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Updated on: 21 Sep 2026, 9:47 am
Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), old and new, are coming out of hibernation for one of Marvel’s biggest films of 2019. Avengers: Endgame is returning to the big screen on September 25 under the “Encore” banner, seven years after it closed out the Infinity Saga and three months before the studio’s highly anticipated film Avengers: Doomsday opens the next one. For a film that made $2.79 billion the first-time round, Marvel doesn’t really need an excuse to put it back in theatres.
But, if you’re going to sit through the three-hour finale again and actually feel every gut-punch and emotional beat the way you did back in 2019, you’re better off doing it with these nine films that build up to it fresh in your head.
Iron Man (2008)
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), a billionaire weapons manufacturer, is captured by terrorists in Afghanistan and builds a suit of armour to escape. He returns home and builds a better one, becoming Iron Man. This is where the MCU begins, and where Tony’s entire arc, from moneybag to superhero, first takes shape.
The Avengers (2012)
Loki (Tom Hiddleston), God of Mischief, steals the Tesseract and turns Hawkeye against his own side, forcing Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to assemble Earth’s mightiest heroes for the first time. The film is also important to revisit as it establishes the team dynamics and the callbacks that Endgame leans on heavily in its final act. The Avengers (2012)is thefirst installment that introduces the most iconic group of superheroes.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) discovers that HYDRA never really died—it simply burrowed into S.H.I.E.L.D. and waited. The film marks a turning point for Cap, who starts questioning the institutions he once trusted blindly, a shift that carries through Civil War and into Endgame.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), a small-time thief with a mixtape and a grudge, is pulled into a fight alongside a team of misfits against a fanatic who wants to destroy the universe. The film is also important to revisit as it introduces Thanos, Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) and the Power stone, all of which return in Infinity War and Endgame.
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Tony Stark builds an AI to protect the planet, and it decides the planet needs protecting from people instead. Avengers: Age of Ultron marks the first real crack in the team and introduces Vision (Paul Bettany) and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), while deepening the guilt Tony carries into every film after this one.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
A UN accord to regulate the Avengers splits the team in two, and Bucky Barnes’ past does the rest. By the end, Tony and Steve aren’t speaking. This fracture is exactly what Infinity War opens on and what Endgame spends its runtime trying to repair.
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Thor (Chris Hemsworth) loses his hammer, his home planet and an eye, in what is also one of the funniest films Marvel has made. The film resets Thor’s arc completely ahead of Infinity War, which is why his journey in Endgame, both the heroics and the heartbreak, lands the way it does.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
This story cashes in on the brilliant build-up of all the other films. Thanos finally comes to collect, and for the first time, the heroes lose. Every alliance and grudge built across the MCU so far is tested at once. This is the cliffhanger Endgame exists to resolve.
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), under house arrest after Civil War, is pulled back into the Quantum Realm just as Hope (Evangeline Lilly) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) need him most. The film is also important to revisit as Scott’s accidental trip here becomes the exact mechanism that kicks off the time heist in Endgame.
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