Close Menu
    Tuesday, July 21
    TV

    Here’s How to Watch Every Marvel Movie in Order

    JamesBy No Comments13 Mins Read
    Here’s How to Watch Every Marvel Movie in Order

    Today, Marvel dropped a major trailer for December’s Avengers: Doomsday, the first film in the Avengersseries since 2019. But there’s another key entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) coming before then: Spider-Man: Brand New Day, out at the end of the month.

    Those two films will be the official 38th and 39th films in the MCU, a shared world of movies, shows, specials, and shorts. In addition to the films, there are, to date, nearly 20 streaming TV shows set in (or adjacent to) the MCU—more than 30 if you are liberal with your definition of “adjacent.” Together, they create a (somewhat) cohesive whole. We’re here to tell you how to watch each movie and show in the proper order.

    You could opt for release order, since that’s how everything was intended to be viewed. Alternatively, you could check out the chronological order option if you’re a seasoned veteran and want something different. For even more fun (and homework), you could include every TV show and short in that watch order.

    For the most part, Disney+ is all you need to stream the MCU. That’s where you’ll find the latest releases, like the excellent Wonder Man and last year’s truly stellar Thunderbolts*, as well as Fantastic Four: First Steps and now-classic shows like Agent Carter. Exceptions are noted below.

    Order of Release (Movies Only)

    Dates indicate when the film was released to theaters.

    MCU: Phase One

    MCU: Phase Two

    MCU: Phase Three

    MCU: Phase Four

    MCU: Phase Five

    MCU: Phase Six

    Chronological Order (Movies Only)

    The date on each film below indicates the estimated year or years it takes place. There are caveats about timeline anomalies, and that’s before the films even get to the time travel stuff.

    We also have links to find the movies. The majority are on Disney+. But Marvel’s rights issues with some characters go back decades, particularly with the Hulk and Spider-Man, which is why they’re sometimes on other services.

    Disney bought Fox, so most of the Fox-produced X-Men movies—even Deadpool—are on Disney+ or Hulu. Unless explicitly told otherwise, consider that a different section of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse_(Marvel_Cinematic_Universe)” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>multiverse.

    The post-credits scenes at the end of each Marvel movie sometimes take place in wildly different timeframes than the main film itself or were bits cut from the next movie to come out. We’re not counting them here.

    • Captain America: The First Avenger (1942)

    • The Fantastic Four: First Steps (the 1960s, but on another earth in the Multiverse)

    • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (opening takes place in 1980)

    • Guardians of the Galaxy (opening takes place in 1988)

    • The Incredible Hulk (May-June 2011; takes place after Iron Man 2 and Thor, despite being released first)

    • Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

    • Guardians of the Galaxy (the rest is set in 2014)

    • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (the remainder is set in 2014)

    • Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

    • Doctor Strange (2016-17; part happens after Civil War)

    • Captain America: Civil War (2016)

    • Spider-Man: Homecoming (2016—the opening takes place duringCaptain America: Civil War;the rest is set only four years after The Avengers, despite what it says on screen)

    • Avengers: Endgame (starts in 2018, jumps to 2023, with hops back to 2012, 2013, 2014, and 1970)

    • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2023)

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

    • Spider-Man: No Way Home (2024)

    • Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (early 2025)

    • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2025)

    • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (probably 2026)

    • Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3(mid-2026)

    • Deadpool & Wolverine (outside of time, but this is when to watch it according to the timeline on Disney+)

    • Captain America: Brave New World (2027)

    • Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2028, four years after No Way Home)

    Chronological Order With TV Shows and Shorts

    A shared universe that encapsulates not only movies but also TV shows? Sometimes it works, but usually it doesn’t. The original MCU shows were kept separate—a by-product of factions of Disney production that didn’t see eye to eye. Now, with the mega-producer of the MCU, Kevin Feige, overseeing even the TV shows on Disney+, the ties to the MCU are tighter than ever.

    Feige has also brought back favorite characters such as Daredevil and the Kingpin. They were featured on the MCU shows that originally aired on Netflix. Those shows—Daredevil, Jessica Jones, The Punisher, and others—are now on Disney+, too, and considered MCU canon.

    Recommended by Our Editors

    Go Ape: How to Watch All the Planet of the Apes Movies and TV Shows in Order
    How to Watch Every Star Wars Movie and Show in Order
    Travel Through Time and Space With Doctor Who: How to Watch Every Single Episode, Plus Specials

    Shows like Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are full of flashbacks and bits that are out of step with the established timeline; we didn’t account for all of them. But don’t watch those episodes out of order—that’s nuts. And don’t watch Inhumans at all. Ever. Even if it is on Disney+.

    Pre-20th Century

    • Eternals—Various flashbacks in the film go back to ancient times

    • Eyes of Wakanda—Each episode covers Wakandan and Black Panther history in previous centuries

    The 20th Century

    • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—Season 7, Episodes 1-2 (1931)

    • Captain America: The First Avenger (1942)

    • Marvel One-Shot: Agent Carter(1946)

    • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—Season 7, Episodes 3-4 (1955)

    • The Fantastic Four: First Steps (the 1960s, but on Earth-828 in the multiverse; the regular MCU stories are on Earth-616)

    • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—Season 7, Episodes 5-6 (1972-1976)

    • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (opening in 1980)

    • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—Season 7, Episode 7 (1982)

    • Guardians of the Galaxy (opens in 1988)

    2010-11

    • Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

    • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—Season 1, Episodes 17-22 (2013-14)

    • Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

    • I Am Groot (“Groot’s First Steps” short)

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

    • I Am Groot (The rest of the short episodes take place between the end of the Guardians Vol. 2and the tag at the end, where Groot is a teen)

    • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—Season 2; Episode 20 is concurrent with Avengers: Age of Ultron(2014-15)

    • Jessica Jones—Season 1(2015)

    • Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

    • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—Season 3, Episodes 1-10(2015)

    • Cloak and Dagger—Season 1(2015)—Disney+/Hulu

    • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—Season 3, Episodes 11-19 (2016)

    • Cloak & Dagger (2016)—Season 2 is set after the events of Luke Cage

    • The Defenders—Mini-series (2016)

    • Doctor Strange (act one in 2016)

    • Captain America: Civil War(2016)

    • Black Widow (according to the official MCU timeline on Disney+, this happens in 2016)

    • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—Season 3, Episodes 20-23 (2016)

    • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—Set between Seasons 3 and 4

    • Punisher—Season 1 (2016 holidays)

    • Doctor Strange(the rest is set in 2017)

    • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—Season 4, Episodes 1-8 with Ghost Rider (2017)

    • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—Season 4, Episodes 9-22 (2017)

    • Jessica Jones—Season 2 (Summer 2017)

    • Runaways—Season 1 and 2 (2017-2018)

    • Iron Fist—Season 2 (late 2017)

    • Jessica Jones—Season 3 (2018)

    • Ant-Man and the Wasp(2018, but see below)

    • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—Season 5, Episodes 11-22 (final four episodes concurrent to Infinity Warin 2018)

    • Ant-Man and the Wasp (the credits tag takes place at the same time as Thanos’s snap, trapping Scott Lang in the quantum realm from 2018 until 2023)

    • Avengers: Endgame (starts in 2018, then jumps to 2023, with hops back to 2012, 2013, 2014, and a quick jump to 1970)

    • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—Season 6 (seems to be out of continuity by ignoring the Snap; or it’s in a new timeline/alternate universe altogether)

    • Avengers: Endgameending (2023)

    • WandaVision(three weeks post-Endgame, 2023)

    • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Spring 2024)

    • The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Spring-Summer 2024)

    • Spider-Man: Far From Home (a full school year after Endgame, Summer 2024)

    • Spider-Man: No Way Home (Immediately follows Far from Home, but ends near December 2024)

    • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—Season 7 – Episodes 8-13, which are entirely out of whack with continuity

    • Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness(Autumn 2024)

    • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania(early 2026)

    • Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3(mid-2026)

    • Deadpool & Wolverine (Kang only knows)

    • Agatha All Along (Fall 2026, three years after WandaVision)

    • Daredevil: Born Again(late 2026 for the first episode prelude)

    The Future(s)

    • Captain America: Brave New World

    • Daredevil: Born Again(early 2027 for the remainder of the first season; season 2 set six months later)

    • Thunderbolts*(six months after Captain America: Brave New World; post-credit sequence jumps ahead a year or more to the arrival of the Fantastic Four to Earth-616)

    As you can see, the post-Snap continuity is messy. Shows like What If…? and its spin-off, Marvel Zombies, take place completely outside of continuity.

    Storm (voiced by Alison Sealy-Smith) in ‘What If…?’ Season 3 (Credit: Marvel Animation.)

    If you don’t like this timeline, you have other options. Check out the scarily detailed one at the Marvel Cinematic Universe Fandom Wiki. Or buy the hardcover coffee-table book The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline.It covers the Sacred Timeline (IYKYK; right, Lokifans?)—which means it doesn’t include Marvel TV shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, etc.—up through Phase 5.

    What’s Coming?

    Plenty of movies and TV shows are coming to the MCU. These are the titles we know of, with updated release dates.

    MCU: Phase 6

    • Spider-Man: Brand New Day(July 31, 2026)

    • VisionQuest(2026)—Direct to Disney+

    • Avengers: Doomsday (Dec. 18, 2026)

    • Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 (2027)—Direct to Disney+

    • Avengers: Secret Wars (Dec. 17, 2027)

    • Wonder Man Season 2 (eventually)—Direct to Disney+

    This story doesn’t even dip into Sony’s Marvel-adjacent films, including Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and Venom: The Last Dance, as well as Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter. It also doesn’t mention Fox’s X-Men franchise or Sony’s previous Spider-Man films, even if they are technically “in continuity” now, albeit on a different Earth in the multiverse.

    About Our Experts

    Eric Griffith
    Senior Editor, Features
    Experience

    I’ve been writing about computers, the internet, and technology professionally since 1992, more than half of that time with PCMag. I arrived at the end of the print era of PC Magazineas a senior writer. I served for a time as managing editor of business coverage before settling back into the features team for the last decade and a half. I write features on all tech topics, plus I handle several special projects, including the Readers’ Choice and Business Choice surveys and yearly coverage of the Best ISPs and Best Gaming ISPs, Best Products of the Year, and Best Brands (plus the Best Brands for Tech Support, Longevity, and Reliability).

    I started in tech publishing right out of college, writing and editing stories about hardware and development tools. I migrated to software and hardware coverage for families, and I spent several years exclusively writing about the then-burgeoning technology called Wi-Fi. I was on the founding staff of several magazines, including Windows Sources, FamilyPC, and Access Internet Magazine. All of which are now defunct, and it’s not my fault. I have freelanced for publications as diverse as Sony Style, Playboy.com, and Flux. I got my degree at Ithaca College in, of all things, television/radio. But I minored in writing so I’d have a future.

    In my long-lost free time, I wrote some novels, a couple of which are not just on my hard drive: BETA TEST (“an unusually lighthearted apocalyptic tale,” according to Publishers’ Weekly) and a YA book called KALI: THE GHOSTING OF SEPULCHER BAY. Go get them on Kindle.

    I work from my home in Ithaca, NY, and did it long before pandemics made it cool.

    Areas of Expertise
    Latest By Eric Griffith

    • You Could Probably Use a New Router. Our Readers Have Recommendations
    • uBlock Origin on Chrome Is Dead: 8 Ways to Block YouTube Ads (That Still Work)
    • The Best ISPs for 2026, Ranked
    • Wait! Instead of Throwing Away That Old PC, Try One of These 20 Fun Projects
    • The Best Canadian ISPs, by the Numbers
    • More from Eric Griffith

    Read Full Bio
    Jason Cohen
    Senior Editor, Help & How To
    Experience

    As PCMag’s editor of how to content, I have to cover a wide variety of topics and also make our stories accessible to everyday users. Considering my history as a technical writer, copywriter, and all-around freelancer covering baseball, comics, and more at various outlets, I am used to making myself into an expert.

    I believe tech corporations are bad, but you might as well know how to use technology in everyday life. Want more how to content delivered right to your inbox? Sign up for the tips and tricks newsletter that I curate three times a week.

    My job as how-to guru means I use just about every gadget under the sun, so I can figure out how everything works. I work from a Lenovo ThinkPad running Windows 11, but also have a very large Dell Inspiron 17 3000 and Apple silicon MacBook. I have a Google Pixel 6a for personal use and use a Galaxy Z Flip 4 for additional Samsung-related testing. For iOS coverage, an iPhone 13 mini works like a charm, though it’s already becoming a little long in the tooth.

    My desktop situation includes a dual monitor setup with a modest Acer monitor. I also use a Logitech vertical mouse (who can use these ThinkPad trackpads) and a Havit keyboard (my first mechanical keyboard; I love it but my wife hates it!). I’m a recent convert from wired headphones; I have Anker Soundcore Liberty Air wireless earbuds for personal use and have taken to the Sennheiser HD 450BT headphones for work.

    Whenever I have a second to myself, I’m probably gaming on my Nintendo Switch 2, Steam Deck, or Xbox Series S. I also still have a bunch of classic consoles lying around as well.

    Areas of Expertise
    Latest By Jason Cohen

    • How to Watch the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final Live Without Cable (Even for Free)
    • Need More iPhone Storage? It Might Be Time to Upgrade to iCloud+
    • How to Watch the 2026 Tour de France Without Cable (Even for Free)
    • Apple Launches iOS 27 Public Beta. Every New iPhone Feature You Can Try, Plus How to Install It
    • How to Watch the 2026 MLB All-Star Game Live (Even for Free)
    • More from Jason Cohen
    Share.

    Related Posts

    Leave A Reply