Here's the best order to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe
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Itâs official, Black Widow has been scheduled for a theatrical release on 29 April 2021 (as listed on Golden Village's website).
The good news is, it gives you even more time to have an MCU-binge on Disney+ before Scarlett Johanssonâs spin-off hits theatres (which will helpfully pass the time while youâre staying safe by staying at home).
In fact, you could have several MCU-binges, with a surprising amount of excellent viewing orders to choose from.
Weâre going to start with the obvious ones, before shifting into the slightly more unusual ways to hang out with your favourite heroes. Weâre using Thanosâ glove to help us do this - each order has an assigned Infinity Stone. But, whichever binge you choose to assemble, hours of pure entertainment await you.
So, put down your shield, lay down your hammer, switch off JARVIS, and get ready for some of the best blockbusters ever made, as they were meant to be seen.
Phase Order - Reality Stone
Phase 1
Iron Man (May, 2008)
The Incredible Hulk (June, 2008)
Iron Man 2 (May, 2010)
Thor (May, 2011)
Captain America: The First Avenger (July 22, 2011)
Avengers Assemble (May, 2012)
Phase 2
Iron Man 3 (May, 2013)
Thor: The Dark World (November, 2013)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (April, 2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy (August, 2014)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (May, 2015)
Ant-Man (July, 2015)
Phase 3
Captain America: Civil War (May, 2016)
Doctor Strange (November, 2016)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (May, 2017)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (July, 2017)
Thor: Ragnarok (November, 2017)
Black Panther (February, 2018)
Avengers: Infinity War (April, 2018)
Ant-Man and the Wasp (July, 2018)
Captain Marvel (March, 2019)
Avengers: Endgame (April, 2019)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (July, 2019)
Weâre going to start really, really simply, and advise you to watch these amazing movies in their Phase-based release order. Itâs kind of obvious really, but if youâre in this for the pure nostalgia hit of re-experiencing the MCU, the best way to do it is to go through it the same way you did twelve years ago, starting with Iron Man.
Read more: Disney shares new release dates for upcoming MCU films
And if you break it up in Phases, you can split your binges into different days (though youâll need a couple for Phase 3 - man, that Phase was loooong).
Okay, now thatâs out of the way, letâs get a little trickier.
Chronological Order - Time Stone
Captain America: The First Avenger (1942)
Captain Marvel (1995)
Iron Man (2010)
Iron Man 2 (2011)
The Incredible Hulk (2011)
Thor (2011)
The Avengers (2012)
Iron Man 3 (2012)
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (2014)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Ant-Man (2015)
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2016)
Doctor Strange (2016-2017)
Black Widow (2017)
Black Panther (2017)
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2017)
Avengers: Infinity War (2017)
Avengers: Endgame (2018-2023)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2023)
The MCUâs timeline is a little bit all over the place when you do it in release order. The beginning of the narrative doesnât come until five movies in.
Thatâs because the story actually begins in 1942, with Captain America: The First Avenger, so if you want to point the Time Stone at it and go chronologically, thatâs where you need to start.
Itâs a really fun way to experience the movies. You get The First Avenger and Captain Marvel out of the way early, and thereâs a general feeling of dipping and rising in terms of quality - the weaker movies are always followed by a brilliant one. Oh, and you get to watch Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 back-to-back, because their events happen really close together. It basically feels like watching one long movie.
And, if nothing else, itâs entertaining to see this crazy alternate history play out in sequence.
Oh, and in case youâre interested, Black Widow will slot between Doctor Strange and Black Panther when itâs released, if you want to revisit this list then.
Iron Man Order - Mind Stone
Iron Man (2008)
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Iron Man 2 (2010)
The Avengers (2012)
Iron Man 3 (2013)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Now weâre getting a little more esoteric, and going by character order. If you want to offer your kids a binge-session, but you donât want them to spend an enormous amount of time in front of the telly, this is the way to do it - get them to pick their favourite character and shuffle the films accordingly.
Read more: Why Scarlett Johansson is happy that Marvel waited to make 'Black Widow'
Weâre opening with Tony Stark because, letâs face it, heâs definitely the protagonist of the MCU - he was in the first movie and he (spoiler alert) made the ultimate sacrifice in the final film. If you want to enjoy that character arc in its purest form, this is the way to watch. Oh, and he gets the Mind Stone because heâs the smartest guy in whatever room heâs in, duh.
Captain America Order - Soul Stone
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
The Avengers (2012)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Ant-Man (2015)
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Captain Marvel (2019)
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Captain America is both the leader of the Avengers and the teamâs moral heart, so we couldnât give any other character the Soul Stone when assigning our stone-based binge-lists.
And, hereâs a weird thing, if you watch the movies in the chronological order we laid out earlier, Steve Rogers becomes the protagonist of the MCU, as heâs the first person we meet, and the last person we see before the Endgame credits run.
Thereâs actually a pretty solid case for arguing Capâs the main hero of the MCU in whatever order you watch it in, especially when you consider heâs the only character to have an ensemble movie in his own trilogy (in a film which impacts every movie that comes after it).
But weâll save those arguments for another day, and simply reflect on this as one of the reasons the MCU is so good - all the characters are so great they feel like protagonists.
Black Widow Order - Power Stone
Iron Man 2 (2010)
The Avengers (2012)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Of course, if the aim of your MCUathon is to prep for Black Widow, you can save time by only watching the movies she appears in. If you want to be a total completist, you can add Spider-Man: Homecoming (video footage), Thor: Ragnarok (footage), Captain Marvel (mid-credits scene) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (picture) to the above.
But if you just stick to the above, youâll quickly realise that - whisper it - Black Widow actually has the strongest MCU CV, with the only truly middling movie of the bunch being Age Of Ultron. This is clearly a very good sign for the potential quality of her solo movie.
As for why weâve assigned a lowly human the Power Stone, as the sole woman in the original Avengers line-up, sheâs been a powerful symbol for a decade now. Thank goodness sheâs finally got her own film, even if we do have to wait a little longer to see it.
Galaxy Order - Space Stone
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (2017)
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Captain Marvel (2019)
Avengers: Infinity War (2017)
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
If youâve just binged Star Wars using our other guide, and you feel like staying in space, then this is the watch-list for you. Controversially, weâve left out Thor and Thor: The Dark World, not because theyâre bad movies (though one of them is), but because they both spend too much time chilling on earth to count. This is a binge for people who want to hurtle through universes, so these are the MCU movies scattered with more stars than a ten-year anniversary group shot.
So, now that youâve assembled all of your stones, you may want to click your fingers to lose a load of films for a binge that doesnât require such a large time investment. Well, weâve got you covered there too. Get ready for the mid and post-credits scenes of this recommendation list...
The Trilogy Order
Iron Man trilogy (2008 - 2013)
Thor trilogy (2011 - 2017)
Captain America trilogy (2011 - 2016)
There are only three trilogies (how appropriate!) in the MCU currently, so you can either pick your favourite, or do all nine movies. Weâd say that if you need to drop one set, Thorâs is probably the weakest of the three, but as we donât want a Mjølnir flying at our face any time soon, weâll just stay silent on that one.
The Quadrilogy Order
The Avengers (2012)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Avengers: Infinity War (2017)
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
But if youâre really pushed for time because youâve got a universe to save or something, you can tackle the sole MCU quadrilogy - the Avengers saga. Itâs basically the four most epic movies youâll ever see in a single sitting. Youâre welcome.
So there we go, eight ways to watch the best superhero series of all time. Why did we put so much thought and effort into this? Because we love you 3000, of course.
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