How to watch the Marvel movies in order

Alyse Stanley
·12 min read

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The Avengers: Endgame poster shows many of the heroes you'll see when you watch the marvel movies in order.
Credit: Marvel Studios/Twitter

Not even Thanos' snap could stop the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). With new movies and shows pouring in, what better way to get fully caught up than by binge-watching everything released so far? Thankfully, that's much easier than traveling the multiverse.

With nearly all the latest MCU entries available with just a Disney Plus subscription, it's no wonder many find it difficult to cancel Disney Plus — it's a guaranteed source for the newest Marvel adventures.

While you may have already circled all of the upcoming Marvel movie release dates on your calendar, you should know the next date of note is July 26, when Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters.

Our complete guide for how to watch the Marvel movies in order lays out the two primary ways: You can relive the theatrical experience and sort by release date or grab them in order of chronological timeline events to follow the Avengers on their own paths.

While the recently released MCU films and shows all take place around the same time, we've got a chronological list of the Marvel movies in order of events.

And that's why we've placed the Marvel movies in order of the events that take place in the Infinity Saga first. It's weird, right, that the films weren't released in that order? Alas, the same is true for when you try to watch all the Star Wars movies in order. This order isn't exactly perfect either, with flashbacks here and there that break the strict narrative arc.

Marvel movie and show news (Updated August 19)

  • The WandaVision spin-off series Agatha All Along rounds out an unusually soft year for the MCU, hitting Disney Plus on September 18

  • Deadpool & Wolverine, the only new MCU movie this year, is now out in theaters

  • All 10 episodes of the animated X-Men 97 are now available to watch on Disney Plus

  • The Hawkeye spin-off series Echo lands on Disney Plus

  • Florence Pugh will revise her role as Yelena Belova in the upcoming ThunderBolts movie

  • Eternals 2 appears to be no longer in development

Marvel movies in order — chronological order (and shows too)

Chris Evans in Captain America: The First Avenger, one of the early Marvel movies
Chris Evans in Captain America: The First Avenger, one of the early Marvel movies

If you’ve seen most or all of the movies and you want to switch things up a bit, chronologically rewatching the Marvel movies in order, to see the events as they took place (with flashbacks thrown in just to throw you off), is a fun experiment.

Disney's own MCU timeline shows what order the shows and movies occur in, though the exact year(s) each one takes place is a little murkier. But we've included that information in the cases when it's been officially confirmed.

And even though the Disney Plus shows such as WandaVision and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier are not Marvel movies, we can place them chronologically in the MCU. Monica Rambeau rejoins S.W.O.R.D. three weeks after she was snapped back into reality, so we can place WandaVision between Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home. Similarly, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier takes place three months after the blip brought everyone back, placing it after WandaVision but before Far From Home.

Disney Plus' own site places Loki (which goes all over the timeline) after Endgame. It also says three recent Disney Plus shows — Hawkeye, Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel — take place in release order.

It's unclear when exactly Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 takes place, but in 2021 James Gunn said it's after Thor: Love & Thunder. This makes sense considering the Guardians Holiday Special (which was after that Thor movie) happens before Vol. 3.

That period in time is basically called "present day MCU" or at least that's the phrase that Disney's own description for Secret Invasion says. Disney's use of that terminology for this upcoming series makes us think it happens alongside of the other recent releases.

  • Captain America: The First Avenger (World War II)

  • Captain Marvel (1995)

  • Iron Man (2010)

  • Iron Man 2 (2011)

  • The Incredible Hulk (occurs prior to The Avengers)

  • Thor (occurs prior to The Avengers)

  • Marvel’s The Avengers (2012)

  • Thor: Dark World (2013)

  • Iron Man 3 (six months after The Avengers)

  • Captain America: Winter Soldier (after The Avengers, before Age of Ultron)

  • Guardians of the Galaxy (ca. 2014)

  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (three months after the first Guardians)

  • Daredevil season 1

  • Jessica Jones season 1

  • Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

  • Ant-Man (2015)

  • Dare Devil season 2

  • Luke Cage season 1

  • Iron Fist season 1

  • The Defenders

  • Captain America: Civil War (2016)

  • Black Widow (shortly after Civil War, with one scene set after Endgame)

  • Black Panther (2016)

  • Spider-Man: Homecoming (2016)

  • Punisher season 1

  • Doctor Strange (2016)

  • Jessica Jones season 2

  • Luke Cage season 2

  • Iron Fist season 2

  • Daredevil season 3

  • Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

  • Punisher season 2

  • Jessica Jones season 3

  • Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018)

  • Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

  • Avengers: Endgame (2018 - 2023)

  • Loki season 1

  • WandaVision

  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (a few months after Endgame)

  • The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

  • Spider-Man: Far From Home (2023-2024)

  • Eternals (2024)

  • Spider-Man: No Way Home (2024)

  • Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness (2024)

  • Hawkeye

  • Moon Knight

  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2024)

  • Echo

  • She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

  • Ms. Marvel

  • Thor: Love and Thunder (2024)

  • Werewolf by Night

  • The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

  • Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2025)

  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (sometime after Quantumania)

  • Secret Invasion (2026)

  • The Marvels (2026)

  • Loki season 2

Marvel movies in order — release order (and shows too)

Iron Man in one of the early marvel movies
Iron Man in one of the early marvel movies

We recommend watching the Marvel movies in order of their release for a few reasons. It’s fun to see how the special effects and actors evolve over the years, you won’t feel as bad about skipping around if you don’t want to do a complete binge-watch and, quite frankly, the release order tells a stronger narrative — watching a movie like Captain Marvel out of release order might be more confusing than enjoyable.

You'll see below that we've broken them out into Marvel's five Phases, the groupings it uses to show the major chapters of The Infinity Saga. This is the natural way to organize your own Marvel movie marathon. Netflix's Defenders Saga (Daredevil, The Punisher, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Defenders) is technically set in the MCU but not an official part of the franchise, so you won't see those shows listed among Marvel's Phases.

Phase One

  • Iron Man (May 2, 2008)

  • The Incredible Hulk (June 13, 2008)

  • Iron Man 2 (May 7, 2010)

  • Thor (May 6, 2011)

  • Captain America: The First Avenger (July 22, 2011)

  • Marvel’s The Avengers (May 4, 2012)

Phase Two

  • Iron Man 3 (May 3, 2013)

  • Thor: The Dark World (November 8, 2013)

  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier (April 4, 2014)

  • Guardians of the Galaxy (August 1, 2014)

  • Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 1, 2015)

  • Ant-Man (July 17, 2015)

Phase Three

  • Captain America: Civil War (May 6, 2016)

  • Doctor Strange (November 4, 2016)

  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (May 5, 2017)

  • Spider-Man: Homecoming (July 7, 2017)

  • Thor: Ragnarok (November 3, 2017)

  • Black Panther (February 16, 2018)

  • Avengers: Infinity War (April 27, 2018)

  • Ant-Man and the Wasp (July 6, 2018)

  • Captain Marvel (March 8, 2019)

  • Avengers: Endgame (April 26, 2019)

  • Spider-Man: Far From Home (July 2, 2019)

Phase Four

TV shows are listed with their premiere dates.

Phase Five

  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Feb. 17, 2023)

  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (May 5, 2023)

  • Secret Invasion (June 21, 2023)

  • Loki season 2 (October 5, 2023)

  • The Marvels (November 10, 2023)

  • Echo (January 9, 2024 — TV show)

  • X-Men 97 (March 20, 2024 — TV show)

  • Deadpool & Wolverine (July 22, 2024)

Marvel movies in 2024 and beyond (and shows too)

Marvel 2024 has so far diverged significantly from recent years within the MCU. Between strikes, fired actors and poor-performing movies and shows, Kevin Feige & Co. needs to devise a new strategy. Case in point? "Deadpool & Wolverine" is the only Marvel movie to hit theaters in 2024.

Here is the short calendar of when to expect upcoming Marvel movies and shows (in order of release).

Phase 5

Phase 6

The best Marvel movies to watch

Say you don't want to watch every movie, but just the great ones. Sure, there are some gems out there — critics loved Black Panther and Thor: Ragnarok — but for every Endgame there's also a The Incredible Hulk (remember the pre-Ruffalo Hulk?). There is only one Eternals, though. Or at least there was until Quantumania lowered the bar.

So, for those trying to find the best MCU films, we have your back. We've organized the Marvel movies in order of their Rotten Tomatoes scores, which give us a wealth of insight into how these movies were critically received.

Marvel movies on Disney Plus

Endgame on Disney Plus
Endgame on Disney Plus

All but two of the MCU Marvel movies are on Disney Plus, the streaming service that most MCU fans will want to have when they get the itch to rewatch the Avengers. On top of that, all Disney Plus movies can be saved for offline, in case you're going on a trip any time soon.

  • Captain America: The First Avenger

  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier

  • Captain America: Civil War

  • Captain Marvel

  • Iron Man

  • Iron Man 2

  • Iron Man 3

  • Thor

  • Marvel’s The Avengers

  • Thor: Dark World

  • Guardians of the Galaxy

  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

  • Avengers: Age of Ultron

  • Ant-Man

  • Doctor Strange

  • Black Panther

  • Thor: Ragnarok

  • Avengers: Infinity War

  • Ant-Man and The Wasp

  • Avengers: Endgame

  • Black Widow

  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

  • Eternals

  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

  • Thor: Love & Thunder

  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

  • Spider-Man: Homecoming

  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

  • The Marvels

  • Spider-Man: Far from Home

  • The Incredible Hulk

Interestingly, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (which isn't MCU canon, more of a Sony Spider-Man movie, like Morbius) is still in absentia.

For more, read our full Disney Plus review.

Marvel movies not on Disney Plus

MJ and Spider-Man in Far From Home
MJ and Spider-Man in Far From Home

  • Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) Still in theaters, but likely to come to Disney Plus sometime in October.

  • Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) Streaming on Fubo, and available for rental or purchase digitally on Amazon and other services.

We believe Spider-Man: No Way Home will come to Disney Plus eventually, per Sony and Disney's deal, but it's not there yet. Right now it's available to buy or rent on Amazon and Apple TV.

Deadpool & Wolverine hit theaters in July, and based on Disney's history with previous MCU movies coming to streaming, we expect the third Deadpool movie to land on Disney Plus sometime in October.

At this point, people who don't want to add Disney's monthly billing will turn to rent the rest through iTunes or Amazon for $1.99–$3.99 each.

Looking to watch the Harry Potter movies in order? You don't find them on Disney Plus, but we've got the details.

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