How To Watch All Marvel Movies And Series In Chronological Order

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Marvel Studios has (almost) perfected being a blockbuster-making machine, also having a large fan base around its Cinematographic Universe, the UMC, which it has been establishing since the end of the last decade. It closed and put the finishing touch on Phase 3 almost three years ago with ‘Avengers: Endgame’, and we have been for a few months (more than expected due to COVID) with Phase 4, enriched by multiple series.

Since Jon Favreau’s ‘ Iron Man ‘ premiered in 2008, so far, we have been able to see more than thirty productions: movies, series, and short films interrelated between them. That’s why today we bring you a guide so you can see all the “Avengers” movies (for practical purposes, the entire MCU) in chronological order so you don’t miss a single reference.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe, in order

In general, and with some exceptions such as ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and the Netflix series ( now on Disney+ ), the order to watch the movies is usually equivalent to the order in which they are shot (for example, the first movie of The Avengers is the first chronologically in the group’s history). But this is not always the case, and hence the need for this guide. We have divided it by “years” so that you can watch all the movies and series in a more or less coherent order.

The past (or before “I am Iron Man”)

Captain America: First Avenger (1943-1945)
Agent Carter [S1] (1946)
Agent Carter [S2] (1947)
Agent Carter [One Shot] (1947)
Captain Marvel (1995, with flashbacks to 1989)
Iron Man (2008 | Year 0 – 2010)

Year 1: Fury’s Big Week (2011)

Iron Man 2 (2011)
The Incredible Hulk (2008 | “Fury Week” begins)
The Consultant [One Shot] (2011)
Something Funny Happened On The Way To Thor’s Hammer [One Shot] (2011)
Thor (2011 | “Fury Week” ends)

Year 2: The Battle of New York (2012)

The Avengers (2012)
Article 47 [One Shot] (2012)
Iron Man 3 (2013)

Year 3: The Aftermath (2013)

Agents of SHIELD [1×01-07] (2013)
All Hail the King [One Shot] (2014)
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Agents of SHIELD [1×08-15] (2013-2014)

Year 4: Hail Hydra (2014)

Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014)
Agents of SHIELD [1×16-22] (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017 | 3 or 4 months after the first one)

Years 5-6: Something Happens in Hell’s Kitchen (2015-2016)

Daredevil [T1] (2015 | begins 18 months after Avengers)
Agents of SHIELD [2×01-20] (2014-2015)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Agents of SHIELD [2×21-22] (2015)
Jessica Jones [S1] (2015)
Ant-Man (2015)
Agents of SHIELD [S3 Eps. 1-10] (2015-2016)
Daredevil [T2 | Starts about six months after T1] (2016)
Captain America: Civil War (2016 | Eight years after ‘Iron Man’ according to The Vision)
Luke Cage [T1] (2016)
Iron Fist [S1] (2016)
The Defenders (2016)
SHIELD Agents [3×20-22] (2016)
Agents of SHIELD: Slingshot
Agents of SHIELD [S3 Eps. 11-19]
Agents of SHIELD [S4]
The Punisher [S1] (2016 | At least six months after DD S2)

Year 7: Road to Infinity (2017)

Doctor Strange (2016-2017)
Jessica Jones [T2]
Black Panther (2018 | Would take place in the weeks following T’Chaka’s death in ‘Civil War’)
Black Widow (2017)
Inhumans [T1] (2017)
Iron Fist [T2]
Luke Cage [T2]
Daredevil [T3]
The Punisher [S2] (Months after the first and things from the third ‘Daredevil’ are referenced)
Jessica Jones [T3]
Runaways [T1]
Runaways [S2] (starts right after S1)
Cloak and Dagger [T1]
Cloak and Dagger [T2]
Thor: Ragnarok (2017 | Two years after ‘A: AoU’)

Year 8: Infinity (2018)

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2018 | Supposedly the course after CA: CW, but also “8 years after” The Avengers)
Agents of SHIELD [S5 Part 2 – Eps. 12-13] (2017/2018)
Agents of SHIELD (S5 Eps. 14-22 – Note: these episodes, ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ and ‘Infinity War’ take place more or less parallel)
Ant-Man and the Wasp (two years after ‘Civil War’)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018 | 2 years after ‘Civil War’, six since ‘The Avengers)
Agents of SHIELD (S6)

Beyond Endgame (2018 onwards)

‘ Avengers: Endgame ‘ (2018-2023)
Agents of SHIELD (S7)
Scarlet Witch and Vision (2023) WandaVision
Loki (Undetermined, between 2023 and 2012)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2024)
She-Hulk: Lawyer She-Hulk (2024)
Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2023-2024)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2024)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2024)
Eternals (2024)
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2024)
Hawkeye (Christmas 2024)
Moon Knight (Spring 2025)
Ms. Marvel
Thor: Love and Thunder (Undetermined, possibly 2025)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2025, parallel to ‘Thor: Loven and Thunder’)
Secret Invasion (2025)
‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2025, parallel to ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)
Guardians of the Galaxy: Happy Holidays Special (Christmas 2025)
Guardians of the Galaxy – Vol. 3 (Immediately after the Christmas Special)
Agents of SHIELD [S5 Part 1 – “SHIELD in Space” (1-11)] (occurs in 2091)

There is a little trouble with ‘Spider-man: Homecoming’, which takes place according to the movie itself eight years after ‘The Avengers’ but in turn the next course of ‘Civil War’, which doesn’t quite add up. Something they fixed by publishing an official chronology of the movies. Another thing is that we start with the extended chronology through the dialogues and flashbacks. For example, the story of Michael Douglas in ‘Ant-Man’ takes place about thirty years after ‘Agent Carter’ and a few years before the death of Howard Stark and Mrs.

With the series produced by Netflix and that is now on Disney+ we have an added complication since, although they comment on certain incidents in the movies, they are not as intricate with the rest of UMC as the ABC ones. The clearest example is ‘Agents of SHIELD’, whose first season had a twist based on ‘Captain America: Winter Soldier’ and which has always been concerned with commenting on what is happening in the movies.

More than a decade being a reference

The history of Marvel in the cinema has been, to say the least, strange. Until a few years ago, the publisher did not have a major major betting heavily on its licenses and in fact, until 1986 we would not see the first feature film based on a character of its own: ‘Howard, a new hero’. Until the dawn of the third millennium Marvel did not have much luck the bankruptcy of the late nineties left them shivering.

In 1998 Marvel would enter an era of co-productions: ‘X-Men’ by Bryan Singer, ‘Spider-man’ by Sam Raimi, and ‘Blade’ by Stephen Norrington were the successes in an era marked by failures such as ‘Daredevil’ or ‘The 4 fantastic’. It was clear that a change in strategy was needed. Marvel was already healthy and we had to try something ambitious. I still remember that great enthusiasm (nerdgasm, rather) when in the credits of ‘Iron Man’ (2008) Samuel L. Jackson appeared as Nick Fury speaking to Tony Stark about an “Avengers Initiative.” We were told that what we had just seen was the beginning of something more.

A couple of months later Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) made a very brief (and strangely improvised in almost every sense) appearance at the end of ‘The Incredible Hulk’, Marvel’s great thorn in the side. It was already tangible: ‘The Avengers’ began its countdown and ten years later we have been able to enjoy more than thirty feature films, a dozen television series, and a handful of shorts. But they have not always reached us in the chronological order that their fictions narrate, although they largely coincide.

The order we present to you is as follows. Often each point is equivalent to what happens in a specific year in fiction, but not necessarily with the year of release of the films:

The past (or before “I am Iron Man”)

The origins of the MCU (like those of the comic book publisher itself) date back to the adventures of Captain America during World War II. ‘First Avenger’, the standard-bearer’s first solo film, came after the inaugural Hulk, Thor, and two Iron Man films., but before ‘The Avengers, and establishes the chronological beginnings of Marvel’s superhero mythology, with the Super Soldier serum. The rest of this section is made up of ‘Agent Carter’, also set chronologically in the 1940s (this series is not entirely clear if it is “officially” part of the MCU, although it fits quite well with Marvel stories), the film Captain Marvel (which shows us a young Nick Fury and the arrival of the heroine to Earth in 1989) and the total start of the Marvel movies, ‘Iron Man’.

If you want to know the background of the MCU, here we detail a few superhero movies before the Marvel outbreak.

Year 1: Fury’s Big Week (2011)

Nick Fury is spreading his tentacles across the MCU after announcing the Avengers Initiative at the end of ‘Iron Man’. Here we have a couple of shorts set before ‘The Avengers,’ plus the Hulk, Thor, and the second Iron Man movies. All these pieces and shorts are set in 2011.

If you want to dig deeper into an alternate MCU, here’s what would have happened if Tom Cruise had accepted the role of Iron Man.

Year 2: The Battle of New York (2012)

The first Avengers movie is the first point at which all the previously told stories of the MCU come together, with the heroes’ solo films. Along with it, also set in 2012, the one-shot ‘Article 47’ and the third installment of ‘Iron Man’. All of them analyze the effects of the battle of New York with which ‘The Avengers’ culminates.

The first Avengers film also helped establish the now-mandatory post-credits sequences. Here you have them all detailed .

Year 3: The Aftermath (2013)

2013 (in MCU fiction) is a year of transition in which the effects of the Battle of New York continue to unfold, the story of Thor continues to be told with its first sequel (although there are hardly any crossovers with the MCU) and the series ‘Agents of SHIELD’ presents a first season where a new MCU subplot is already underway, and in which Captain America will once again have capital importance: the HYDRA double agents scattered throughout SHIELD and other Marvel organizations.

Not all of Marvel’s “lesser” films are as disappointing as ‘The Dark World’. Here we claim the most modest films of the MCU.

Year 4: Hail Hydra (2014)

Hydra’s impact on the MCU begins with the first Captain America film set in the contemporary world, ‘Winter Soldier’, accompanied of course by the rest of the first season of ‘Agents of Shield’. The two Guardians of the Galaxy movies also take place this year, just a few months apart.

By now, Marvel has become a true success factory. Here we tell you why that endangers “author” superhero movies.

Years 5-6: Something Happens in Hell’s Kitchen (2015-2016)

Two years in which a lot of things happen. To begin with, the start of all the series that Netflix produced (a year or so after the events of ‘The Avengers’, although its nature outside of Disney makes it difficult to be very specific with the specific date). We also have the next Captain America movie, ‘Civil War’, the second Avengers movie, ‘Age of Ultron’, and the rest of the first four seasons of ‘Agents of SHIELD’. The foundations begin to be established for what will be the final stretch of the Infinity Gauntlet plot.

The Marvel series is a true parallel universe (or not) of new heroes. Here we review them all .

Year 7: Road to Infinity (2017)

Now yes: we face what will be the final stretch of the first phases of Marvel. Plots from an MCU that is already absolutely established and with a very clear goal converge here and with films like ‘Doctor Strange’ or ‘Thor: Ragnarok’. Also ‘Black Widow’, released years later, is set at this time, with the Avengers split. And from this time are, in turn, minor series such as ‘Inhumans’ and the second and third seasons of the Netflix series.

‘Thor: Ragnarok’ launched Marvel heroes into comedy and self-parody. Here we delve a little deeper into that controversial relationship.

Year 8: Infinity (2018)

The finale of Marvel’s early phases comes with the solo debut of the new Spider-Man, more seasons of ‘Agents of Shield’ and movies exploring the effects of ‘Civil War’, like ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ or ‘Infinity War’. Here is the essential MCU catastrophe, Thanos’ snap in ‘Infinity War’ that marks a before and after and that will be remembered even in the current Disney+ series, about ten years later in the time of fiction. Also in that film, we will witness key moments for the future of the MCU, such as the death of Vision, the effects of which will be seen years later in the first Disney+ Marvel series.

If you want to go deeper, here is a compilation with all the nods and references from the movie to fully enjoy the climax of ‘Avengers Endgame’.

Beyond Endgame (2018 onwards)

Since it is difficult to establish phases and years after ‘Endgame’, we put everything in the same bag: ‘Endgame’ itself (whose time in fiction covers five years), the end of ‘Agents of SHIELD’ (including episodes in 2091 ), all the Disney+ series, the two Spider-Man sequels and, of course, all the Marvel cinema after Endgame. A possibly transitional phase until the next big plot of the MCU is fully defined.

‘Endgame’ also came full of winks. Here’s a little guide so you don’t get lost among the best.

Sharlene Meriel

Sharlene Meriel is an avid gamer with a knack for technology. He has been writing about the latest technologies for the past 5 years. His contribution in technology journalism has been noteworthy. He is also a day trader with interest in the Forex market.