How to watch the Marvel movies in order

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By Alyse Stanley
Contributions from
Henry T. Casey
 last updated

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)

Watching the Marvel movies in order doesn't require superpowers, just a Disney Plus subscription. The streaming service includes almost all of the most recent entries to the MCU, and it gains its next title later this month. This is one reason why many find it hard to cancel Disney Plus — as it's a guaranteed feed of the latest MCU adventure.

While you may have circled all of the upcoming Marvel movie release dates on your calendar, the next date of note is July 26, when Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters. 

Our complete guide for how to watch the Marvel movies in order lays out the two primary ways: You can relive the theatrical experience and sort by release date or grab them in order of chronological timeline events to follow the Avengers on their own paths.

While the recently released MCU films and shows all take place around the same time, we've got a chronological list of the Marvel movies in order of events.

And that's why 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 the Star Wars trilogies. This order isn't exactly perfect either, with flashbacks here and there that break the strict narrative arc.

Marvel movie and show news (Updated April 1)

  • All 10 episodes of the animated X-Men 97 are now available to watch on Disney Plus 
  • Florence Pugh will revise her role as Yelena Belova in the upcoming ThunderBolts movie
  • Eternals 2 appears to be no longer in development

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. 

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 the last three recent Disney Plus shows — Hawkeye, Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel — take place in release order. Thor: Love and Thunder isn't officially placed in the timeline yet, but because Thor says it's been "eight years, seven months, and six days," since he and Jane broke up (which was somewhere around 2017 and 2018), we can place the movie at around 2026 — which puts it the year after Ms. Marvel (2025).

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. Which makes sense consider 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
  • The Incredible Hulk (occurs prior to The Avengers)
  • Thor (occurs prior to The Avengers)
  • Marvel’s The Avengers (2012)
  • Iron Man 3 (six months after The Avengers)
  • Thor: Dark World
  • Captain America: Winter Soldier (after The Avengers, before Age of Ultron)
  • Guardians of the Galaxy (ca. 2014)
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
  • Ant-Man (2015)
  • Captain America: Civil War
  • Black Widow (with a scene that happens after Endgame)
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming 
  • Doctor Strange (2016)
  • Black Panther (2018)
  • Thor: Ragnarok 
  • Ant-Man and The Wasp
  • Avengers: Infinity War (2017)
  • Avengers: Endgame (2017 - 2022)
  • Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • Loki 
  • What If...?
  • WandaVision
  • The Falcon and The Winter Soldier
  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
  • Eternals
  • Spider-Man: No Way Home
  • Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness
  • Hawkeye
  • Moon Knight
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • She-Hulk (based on Disney Plus timeline)
  • Ms. Marvel
  • Thor: Love and Thunder
  • Werewolf By Night
  • The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
  • Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
  • Secret Invasion
  • The Marvels

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 three 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.

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)
  • The Marvels (November 10, 2023)

Marvel movies in 2024 and beyond (and shows too)

Marvel 2024 is going to promises to diverge significantly from recent years within the MCU. Between strikes, fired actors and poor-performing movies and shows, Kevin Feige & Co. needs to devise a new strategy. Case in point? There are only three Marvel TV shows with tentative release windows and "Deadpool & Wolverine" is the only Marvel movie slated to hit theaters in 2024.

Here is the short calendar of when to expect upcoming Marvel movies (in order of theatrical release).

Phase 5

Phase 6

  • The Fantastic Four (July 25, 2025 — film)
  • Blade (November 7, 2025 — film)
  • Avengers 5 (May 1, 2026 — film)
  • 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

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 Starz, and available for rental or purchase digitally on Amazon and other services. We expect it on Disney Plus (or some other service) around November 2023.

We believe Spider-Man: No Way Home will come to Disney Plus soon, 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 don't find them on Disney Plus, but we've got the details.

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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