Marvel Studios unveiled its must-watch list for Avengers: Doomsday, and only one Disney+ series made the cut. The fifth Avengers crossover will bring together the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and, of course, the Avengers themselves as they take on Latverian dictator Victor von Doom, played by Robert Downey Jr. The film, which releases on December 18, is the penultimate chapter of the Multiverse Saga, which ends with Avengers: Secret Wars and whose rules Loki helped define.
The MCU is a sprawling, interconnected universe that often demands homework to understand newer entries. Marvel Studios revealed its essential homework list on Disney+ with a new collection titled “Countdown to Avengers: Doomsday”. The collection contains 15 titles with strong ties to the December blockbuster: 14 films and one series.
Loki, the Disney+ show most closely tied to the multiverse, was the only Marvel show to appear. Tom Hiddleston’s series, which aired for two seasons, helped set up Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, the Avengers film Marvel scrapped in 2024. Still, Loki contains many essential elements that make it a must-watch for Doomsday.
Surprisingly, WandaVision didn’t appear on the list, which could be a sign that Elizabeth Olsen may not appear in the film at all, although a set of witch costumes displayed in the San Diego Convention Center’s Exhibit Hall during San Diego Comic-Con had many fans convinced Olsen would reprise her role as the Scarlet Witch.
The film titles on the list are: X-Men, X2, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Captain America: Brave New World, Deadpool & Wolverine, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
It’s a bit ironic that Marvel has introduced an essential watchlist for the film, given that Joe Russo said not long ago that Doomsday was “starting from scratch” and “isn’t leaning on anything from the past.”
Why is Loki Essential Viewing For Avengers: Doomsday?
Although Robert Downey Jr.’s Doom didn’t have much buildup, his movie centers heavily on the multiverse itself, a concept that Loki delved into deeply for two seasons. Doomsday is expected to deal with Incursions, cataclysmic events that cause two or more universes to collide. In the MCU, those collisions are tied to prolonged multiversal travel and tampering with timelines.
To understand how timelines work and why Loki’s presence matters in December, it’s necessary to watch the show. The series introduced the Time Variance Authority, the bureaucratic agency created by He Who Remains to protect the Sacred Timeline and decide which branches could exist.
The concepts the series introduced were later borrowed by Deadpool & Wolverine, the film that officially ushered Hugh Jackman into the MCU. Loki’s Season 2 finale ended with him on a throne at the end of time, holding the timelines together and becoming the God of Stories.
Audiences who watched earlier MCU films featuring Loki but skipped his series will be in for a surprise in Doomsday when they see how much he has changed in moral conviction and power. Loki was essentially a rebirth for the character, moving him away from cheap mischievous tricks and villainy toward heroism.
Also, fans who last saw Loki in Infinity War will wonder how he returns in Doomsday after Thanos killed him in front of Thor. Loki explains that the version alive now is not that exact Loki, but a 2012 variant who escaped with the Tesseract during Endgame’s Time Heist.
As for the rumors of Wolverine returning in Doomsday or Secret Wars, Lokialso providesanessential foundation to understand how the mutant can appear despite dying in Logan,the film that functioned as a final send-off for the character.
Hiddleston’s series also provides the multiversal architecture for how the Fox X-Men can appear alongside Earth-616, or how 616 characters can cross into other universes. It also gives context to why Steve Rogers’ decision to stay in the 1940s with Peggy instead of returning to his own timeline was dangerous, creating a branch that could affect the multiverse and potentially put him in Doom’s crosshairs.
