The entire MCU Movie Order – Several Options for your pre-Avengers Endgame Watch or Rewatch

Want to watch, or rewatch, all the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? (Aka, the MCU.) The first thing you have to figure out is what order you’re going to watch them in. There’s more than one way to go about this, and I’ll break down the list into a few options.

Keep it simple: Watch in the order of film release

The release order isn’t my personal preference, but it will do. Note: there is no shame in skipping The Incredible Hulk altogether. Sure, for the sake of completeness it’s good to watch Edward Norton’s Hulk, but that movie just barely fits with the rest of the MCU (except in the last few seconds).

1. Iron Man (2008)
2. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
3. Iron Man 2 (2010)
4. Thor (2011)
5. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
6. Marvel’s The Avengers (2012)
7. Iron Man 3 (2013)
8. Thor: The Dark World (2013)
9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
10. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
11. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
12. Ant-Man (2015)
13. Captain America: Civil War (2016)
14. Doctor Strange (2016)
15. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
16. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
17. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
18. Black Panther (2018)
19. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
20. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
21. Captain Marvel (2019)
22. Avengers: Endgame (2019)
23. Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Phase IV

The MCU Phase IV kicked off after Avengers: Endgame.

Black Widow (2021)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
Eternals (2021)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
The Marvels (2023)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
Fantastic Four

Watch in MCU chronological order

The MCU movies weren’t actually released in the order that they happen. It takes a minor tweak to fix that. Chronologically, Captain America: The First Avenger happened first — during WWII — although it was the 5th movie released. Then you would follow with Captain Marvel — 1990s — which was the 21st movie released. There is some logic to this order, but again, I wouldn’t suggest it. I think going by movie release order makes for a more enjoyable watch than this. But here it is anyway.

1. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
2. Captain Marvel (2019)
3. Iron Man (2008)
4. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
5. Iron Man 2 (2010)
6. Thor (2011)
7. Marvel’s The Avengers (2012)
8. Iron Man 3 (2013)
9. Thor: The Dark World (2013)
10. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
11. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
12. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
13. Ant-Man (2015)
14. Captain America: Civil War (2016)
15. Doctor Strange (2016)
16. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
17. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
18. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
19. Black Panther (2018)
20. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
21. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
22. Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Maximum Effect

My suggestion is to follow the movie release order, up to a point. Black Panther and Spiderman: Homecoming have events that take place immediately after Captain America: Civil War. You don’t need to see Doctor Strange until just before Avengers: Infinity War, actually, but you may as well view it before the Guardians of the Galaxy Movies I & II . You see, the GotG movies are completely independent from the rest of the previous MCU movies. However, they tie in closely with Avengers: Infinity War. Therefore I would recommend skipping over those two in the release order.

Therefore, to maximize your enjoyment I recommend watching Guardians I, Guardians II, then Thor: Ragnarok, right before Infinity War. In fact, if you have 5 hours to spare, you could watch Thor: Ragnarok and Infinity War back-to-back because they literally take place moments apart.

1. Iron Man (2008)
2. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
3. Iron Man 2 (2010)
4. Thor (2011)
5. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
6. Marvel’s The Avengers (2012)
7. Iron Man 3 (2013)
8. Thor: The Dark World (2013)
9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
10. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
11. Ant-Man (2015)
12. Captain America: Civil War (2016)
13. Black Panther (2018)
14. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
15. Doctor Strange (2016)
16. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
17. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
18. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
19. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
20. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) *
21. Captain Marvel (2019)
22. Avengers: Endgame (2019)

• Note: Ant-Man and the Wasp fits better before Infinity War, however — and this is huge — you must NOT watch the two extra scenes until after Infinity War on a 1st viewing. That said, if you did want to watch Ant-Man and the Wasp out of order for a re-watch, I’d put it after Spider-Man: Homecoming.

If you are also a die-hard fan of Marvel then make sure to give this fun quiz a try.

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