
- Avengers: Infinity War – occurs in 2017
- Ant-Man and The Wasp – ambiguous, but fits nicely between Infinity War and Endgame
- Avengers: Endgame – starts in 2017, finishes in 2022
- Spider-Man: Far From Home – set eight months after Endgame
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – set in the present day of the MCU
- Eternals – set in the present day of the MCU, though it does flash back through 7,000 years of human history
- Spider-Man: No Way Home – mostly set in the MCU's present day, but its first 10 minutes take place right after Far From Home
Some timing is ambiguous – for example, Black Widow, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Black Panther and Doctor Strange all take place at roughly the same time, and they're set across varying lengths of time, which makes ordering them tricky.
Black Widow, though, technically takes place entirely within the events of Captain America: Civil War, which means it comes first out of those. Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton, meanwhile, revealed the martial arts hero's film takes place within the "present day".
Eternals, too, is set well before Cap's origins story, as well as during the "present day". No Way Home's first 10 to 15 minutes are set immediately after Far From Home's ending, but the rest of the superhero flick takes place in the "present day", too. So the timeline, as we mentioned, is getting messier with each passing film.
Now for the Marvel shows order: WandaVision takes place mere weeks after Endgame. Meanwhile, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is set six months after Endgame – so both shows take place before Spider-Man: Far From Home. Loki, meanwhile, is technically set after the events of The Avengers, but in another timeline – we'd advise watching it after Avengers: Endgame.
The MCU's first animated series – What If...? – is like Loki. It's set in the wider multiverse, so it plays out around events that we've seen on the big and small screens. Finally, Hawkeye's solo adventure (well, paired adventure with Kate Bishop) is set a year post-Endgame, which means it takes place around the 2023 Holiday season.
- WandaVision – three weeks after Endgame
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier – around six months after Endgame
- Loki – technically post-The Avengers in 2012, but best watched after Endgame
- What If...? season 1 – technically, this spans the entire multiverse, but it's best watched after Endgame
- Hawkeye – one year after Endgame
How to watch the Marvel movies in order: release date
Do you want to watch the Marvel movies in release order instead? Try this list.
Watching the Marvel movies in this order is how Marvel Studios intended you to see the story play out. And you'll get to enjoy how the movies got bigger and better over the years – especially as Disney took over ownership and started pumping up the budgets.
Phase 1
- Iron Man (2008)
- The Incredible Hulk (2008)
- Iron Man 2 (2010)
- Thor (2011)
- Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
- The Avengers (2012)
Phase 2
- Iron Man 3 (2013)
- Thor: The Dark World (2013)
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
- Ant-Man (2015)
Phase 3
- Captain America: Civil War (2016)
- Doctor Strange (2016)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
- Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
- Black Panther (2018)
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
- Captain Marvel (2019)
- Avengers: Endgame (2019)
- Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Phase 4
- WandaVision (TV show, 2021)
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (TV show, 2021)
- Loki (TV show, 2021)
- Black Widow (2021)
- What If...? (TV show, 2021)
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
- Eternals (2021)
- Hawkeye (TV show, 2021)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Upcoming Marvel movies and TV shows: Phase 4 and beyond release dates
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (May 6, 2022)
- Thor: Love and Thunder (July 8, 2022)
- Ms Marvel (TV show – expected summer 2022)
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (November 11, 2022)
- She-Hulk (TV show – 2022)
- Moon Knight (TV show – 2022)
- Secret Invasion (TV show – 2022)
- The Marvels (February 17, 2023)
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 (May 5, 2023)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania (July 28, 2023)
- Blade (TBD)
- Fantastic Four (TBD)
- Ironheart (TV show – TBA)
- Armor Wars (TV show – TBA)
- Wakanda series (TV show – TBA)
- What If...? season 2 (TV show – TBA)
- Loki season 2 (TV show – TBA)
- I Am Groot (TV show – TBA)
- Echo (TV show – TBA)
- Agatha: House of Harkness (TV show – TBA)
- Marvel Zombies (TV show – TBA)
- Spider-Man: Freshman Year (TV show – TBA)
- X-Men 97 (TV show – TBA)
Marvel movies on Disney Plus
Wondering which Marvel movies are on Disney Plus? The Incredible Hulk and the Tom Holland Spider-Man films are the only MCU films that aren't on Disney Plus: that's because Universal and Sony own the distribution rights to them respectively. You'll have to buy or rent them on DVD, Blu-Ray, or digital right now if you want a full Marvel movie marathon. Eternals, meanwhile, arrives on Disney Plus on January 12, 2022.
These are the Marvel movies on Disney Plus in the US, UK and Australia:
- Iron Man
- Thor
- Iron Man 2
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- The Avengers
- Iron Man 3
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Thor: The Dark World
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Ant-Man
- Captain America: Civil War
- Doctor Strange
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- Captain Marvel
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Avengers: Endgame
- Thor: Ragnarok
- Black Panther
- Ant-Man and the Wasp
- Black Widow
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
These are the Marvel TV shows available on Disney Plus, meanwhile:
- WandaVision
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
- Loki season 1
- What If...?
- Hawkeye
Marvel movies, ranked best to worst
What are the best Marvel movies? For us, the Avengers movies mark the peak of the MCU, but the whole thing is subjective.
Below, we've ranked the Marvel movies based on user scores from IMDb. The peoples' votes are pretty expected for some films (Thor: The Dark World and The Incredible Hulk are no one's favorite Marvel films), but others, not so much in our view (everyone thinks that Ant-Man and the Wasp isn't as good as Captain America: The First Avenger, right?).
Notably, fans don't seem to love Black Widow as much as some of the others, while Shang-Chi has drawn a much better response. Meanwhile, Eternals is actually viewed as better than The Incredible Hulk, which isn't the case on other sites including Rotten Tomatoes.
Finally, Spider-Man: No Way Home (at the time of writing) is ranked as the best MCU movie ever. That may change as the film has only just released, though, and the vast majority of Marvel fans haven't seen it yet.
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) – Rating: 9.2
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – Rating: 8.4
- Avengers: Endgame (2019) – Rating: 8.4
- The Avengers (2012) – Rating: 8.0
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) – Rating: 8.0
- Iron Man (2008) – Rating: 7.9
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) – Rating: 7.9
- Thor: Ragnarok (2017) – Rating: 7.9
- Captain America: Civil War (2016) – Rating: 7.8
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) – Rating: 7.7
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) – Rating: 7.6
- Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) – Rating: 7.5
- Doctor Strange (2016) – Rating: 7.5
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) – Rating: 7.4
- Black Panther (2018) – Rating: 7.3
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) – Rating: 7.3
- Ant-Man (2015) – Rating: 7.3
- Iron Man 3 (2013) – Rating: 7.2
- Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) – Rating: 7.1
- Thor (2011) – Rating: 7.0
- Iron Man 2 (2010) – Rating: 7.0
- Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) – Rating: 6.9
- Thor: The Dark World (2013) – Rating: 6.9
- Captain Marvel (2019) – Rating: 6.9
- Black Widow (2021) – Rating: 6.8
- Eternals (2021) – Rating: 6.8
- The Incredible Hulk (2008) – Rating: 6.7
How to download Marvel movies
If you want to download Marvel movies for watching on the go, you can save offline copies via the Disney Plus app on your portable device (smartphone or tablet). But you can't do this on a desktop PC or laptop.
You'll need enough storage space, but just look for the download symbol on any title in the Disney Plus app:
Downloaded content on your phone will stay in your device's main memory if it doesn't have an external microSD card slot. That includes all Apple iPhone smartphones, iPad tablets and a few others handsets (like the Google Pixel 3a).
A 1-hour download takes about 400MB of storage depending on your download quality, Meanwhile, high quality is six times better than standard quality, and medium is 50% better than standard quality (which is the Disney Plus app's default).
If you're happy to buy the movies, too, say through Amazon Prime, that'll also allow you to download Marvel movies locally.
- How to watch the X-Men movies in order
Nick Pino is the Senior Editor of Home Entertainment at TechRadar and covers TVs, headphones, speakers, video games, VR and streaming devices. He's written for TechRadar, GamesRadar, Official Xbox Magazine, PC Gamer and other outlets over the last decade, and he has a degree in computer science he's not using if anyone wants it.
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Source: https://www.techradar.com/how-to/how-to-watch-the-marvel-movies-in-order