How to Watch the Marvel Movies in Order

MCU Dates: March 1942-February 1945, October 2011

The MCU begins with Captain America, which feels thematically right as Steve Rogers’ transformation via the Super Soldier Serum would directly lead to events in Incredible Hulk, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and more. This film, almost entirely set during World War II, introduces Cap as well as Bucky (eventually the Winter Soldier). We meet Peggy Carter and Howard Stark, whose descendants will play major roles in the MCU—and Peggy herself pops up in many flashbacks thanks to her role in founding S.H.I.E.L.D. The Infinity Stone saga begins with the introduction of the Space Stone inside the Tesseract. And, in one of the longest payoffs in the MCU, the film ends with Red Skull zapped to the far off planet of Vormir, which is where we find him in Avengers: Infinity War.

Stream Captain America: The First Avenger on Disney+

MCU Dates

• Agent Carter: March 1946 (after Captain America: The First Avenger)
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer: May 2010 (after Iron Man 2)
• The Consultant: June 2010 (after The Incredible Hulk)
• Item 47: May 2012 (after Marvel’s The Avengers)
• All Hail the King: Late 2013 (after Thor: The Dark World)

If you want to really get the complete MCU experience, you can add these Marvel Studios short films to your marathon after the films mentioned above. Originally released on various MCU Blu-rays back during the franchise’s early days, all five canonical shorts (as well as three non-canonical sketches from Taika Waititi starring Thor and his roommate Darryl) are available to stream on Disney+ for the first time. These are more or less optional viewing, but they’re a must if you want to see more of Peggy Carter, Phil Coulson, and Trevor Slattery.

MCU Dates: June 1989, June 1995

Fast-forward 50 years and we meet another influential Avenger: Captain Marvel. She gets her powers via the Tesseract, which we just saw in First Avenger. Captain Marvel’s arrival on Earth and team-up with young(er) Nick Fury against Skrull and Kree agents inspire the future S.H.I.E.L.D. director to starting a little thing called the Avenger Initiative. Why that name? Avenger was Carol Danvers’ Air Force callsign. The movie also introduces Maria Rambeau and her daughter Monica, who will return as an adult in WandaVision. We also meet the Skrull Talos, who sneakily plays a major role in Spider-Man: Far From Home. And how can we forget: this is the first chronological appearance of the MCU’s original glue, Agent Phil Coulson.

Stream Captain Marvel on Disney+

MCU Dates: February-November 2009

The MCU really takes flight in Iron Man, as it was the very first Marvel Studios film. Like Steve Rogers (chronologically) before him, Tony Stark is the other lead character in this entire saga. He gets the Iron Man armor and fights his first foe, which leads Nick Fury to finally put that Avengers plan he’s been thinking about for almost 15 years into action. This is also our introduction to MCU mainstays James “Rhodey” Rhodes, Pepper Potts, and Happy Hogan.

Stream Iron Man on Disney+

MCU Dates: May 2010

The universe goes from 0 to 100 in Iron Man’s follow-up, which not only gives Rhodey his own suit of armor (hello War Machine), but also drops Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow, into the fray. We also see lots more of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s inner workings as Fury keeps trying to convince Tony to take him up on his offer.

Stream Iron Man 2 on Disney+

MCU Dates: 965 A.D., May-June 2010

Meanwhile, in outer-space/another dimension/some mix of the two—the actual Norse god Thor gets banished to Earth by his father until he’s able to once again be worthy enough to lift his enchanted hammer Mjolnir. Along with Thor we meet the Asgardian cast of characters, including major MCU villain/antihero Loki. Thor’s human pals—Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, and Erik Selvig—also return time and again, most recently in WandaVision. Even Hawkeye makes a quick cameo! And the first Infinity Stone—the Space Stone, again—makes its modern debut in a post-credits scene.

Stream Thor on Disney+

MCU Dates: May-June 2010

Oh yeah—this movie. We meet Marvel Studios’ version of Bruce Banner, but the character will get a re-introduction in Avengers when Mark Ruffalo replaces Edward Norton. Aside from that, the only strong connective tissue between this and the rest of the MCU is the debut of General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, who will return in Civil War, and the post-credits scene where Stark mentions the Avengers to Ross. But another connection is coming: Tim Roth’s Abomination is confirmed to appear in Disney+’s She-Hulk.

Where to watch The Incredible Hulk

MCU Dates: May 2012

Enter: The Avengers. All the major players of the MCU unite for the first time, and Hulk gets a brand new face. Loki snatches the Tesseract, picking up a thread from Thor’s post-credits scene. He also has possession of the Mind Stone. And in this iconic post-credits scene, we meet the real big bad of the entire saga: Thanos.

Stream Marvel's The Avengers on Disney+

MCU Dates: December 2012

Following the thwarted alien invasion of Earth, Tony Stark deals with the lingering effects of PTSD. This will stay with him through pretty much the very end, and Thanos’ role in attacking Earth fuels Stark to take some extreme measures in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Stream Iron Man 3 on Disney+

MCU Dates: 2988 B.C., November 2013

Thor’s back in action and Loki’s in prison—the original Loki, not the Loki that’s getting his own show. This fish out of water romp brings Jane Foster to Asgard after she comes into contact with the Reality Stone. We’ve now encountered half of the six Stones. And where does the Reality Stone end up? In the hands of an eccentric alien named Taneleer Tivan, later seen in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Stream Thor: The Dark World on Disney+

MCU Dates: January 2014

Following the events of Avengers, Captain America and Black Widow have become a spy duo and are running various missions for S.H.I.E.L.D. But oops—turns out the Nazi-adjacent HYDRA’s been embedded within S.H.I.E.L.D. since the start! Making matters worse, Steve finds out that his old pal Bucky is alive and acting as the brainwashed assassin known as the Winter Soldier. But hey—Steve makes new pals in Sam Wilson, a veteran with a really cool flying backpack, and Peggy’s grandniece and secret agent Sharon Carter. Two more characters are introduced in the post-credits scene when we see a HYDRA facility and the two people they’re experimenting on: Wanda and Pietro Maximoff.

Stream Captain America: The Winter Soldier on Disney+

MCU Dates: November 1988, August 2014

Meanwhile, in a galaxy far-ish away, a space scavenger and Earth expat named Star-Lord falls into an unlikely team scenario with a bunch of assassins, mercenaries, and weirdos. They form the Guardians of the Galaxy in order to prevent one Kree jerk named Ronan (who we met in Captain Marvel) from using the Power Stone to cause a bunch of annihilation. We see more of Thanos and meet his adopted-against-their-will daughters Gamora and Nebula. Oh—and the Infinity Stone count is now up to four.

Stream Guardians of the Galaxy on Disney+

MCU Dates: October 2014

Just a few months later, the Guardians find themselves dragged into Star-Lord’s daddy issues. Turns out his daddy’s Ego, an all-powerful planet being who looks a lot like Kurt Russell. The Guardians leave the battle an even tighter-knit unit (albeit still way dysfunctional) and even have a couple of new recruits: Ego’s former attendant Mantis and conflicted bad girl Nebula.

Stream Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 on Disney+

MCU Date: Fall 2014

This series is actually comprised of five short films starring everyone’s favorite sentient tree tyke. The first one is the short titled Groot’s First Steps, and it actually takes place between the end of Guardians of the Galaxy and the first post-credits scene (the “I Want You Back” skit). The other four — The Little Guy, Groot’s Pursuit, Groot Takes a Bath, and Magnum Opus — all take place after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and can more or less be watched in any order.

MCU Dates: April-May 2015

Back on Earth, the Avengers make a mess of their own when Tony Stark’s A.I. Ultron decides it wants to exterminate all humanity. Ultron recruits the Maximoff twins, but the Avengers find help in an unlikely source when a whole bunch of continuity ephemera combine with the Mind Stone to form the very sturdy Vision. A side mission brings the Avengers into conflict with an arms dealer named Ulysses Klaue (who will return in Black Panther). The big battle and destruction of Sokovia rightfully pisses off Sokovian soldier and Baron Helmut Zemo (offscreen), who vows revenge. Hulk peaces out in a Quinjet for places unknown (we’ll know where in Thor: Ragnarok). Along the way, Pietro dies and Wanda joins the good guys. This movie is essentially WandaVision begins. It also ends with a new Avengers lineup: Captain America, Black Widow, War Machine, Falcon, Vision, and Wanda Maximoff.

Stream Avengers: Age of Ultron on Disney+

MCU Dates: July 1987, June 1989, July-August 2015

After that big battle, things get small when a petty thief named Scott Lang steals a size-changing super suit. He teams up with the creator of that suit, a scientist and former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Hank Pym, and Pym’s daughter Hope Van Dyne. Scott Lang gets into a skirmish with Falcon at the Avengers’ new upstate compound. And in Flashbacks to the 1980s show Pym and his wife Janet Van Dyne in action as the original Ant-Man and Wasp, and we see Pym resign from S.H.I.E.L.D. in a heated convo with Peggy Carter and Howard Stark.

Stream Ant-Man on Disney+

MCU Dates: December 1991, May-June 2016

That new Avengers team? They have a bad mission in Lagos where one of Wanda’s split-second decisions saves Captain America’s life but inadvertently kills a bunch of Wakandan diplomats. That, in conjunction with the third act of Age of Ultron, leads to the implementation of a registration act. Sides are taken and more heroes are brought into the fold: Falcon calls up Ant-Man to join #TeamCap, and Sharon Carter steals Cap’s shield so he can fight on behalf of his bud Bucky. Iron Man recruits two major new additions to the MCU: Black Panther and Spider-Man. And all this conflama turns out to be masterminded by Zemo seeking revenge for having his home country shattered. If you can’t tell by now, this is the most important Marvel movie since the first Avengers.

Stream Captain America: Civil War on Disney+

MCU Dates: 1995, June 2016

Black Widow takes place immediately in the aftermath of Civil War, right after Natasha’s surrogate family (the Avengers) completely fall apart. That may be why Nat’s suddenly very open to the idea of reconnecting with her original family when her adoptive sister, a fellow Black Widow assassin named Yelena Belova, reaches out for her help. And if you really, really want to get technical with this viewing order, you’d watch all of Black Widow between the final two scenes of Captain America: Civil War. And as a bonus for continuity enthusiasts, this movie explains why Black Widow’s a blonde and wearing an uncharacteristic green vest in Avengers: Infinity War.

Stream Black Widow on Disney+

MCU Dates: January 1992, June-July 2016

Following the murder of his father in Civil War, T’Challa becomes fully steps into his role as Black Panther and king of Wakanda. He faces off against his estranged cousin Erik Killmonger, who’s teamed up with that Klaue guy from Age of Ultron. We also see the entirety of Wakanda and its people, who go on to play a massive role in Infinity War and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Speaking of Winter Soldier, this movie reveals that Bucky’s thawed out and rehabilitating in Wakanda.

Stream Black Panther on Disney+

MCU Dates: September 2016

After going up against Cap’s rogue Avengers in Civil War, Peter Parker returns to his life as a high schooler in Queens—and he also keeps trying to prove himself to Tony Stark. This movie really cements the bond between those two—and that’s gonna lead to some heartbreak.

Where to watch Spider-Man: Homecoming

MCU Dates: October 2015, February-May 2016, August-September 2016, January 2017, November 2017

After getting a shoutout on HYDRA’s hit list way back in Winter Soldier (I guess HYDRA was not fond of really good surgeons?), Dr. Stephen Strange finally takes on the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme. The career change comes almost a year after the car accident that ruined his hands, a year wherein he spent training in the mystic arts under Wong and the Ancient One. The movie’s post credits scene jumps forward a few months to show a scene from the next movie wherein Strange confronts Thor for bringing bad boy Loki back to Earth. Oh—and Doctor Strange’s signature piece of jewelry, the Eye of Agamotto, contains the Time Stone. We’re at five out of six Stones.

Stream Doctor Strange on Disney+

MCU Dates: 950 A.D., November 2017, May 2018

Turns out Thor and Loki are looking for their dad, Odin, to help them stop their villainous older sister Hela from bringing about Ragnarok. This journey sends the pair to the far off garbage planet of Sakaar where Thor’s reunited with Hulk—who’s now a Sakaarian Gladiator. Thor also brings a new ally into the fold, a former Valkyrie in need of a purpose and a pint. Together, they save as many Asgardians as they can—but Hela succeeds in destroying Asgard. Six months later, the Asgardian survivors are still adrift in space—and they come across an even bigger spaceship…

Stream Thor: Ragnarok on Disney+

MCU Dates: November 1995, May 2018

Back on Earth, Scott Lang’s under house arrest (remember how he committed some light treason in Civil War when he fought against the American government on #TeamCap?) but he leaps back into action to help his former mentor, Hope Van Dyne. She’s now going by Wasp, the role previously occupied by her late mother But surprise—Jan Van Dyne’s not dead! She’s just trapped in the Quantum Realm. They pull her outta there—but just a few days later, Scott Lang gets trapped in the realm at the worst time possible. All his buds back on Earth have turned to dust.

Stream Ant-Man and the Wasp on Disney+

MCU Dates: August 1995, May 2018

The post-credits scenes from Thor: Ragnarok and Ant-Man and the Wasp pay off in this movie. That big ship? It’s Thanos’, and he and his Black Order slaughter every Asgardian on board, with only a few managing to escape. Loki dies attempting to kill Thanos (and that’s a franchise wrap on this Loki). The cosmic Guardians finally meet some of the Earthly Avengers while other heroes travel to Wakanda, all of them trying to keep Thanos from collecting all six Stones. We finally see that sixth stone—the Soul Stone—when Thanos travels to Vormir, meets the Red Skull, and then sacrifices Gamora to retrieve the Stone. That’s a franchise wrap on this Gamora. After the biggest battle in MCU history (up to this point), Thanos collects ’em all and destroys Vision in the process. And with a snap of his fingers, Thanos succeeds in his big mission: he eliminates half of the universe’s population, including most of the heroes. Fortunately, Nick Fury was able to page one hero using an intergalactic beeper: Captain Marvel. Remember her from Movie #2?

Stream Avengers: Infinity War on Disney+

MCU Dates: May-June 2018, October 2023—and just all over the whole dang timeline

Captain Marvel collects Tony Stark and Nebula, the only survivors of the outer space showdown with Thanos, and brings them to Earth. She teams up with the few remaining heroes to ambush Thanos and try to take back the snap. Unfortunately, Thanos used his godlike powers to erase the Stones from existence.

Five. Years. Later.

Ant-Man’s trip through the Quantum Realm comes to an end and, using time travel, the Avengers collect versions of all the Stones and snap half the universe back into existence. This movie serves as finales for three Avengers: Black Widow (who sacrifices herself to retrieve the Soul Stone), Captain America (who uses the Time Stone to travel back in time and grow old with Peggy), and Iron Man (whose mortal body could not survive the energy output of snapping everyone back to life). It’s as close to a franchise ender as movie history has ever seen… but comic fans know there’s no such thing as a permanent end.

Stream Avengers: Endgame on Disney+

MCU Dates: May 2012, 1858, November 1971, April 1985, March 2050, 79 AD, 2077, The End of Time

Now the timeline gets (appropriately) mischievous. It is, quite frankly, a pain trying to figure out where to put Loki in any viewing order. The very first scene of the first episode takes place during the time travel sequence in Avengers: Endgame when Loki steals the Tesseract, which places it in May 2012. And in order to follow that dangling plot thread, you need to watch Loki Episode 1 immediately after Endgame. But, after all the topsy-turvy time travel, the finale takes place at the literal end of time. But you can’t place Loki perpetually at the very end of the viewing order because events in the finale directly lead into the next few entries on this list.

The solution: watch Loki in three pairs, more or less evenly spaced out (minutes-wise) so that you don’t go too long without dropping back in on Loki’s plot. That way you get the follow through on Loki’s post-Endgame journey, and you get to see the finale just before it completely changes the MCU.

• “Glorious Purpose” & “The Variant” (after Avengers: Endgame)
• “Lamentis” & “The Nexus Event” (after Eternals)
• “Journey Into Mystery” & “For All Time. Always” (after Spider-Man: Far From Home)

Stream Loki on Disney+

MCU Dates: October-November 2023

Weeks after Endgame, Wanda Maximoff tries to retrieve Vision’s body (remember he died in Infinity War) but, uh, it doesn’t work. Listen: it’s impossible to sum up this show. The continuity takeaways: we finally meet adult Monica Rambeau, Vision’s resurrected as a Mind Stone-less shell of his former self, Darcy Lewis—who we haven’t seen since Thor 2—is now an astrophysicist, and Wanda Maximoff is revealed to be a natural born witch. She’s the Scarlet Witch, and she’s boning up on her spells so she can hang out with Doctor Strange in his sequel.

Stream WandaVision on Disney+

MCU Dates: c. 13,800,000,000 B.C., 5,000 B.C., 575 B.C., 1521, August 1945, December 2023

When you have a film starring a group who have been around for thousands and thousands of years, a group that was created by the very beings who instigated the Big Bang, that film’s gonna do a lot of timeline-hopping. Fortunately it’s not hard to place Eternals in the timeline. We know it takes place post-Blip, and there’s actually half a year between WandaVision and the next entry where this one can easily fall into place.

Stream Eternals on Disney+

MCU Dates: Early 2024

After being handed the shield by old man Steve Rogers at the very end of Endgame, Sam Wilson goes through a whole lot of soul searching and globe hopping on his quest to become the new Captain America. By his side is Bucky, who finally comes to terms with all the murdering he did for HYDRA for decades. We catch up with Zemo and Sharon Carter, not seen since Civil War. He’s somehow not that bad and she’s somehow now very bad! The series gives us a new Cap, a temperamental U.S. Agent, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the MCU.

Stream The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+

MCU Dates: March 28 to April 4, 2024

Aside from a few flashbacks to the mid ’90s and late ’00s, the bulk of Shang-Chi’s Ta Lo adventure take place in Spring 2024. And since we know when that cage match at the Golden Daggers Club takes place, we also know when the next entry takes place…

MCU Dates: Spring 2024

Well, at least that’s what fans and theorists think right now. Now that this movie is streaming on Disney+, viewers can really nitpick all of the details and find out when it really takes place.

MCU Dates: June-July 2024

The summer after half of everybody popped back into existence, Peter Parker and his classmates go on a European trip for educational purposes—and Spidey gets into some superhero trouble. He’s still mourning the loss of his father figure Tony Stark while going up against Mysterio. He teams up with Nick Fury and Maria Hill—who are really Skrull impersonators because the real Fury’s out in space! The movie also teases the re-introduction of a major part of the Spider-mythos: J. Jonah Jameson.

Where to watch Spider-Man: Far From Home

MCU Dates: July 2024, November-December 2024

Gaze upon the chaos that the Loki finale hath wrought! Because of Loki and Sylvie’s little trip to the Citadel at the End of Time and their less-than-cordial visit with He Who Remains, the once sacred timeline has split into multiples upon multiples. That chaotic development means that Doctor Strange’s spell goes even haywire-ier and starts to bring elements from other timelines (a.k.a. feature films) into the MCU.

Also if you really want to be a completist, you’d watch the entire Sam Raimi and Marc Webb Spider-Man films as well as both Venom films before watching No Way Home. How much time do you have?

MCU Dates: Alt. 1945, Alt. 2008, Alt. 2009, Alt. 2010, Alt. 2016, Alt. 2018

There’s a real Choose Your Own Adventure vibe post-Loki. The creation of the multiverse directly leads into the calamity of Spider-Man: No Way Home, but it also retroactively creates dozens of alternate timelines that are explored in the animated What If…? series. But also, Spider-Man: Far From Home leads directly into No Way Home, so there’s not really time to binge an entire TV series between those two movies. This is up to you! It helps that What If…? is mostly self-contained multiversal mayhem and not crucial to continuity… yet.

Stream What If...? on Disney+

MCU Date: November 2024

What with all the crisscrossing plot lines, Multiverse of Madness has to take place after the birth of the multiverse as depicted in Loki and Doctor Strange’s consequential “team-up” with Spider-Man in No Way Home. That places it in late 2024, probably between the end of the battle on the Statue of Liberty and the sad, Christmas coda wherein Peter tries to reintroduce himself to MJ.

MCU Dates: December 2024

And 2024 comes to a quiet close with a holiday tale of two archers taking on a massive crime syndicate with nothing but their quivers and quips. We meet Kate Bishop, catch up with Clint Barton and the Barton Bunch, meet some major new MCU players, and get to enjoy a lot of holiday jams. This film also ties all the way back to Black Widow with the return of Yelena Belova, and both No Way Home and Hawkeye include scenes set at 30 Rock’s ice skating rink.

Stream Hawkeye on Disney+

MCU Date: May 2025

Not since the very first Iron Man movie has an MCU story been this standalone. It makes sense, as Marc Spector/Steven Grant has zero ties to any of the Avengers and he lives across the Atlantic. Still, you can place Moon Knight in the timeline thanks to those ads for the GRC — an organization introduced in Falcon and the Winter Soldier. That means it takes place after the Blip. And maybe that’s why no one mentions the fact that Mysterio attacked London in Spider-Man: Far From Home. It happened almost a year ago.

MCU Dates: May 2025

The events of Wakanda Forever and Moon Knight apparently overlap a bit, all taking place in the first few weeks of May before classes let out at MIT, where Riri Williams is a student. What a way to kick off summer vacation, Riri!

MCU Dates: January 2025, August 2025

The majority of She-Hulk takes place in the late summer, but the car accident that gets the whole thing started most likely takes place in January 2025. Ignoring the nonstop Hulk training from Bruce Banner, you gotta envy Jennifer Walters for getting to spend January on a tropical island in Mexico.

MCU Date: Fall 2025

Kamala Khan’s globetrotting adventure, including her viral superhero debut at AvengerCon, takes place at the start of a new school year. Sucky timing, right? It’d be so much easier to hide superpowers during the summer when you don’t also have to go to gym.

MCU Dates: Christmas 2025

This one’s easy! It’s clearly a few days before Christmas, what with Kevin Bacon having a car full of presents and a house that’s decorated with little funny men.

MCU Date: December 29, 2025

The “timeline order” carousel on Disney+ places Werewolf by Night in the 2025 realm, right next to the GOTG Holiday Special. To get granular, the geniuses on the MCU wiki noted that this tale takes place five days before a full moon, which we know would be on January 3, 2026. That’s where the late December date comes from, and pairing this old school horror with the holidays makes for a nice tonal shift.

MCU Dates: January 2026

We know that this takes place in the week or so after Christmas because Kevin Bacon’s abduction is front page news in St. Charles, as seen in the post-credits scene.

MCU Dates: July 2026

If you look real close, you can see that Scott Lang’s bookstore appearance takes place on July 24.

MCU Dates: 1893, 1982, 1977, 2026, The End of Time, etc.

We’re not going to list every timeline they visit in Loki Season 2. The important bits here are that the season takes place mere moments after the end of Season 1; and ends after Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, as Mobius (Owen Wilson) references the events of that movie in the finale’s epilogue.

MCU Dates: November 2026

Secret Invasion opens with a title card establishing the time as “present day” — but that’s not referring to our present day. That’s referring to the MCU’s “present day,” which is actually… 2026. Remember that 5-year jump in time that happened in Avengers: Endgame? Because the climax of the episode takes place on Russia’s Unity Day, we know that the series kicks off on November 4, 2026..

MCU Dates: Late 2026 (probably)

This is where things get a little confusing. It’s been confirmed by the director of Secret Invasion that they were specifically asked to get Nick Fury into space at the end of the series since The Marvels takes place afterward. However, that means The Marvels takes place at least a year after the end of Ms. Marvel. In the end-credits scene of that series, Ms. Marvel switches places with Captain Marvel. So has Kamala been a hero in the MCU for a full year at this point? Maybe! As for whether this is in November or December of 2026, there are no Christmas trees, or turkeys (for Thanksgiving) so let’s say this takes place in mid-November and call it a day.