How to watch the Marvel movies in order

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Here's how to watch the Marvel movies in order, both chronologically and in release order

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

Across infinite timelines, this is the only one where you can experience the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe in the perfect order. While you wait for the next superhero spectacle to hit the big screen, why not dive back into the action and catch up on everything Marvel has delivered so far? 

Lucky for you, Disney Plus makes it pretty effortless. With nearly every MCU blockbuster and series available in one place, it's no surprise that many fans find the streamer indispensable. It’s the go-to hub for the latest Marvel adventures.

If you've already marked your calendar for every upcoming Marvel release, the next big day to watch for is February 14, 2025, when Captain America: Brave New World makes its debut in theaters.

But how should you watch the MCU? Our complete guide breaks it down into two approaches: release order, for those who want to relive the cinematic rollout, or chronological order, following the multiple tales as they unfold with in the universe
itself. 

And while the most recent Marvel films and shows align closely in the timeline, our chronological viewing list ensures you experience the MCU in the most seamless way possible. So sit back, relax, and start watching. With our help, it's a snap. 

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 February 7)

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

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

(Image credit: Jay Maidment/Paramount)

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)
  • Deadpool & Wolverine (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
  • Agatha All Along (2026)

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

Iron Man in one of the early marvel movies

(Image credit: Credit: Zade Rosenthal/Paramount)

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)
  • What If...? season 2 (December 22, 2023)
  • Echo (January 9, 2024 — TV show)
  • X-Men 97 (March 20, 2024 — TV show)
  • Deadpool & Wolverine (July 22, 2024)
  • Agatha All Along (September 18, 2024 — TV show)
  • Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (January 29, 2025 — TV show)

Marvel movies in 2025 and beyond (and shows too)

Phase 5

Phase 6

  • The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July 25, 2025 — film)
  • Eyes of Wakanda (August 6, 2025 — TV show)
  • Marvel Zombies (October 3, 2025 — TV show)
  • Wonder Man (December 2025 — TV show)
  • Blade (TBD 2025 — film)
  • Avengers: Doomsday (May 1, 2026 — film)
  • Spider-Man 4 (July 24, 2026 — film)
  • Vision Quest (TBD 2026 — TV show)
  • Avengers: Secret War (May 7, 2027 — film)

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

(Image credit: Future)

All but one 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
  • Deadpool & Wolverine

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

(Image credit: JoJo Whilden)
  • 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.

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 won't find them on Disney Plus, but we've got the details.

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Alyse Stanley
Alyse Stanley
News Editor

Alyse Stanley is a news editor at Tom’s Guide overseeing weekend coverage and writing about the latest in tech, gaming and entertainment. Prior to joining Tom’s Guide, Alyse worked as an editor for the Washington Post’s sunsetted video game section, Launcher. She previously led Gizmodo’s weekend news desk, where she covered breaking tech news — everything from the latest spec rumors and gadget launches to social media policy and cybersecurity threats.  She has also written game reviews and features as a freelance reporter for outlets like Polygon, Unwinnable, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun. She’s a big fan of horror movies, cartoons, and miniature painting.

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