Working out how to watch the Marvel movies in order is beginning to become a herculean task. As more and more Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films and TV shows are released, Marvel Studios' juggernaut franchise only continues to grow. Show
With the introduction of the multiverse in films like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange 2, and time travel components in superhero flicks including Avengers: Endgame, the waters have only gotten muddier. The MCU timeline had been easy to follow until the latter of that trio. Now, though, deciphering the code of watching the Marvel movies in order may make you think you need a PhD. With our help, however, you won't need to fork out tons of cash and spend five years trying to determine what order to stream them in. From Iron Man's first solo movie all the way through to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (with its multiple cameos), we're here to prime you with two ways in which you can watch every MCU film. In short, there are two ways: watch them by their release date order, or chronologically. We'll get onto what each method entails as we progress through this guide, but feel free to use the navigation bar at the top of the page to skip ahead if you want. Choosing between these two options isn't the only thing we cover in our Marvel movies in order hub. You'll also find a break down of every forthcoming MCU Phase 4 project, if you can stream every film and TV show on Disney Plus, which production is the best of the best among viewers, and so much more. Before you dig in, be sure to catch up with latest news in the world of Marvel Studios. Watch the official trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder (if you missed it earlier in May) before reading our in-depth trailer breakdown on what references, Easter eggs, and story beats it contains. Alternatively, find out what one Jurassic World star thinks of them being linked to Marvel's Fantastic Four film reboot. Finished? Great, let's find out how to watch the Marvel movies in order together. How many Marvel movies are there?How to watch the Marvel movies in order: how many are there?28 MCU movies have been released in theaters so far. Marvel Studios' wildly popular franchise started with Iron Man in 2008, and is currently bookended by Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which arrived in May 2022. That number is set to increase to 30 by the end of 2022. By the time the whole Marvel Phase 4 film slate has launched, there'll be at least 34 films out in the wild, many of which already feature in our best superhero movies guide. That is, unless Blade and Fantastic Four also arrives in cinemas as part of Phase 4, in which case that number will grow to 36. So, determining how to watch the Marvel movies in order is only going to become harder to answer. How to watch the Marvel movies in order: chronologicalHow to watch the Marvel movies in chronological orderLet's start with the Marvel movies in order by chronology, which means you'll be watching them in the order of the year that they take place in. You'll start with Captain America's origin story in WWII and end with Doctor Strange 2, which we think takes place in early 2024. A couple of MCU Disney Plus shows are set sometime around Doctor Strange's second solo outing (which contains plenty of fan favorite cameos), but we'll get to those shortly. Eternals, whose ending contains a wild cameo, makes things tricky as there are flashbacks to time periods that precede Captain America's creation. But, to prevent any further confusion about Eternals' place on the MCU timeline, we've slotted it in just before No Way Home. Some other timings are similarly ambiguous. For example, Black Widow (read about its ending here), Spider-Man: Homecoming, Black Panther and Doctor Strange all occur around the same time period. Without an exact timeline breakdown from Marvel Studios, it's hard to pinpoint where these MCU movies fit around one another. So we've done our best with the knowledge available to us. With the Marvel TV shows also fitting around the movies since Avengers: Endgame, we've included them as well. So, technically, this isn't just a Marvel movies in order article anymore, but needs must, eh? WandaVision takes place a few weeks after Endgame, while The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (check out our explainer hub here) is set six months after Endgame – so both shows take place before Spider-Man: Far From Home. Loki, meanwhile, is technically set after 2012's The Avengers, but in an alternate timeline – so we'd advise watching it after Avengers: Endgame. The MCU's first animated series in What If...? – read our spoiler-free review – 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. Hawkeye, whose ending left us with plenty of questions, is set a year post-Endgame and, finally, Moon Knight is seemingly set in the 'present day', so around 2024 like Doctor Strange 2. Here's how to watch the Marvel movies in order by chronology, with the studio's Disney Plus shows included:
Want to know how to watch the Marvel movies in order based on their release date? Try this list instead. Below, you'll learn how to watch the Marvel movies in order of release date. That starts with Iron Man in 2008 and ends with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in 2022. Again, we've slotted in the MCU TV series in alongside the films. This is because TV shows like WandaVision were released before Black Widow. As such, they have to slot alongside the movies in the phase that they were released in. This is how to watch the Marvel movies in release date order: Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Phase 4
What Marvel movies order is best for you?What's the best order to watch the Marvel movies in for the first time?Now for the age-old question: how should you watch the Marvel movies in order? Purists will tell you that the release date order is the best way, while others will want to see the Marvel timeline play out by order of chronology. Our opinion? How to watch the Marvel movies in order by release date is the best way to binge them if you're a first time viewer. Sure, chronological order is a solid choice, but it can still feel slightly messy from an MCU timeline perspective. If you start with Captain America's story in WWII, its final scene still plays out in the late 2000s when he wakes up in present-day New York. He meets Nick Fury not long after, either, but this isn't the first time we're supposed to see the ex-director of SHIELD – it's supposed to be in 2008's Iron Man, with events in that film preceding the end of Captain America. Our personal preference, then, is to watch the Marvel movies in order by their release date. MCU fans will have their own ways of watching them – some even include the TV shows during the marathon binge watch. But, in our view, the answer to watching the Marvel movies in order is a simple one: binge them in the order that they were released. How to watch the Marvel movies in order: Phase 4 projectsWhat Marvel movies are coming out in 2022?With numerous Marvel movies and TV shows on the way, the MCU juggernaut isn't slowing down anytime soon. Here's every upcoming Marvel Phase 4 project, as well as those that have been announced but may not fit into the current phase:
How to watch the Marvel movies in order on Disney PlusHow to watch the Marvel movies in order on Disney PlusYou can stream the Marvel movies in order on Disney Plus, but there's a slight catch with some entries. Every MCU film is available on the streamer except for The Incredible Hulk and Tom Holland's Spider-Man trilogy. That's because Universal and Sony own the distribution rights to them, so they aren't technically part of the Marvel Studios family, despite their ties to the MCU. The Incredible Hulk is available to stream on HBO Max – that is, in nations where the streamer has launched. Spider-Man: Homecoming is currently available on Netflix, too, but Far From Home and No Way Home aren't. So you'll have to buy or rent them on DVD, Blu-Ray, or digital if you want to binge the Marvel movies in order. How to watch the Marvel movies in order: rankedMarvel movies ranked best to worstWhat are the best Marvel movies? For us, the Avengers movies mark the peak of the MCU. Infinity War and Endgame are the greatest Marvel movies of all-time, with Black Panther, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Iron Man, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier not far behind. But the whole thing is subjective. Some fans prefer Thor: Ragnarok over some of the above, while others consider the first Avengers movie to be the best MCU ensemble film ever made. Below, we've ranked the Marvel movies in order (and the TV shows) based on their IMDb (opens in new tab) user scores. The votes are pretty expected for some films (Thor: The Dark World and The Incredible Hulk are no one's favorite), 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? To make things as uncomplicated as possible: we haven't included Sony's Spider-Man spin-off films in this specific Marvel movies in order list. Until Sony categorically confirms it, the likes of Venom and Morbius don't technically exist in the MCU. As such, you won't find them included below, at least for the time being.
If you're after another definitive ranking of the Marvel movies in order, though, check out our rankings of every Marvel film to date. And, while you're here, see how we've ranked every MCU villain to date.
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