A Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) timeline is probably what you're looking for. Here's how to watch the Marvel films in chronological order, beginning with Steve Rogers' origin in WWII with Captain America: The First Avenger, and ending with Peter's high school trip in Spider-Man: Far From Home. This Marvel movie order is best if you want to see the MCU events take place as they happened. If you're curious when WandaVision and The Falcon and Winter Soldier are set, they're set after Endgame but before Far From Home – you'll find them below, too.
Here's the chronological viewing order of the Marvel movies:
- Captain America: The First Avenger (takes place during WWII) - Download
- Captain Marvel (takes place in 1995) - Download
- Iron Man (takes place in 2010) - Download
- Iron Man 2 (takes place after Iron Man) - Download
- The Incredible Hulk (time unspecified, pre-Avengers) - Download
- Thor (takes place six months before Avengers) - Download
- The Avengers (takes place in 2012) - Download
- Iron Man 3 (takes place six months after The Avengers) - Download
- Thor: Dark World (post-Avengers, pre-Ultron) - Download
- Captain America: Winter Soldier (post-Avengers, pre-Ultron)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (sometime in 2014) - Download
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (after Guardians) - Download
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (takes place in 2015) - Download
- Ant-Man (takes place in 2015) - Download
- Captain America: Civil War (post-Ultron, pre-Infinity War) - Download
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (post-Civil War, pre-Infinity War) - Download
- Doctor Strange (takes place in 2016) - Download
- Black Panther (takes place in 2017) - Download
- Thor: Ragnarok (post-Ultron, pre-Infinity War) - Download
- Avengers: Infinity War (takes place in 2017) - Download
- Ant-Man and The Wasp (ambiguous, but fits nicely between IW and Endgame) - Download
- Avengers: Endgame (starts in 2017, finishes in 2022) - Download
- Spider-Man: Far From Home (eight months post-Endgame) - Download
WandaVision, meanwhile, actually takes place mere weeks after Endgame. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which is releasing now, is confirmed to be set six months after Endgame – so both shows take place before Spider-Man: Far From Home if you're factoring those into your marathon. Here they are:
- WandaVision (three weeks after Endgame) - Download
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (around six months after Endgame) - Download
With Black Widow coming in July 2021, we'll update this list at release – it's already been confirmed the movie takes place after Captain America: Civil War, but we won't add it until you've actually got the chance to see the movie.
Marvel movies in order: release date
Looking to watch the MCU movies in release order? You'll need this list, which begins with Iron Man in 2008 and ends in 2019 with Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home. Watching the Marvel movies in release order is a better option if you want a nice nostalgia trip, and you'll see how the MCU films are supercharged after the Disney acquisition with bigger and better budgets.
The MCU story was meant to be enjoyed in this order, after all. We've also included the future MCU Phase 4 release dates below for your reference, updated as of April 2021 with Loki and Black Widow's release dates.
Phase One
- Iron Man (2008)
- The Incredible Hulk (2008)
- Iron Man 2 (2010)
- Thor (2011)
- Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
- Marvel’s The Avengers (2012)
Phase Two
- Iron Man 3 (2013)
- Thor: The Dark World (2013)
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
- Ant-Man (2015)
Phase Three
- Captain America: Civil War (2016)
- Doctor Strange (2016)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
- Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
- Black Panther (2018)
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
- Captain Marvel (2019)
- Avengers: Endgame (2019)
- Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Phase Four
- WandaVision (TV show)
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (TV show – March 19, 2021)
- Loki (TV show – June 11, 2021)
- Black Widow (July 9, 2021)
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (September 3, 2021)
- The Eternals (November 5, 2021)
- Ms Marvel (TV show – late 2021)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (December 17, 2021)
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (March 25, 2022)
- Thor: Love and Thunder (May 6, 2022)
- Black Panther 2 (July 8, 2022)
- Captain Marvel 2 (November 11, 2022)
The future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including TV shows
- Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania (TBD)
- Blade (TBD)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (TBD)
- Fantastic Four (TBD)
- Hawkeye (TV show – TBA)
- She-Hulk (TV show – TBA)
- Moon Knight (TV show – TBA)
- Secret Invasion (TV show – TBA)
- Ironheart (TV show – TBA)
- Armor Wars (TV show – TBA)
- Wakanda series (TV show – TBA)
Best Marvel movies
What are the best Marvel movies? We've all got an opinion (Civil War, Infinity War and The Avengers are the winners for us) – but below, we've let the people have their opinion, ranking the Marvel movies based on user scores from IMDb. The list gets some things right (Thor: The Dark World and The Incredible Hulk are definitely below-average), and other things extremely wrong (Ant-Man and the Wasp is surely worse than Captain America: The First Avenger?). Curiously, it's a tie between the last two Avengers movies, Endgame and Infinity War, for the best film of the MCU so far.
Best
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – Rating: 8.4
- Avengers: Endgame (2019) – Rating: 8.4
- The Avengers (2012) – Rating: 8.0
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) – Rating: 8.0
- Iron Man (2008) – Rating: 7.9
- Thor: Ragnarok (2017) - Rating: 7.9
- Captain America: Civil War (2016) – Rating: 7.8
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) – Rating: 7.7
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) – Rating: 7.6
- Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) – Rating: 7.5
- Doctor Strange (2016) – Rating: 7.5
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) – Rating: 7.4
- Black Panther (2018) – Rating: 7.3
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) – Rating: 7.3
- Ant-Man (2015) – Rating: 7.3
- Iron Man 3 (2013) – Rating: 7.2
- Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) – Rating: 7.1
- Thor (2011) – Rating: 7.0
- Iron Man 2 (2010) – Rating: 7.0
- Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) – Rating: 6.9
- Thor: The Dark World (2013) – Rating: 6.9
- Captain Marvel (2019) – Rating: 6.9
- The Incredible Hulk (2008) – Rating: 6.7