How to Watch Marvel Movies and TV Shows in Order
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2023-06-16 05:21
The "shared universe" in popular entertainment is nothing new. It goes back decades in comic

The "shared universe" in popular entertainment is nothing new. It goes back decades in comic books, although it wasn't truly defined as such until the 1970s. The essential way to understand this concept: If fictional character A meets character B, and B meets C, then A and C (and everyone else they know) live in a shared universe.

You see it to the nth degree in media franchises such as Star Wars, Star Trek, and even Godzilla and the other Universal Films monster films. TV shows such as Law and Order, Happy Days, Cheers, and All in the Family have sequels and spin-offs galore. An excellent example with superheroes is The CW's Arrow-verse, which tied itself to modern and classic shows on other networks.

No company has more successfully pulled off a shared universe with a cohesive set of stories, all told by completely different directors, writers, and stars than the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It's the crown jewel of shared universes, including 30 films to date. They may not all tell the exact same story, but the different phases certainly built up to the monolithic double-shot of Avengers: Infinity War in 2018 and Avengers: Endgame in 2019. Now we're almost done with Phase 4, which included a bunch of original TV shows that are available only on Disney+.

All the MCU content is streaming online. We're here to tell you how to watch each show and movie in the proper order. Of course, that depends on what you consider "proper."

You could go with the Order of Release option, which is how the die-hard fans do it, because we can't wait. If you're into jumping around in space and time, check out the Chronological Order, because some of the films have flashbacks or time jumps that may throw you off (assuming you've never read Slaughterhouse-Five or watched Doctor Who).

With a third order we're calling Chronological Order With TV Shows and One-Shots, we're tossing in as many possible MCU-related TV shows and short films as we can, because it's fun, even though the earliest Marvel TV shows are tangentially affiliated at best. These days, you can't watch the movies without watching the TV shows! (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness makes much more sense if you watched WandaVision first, we promise.)

For the most part, Disney+ is all you need. That's where you'll find the latest releases in the MCU: The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This week, the Nick Fury TV show Secret Invasion invades Disney+. Meanwhile, Guardians Vol. 3 remains in theaters for a while before it starts streaming. Other exceptions are noted below.

Order of Release (Movies Only)

Dates indicate when the film was (or will be) released to theaters.

MCU: Phase One

MCU: Phase 2

MCU: Phase 3

MCU: Phase 4

MCU: Phase 5

Chronological Order (Movies Only)

The date on each film below indicates the estimated year or years it takes place. There are caveats about timeline anomalies, and that's before the films even get to the time travel stuff.

We also have links to find the movies. The majority are on Disney+. But the rights issues Marvel has with some characters go back decades, in particular with the Hulk and Spider-Man, which is why they're on other services (for now). Those anomalies are in bold.

Disney bought Fox, so now, even most of the Fox-produced X-Men movies are on Disney+ or Hulu. Even Deadpool. Consider that a different section of the multiverse until explicitly told otherwise.

The post-credits scenes at the end of each Marvel movie sometimes take place in wildly different time frames than the main film itself or were bits cut from the next film to come out. We're not counting them here.

Popularity Order (Movies Only)

Here's a unique option: Watch the MCU in the order of movie quality.

Quality here is in the eyes of the users at JustWatch.com, a service for finding and rating anything streaming. It put together this infographic depicting the popularity ranking of the first 30 films in the MCU, everything short of Quantumania and Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3.

Spider-Man is the favorite franchise within the franchise, which is no surprise. Nor is the rank for the much-reviled first sequels for Thor and Ironman.

But The Eternals ranking above the Captain America films, especially The Winter Soldier? Madness.

Chronological Order With TV Shows and One-Shots

A shared universe that encapsulates not only movies but also TV shows? It happens. Sometimes it works, but usually, it doesn't. The original MCU shows were kept separate—a by-product of warring factions of Disney production that didn't see eye to eye. Now, with the mega-producer of the MCU, K.E.V.I.N. (wait, I mean Kevin Feige) in charge of even the TV shows on Disney+, the ties to the MCU are tight. He's also bringing back favorite characters such as Daredevil and the Kingpin, who'd been featured on the MCU shows that originally aired on Netflix. Those shows—Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and others—are now on Disney+ too.

A show such as Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is full of flashbacks; we didn't account for them all, unless the flashback was an entire episode or more set in a different time period. But really, don't watch those episodes out of order; that's nuts. And don't watch Inhumans at all. Ever.

TV shows and One-Shot short films are in bold below.

The 20th Century

2010 - 2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2023

The Future(s)

2024

2025

As you can see, the post-Snap continuity is messy.

Most of season 1 of Loki takes outside of time, thanks to the Time Variance Authority (TVA).

A show like What If...? takes place outside of continuity but highly informs the future of movies that involve the multiverse.

If you don't like this timeline, you have other options to check out, like the scarily detailed one at the Marvel Cinematic Universe Fandom Wiki.

What's Coming?

There are plenty of movies and TV shows coming soon to the MCU. These are the titles we know, with tentative release dates.

The current wrinkle in time is the current Hollywood writers' strike of 2023. It has already wreaked havoc with Marvel's plans, even forced the filming to stop on some currently in production, in particular Daredevil: Born Again, Thunderbolts, and Wonder Man; all three have canceled shooting until the strike ends. Or "strikes" if the actors' guild also starts picketing. We note the new dates below with an * to indicated the strike delay.

TV show titles are in bold.

MCU: Phase 5

MCU: Phase 6

Are you worried that phase 6 looks a little anemic? Don't be: At least two movies and more shows are coming, although no titles have been divulged yet. Likely candidates include sequels for Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Shang-Chi, and Thor, as well as, potentially, the full MCU reveal on the X-Men. There's a reason that phases 4, 5, and 6 are now collectively dubbed The Multiverse Saga.

You can include Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in that multiverse. The follow-up to the Oscar-winning Into the Spider-Verse arrived in theaters June 2 and already has made more money than the first's entire theatrical run. A third one, Beyond the Spider-Verse, arrives in March 2024.

This story doesn't even dip into the Marvel-adjacent films coming from Sony, including Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter. If you liked Venom and Morbius, maybe you'll enjoy those, too.

Finally, if you're looking for a really good Marvel TV show that has nothing to do with the MCU, is only slightly related to the X-Men films, and has musical numbers, watch Legion. All three seasons are on Hulu via FX.

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