All the Marvel Movies in the Order You Should Watch Them
We’ve even included all the movies that haven't been released yet.
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Based on some of the most popular comic books, the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have dominated the box office and amassed huge fandoms around the world — and for good reason. They're known for the intense story lines, deep relationships between characters, and all those action scenes that leave you on the edge of your seat every time. Now that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has concluded, what's known as "Phase 4" of the MCU has come to a close, but there's a whole new wave of movies and heroes to fall in love with, with two more phases already in the works. But before those hit theaters, you've got to binge-watch all the Marvel films that came before, and really, there’s no better time. There are a lot of them, but if you’re looking for some fun, action-packed movies to watch next, here’s every Marvel movie in the order you should watch them.
Iron Man (2008)
The movie that started it all! The first Iron Man movie came out over a decade ago, but it sparked the beginning of The Avengers, and what would become a 24-movie franchise. In this movie, we get to see how Tony Stark, the iconic billionaire (trillionaire? He's got a lot of money), turns into a super hero.
Tony is a genius inventor and mega rich weapons manufacturer who is kidnapped by enemies who want to use his weapons. He uses his quick wit to outsmart them and make his first Iron Man suit. He pledges to protect people from the same weapons he created.
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
The Hulk only gets one movie to himself in the whole MCU, and I honestly think this guy doesn't get the credit he deserves. But this film gives you a strong understanding of how the Hulk came to be.
In this movie, Bruce Banner (aka The Hulk) is played by Edward Norton. Bruce is a nuclear physicist and biochemist who has an accident in the lab one day and is exposed to tons of gamma radiation that changes his body on a cellular level and makes him turn into a huge green monster whenever he gets upset.
If anyone in the MCU wants to make more Hulk movies, I'd gladly spend my money, FYI.
Iron Man 2 (2010)
By the time of the second Iron Man movie, Tony Stark has gotten really popular. Now, the military wants him to share the tech behind his Iron Man suit with them so they can create unstoppable soldiers. Tony's not a big fan of being used by the government, and meanwhile, he finds out that the device keeping him alive is slowly killing him. He tries to handle everything himself in true Tony Stark fashion.
But Tony's not the only genius out here. There are villains in the shadows trying to prove that Iron Man can be defeated. Luckily Tony's friends won't let him handle his enemies on his own. Pepper Potts (his assistant) and James Rhodes (who gets the name War Machine in this movie after taking one of Tony's suits for himself) help him out. We're also introduced to Black Widow for the first time in this movie.
Thor (2011)
That brings us to the first Thor movie! Thor is the God of Thunder and is next in line to take the throne in his homeland Asgard. But on the day he's supposed to be crowned, Frost Giants attack, breaking the truce between the Giants and Asgardians.
Thor fights the Frost Giants Leader along with his brother Loki, but their father, Odin, isn't happy that Thor acted without his permission and strips him of his powers and banishes him to Earth.
Odin also enchants his hammer Mjölnir so that only those who are "worthy" can use it. As Thor struggles to adjust to modern-day on Earth, he falls for a human who helps Thor get Mjölnir and his powers back in order to save Asgard.
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
This is where we get to see the "leader" of The Avengers start to become the man we know and love. The movie takes place in the 1930s, and tells the story of Steve Rogers who gets rejected from the military because of health problems. But he and his friend Bucky (more on him later) aren't about to give up on their military dreams. A doctor named Abraham Erskine takes advantage of Steve's desires to serve his country and uses him as an experimental test dummy to turn him into a "super soldier."
The experiment is a success and now Steve is big and strong. He ends up being used by the U.S. government to raise morale across the country and promote war bonds. Eventually, the Captain discovers he must stop a villain named Red Skull from using an artifact called the Tesseract to take over the world.
The Avengers (2012)
The Avengers have official assembled in this movie, thanks to the director of the S.H.I.E.L.D. spy agency Nick Fury. Nick recruits Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Thor and Bruce Banner together to stop Thor's brother, Loki, from taking over the Earth.
This movie is also the first time that Bruce/The Hulk is played by Mark Ruffalo. Mark has played Bruce in every movie since.
This is also the film where Avenger Clint Barton (Hawkeye) is officially introduced (even though he was briefly seen in Thor).
Iron Man 3 (2013)
In the third (and final 😭) Iron Man movie, Tony is struggling with PTSD and insomnia as a result of the events of the first Avengers movie. Since he can't sleep, he makes a ton of Iron Man suits to pass the time.
An enemy named Mandarin destroys the home Tony shares with his now girlfriend Pepper Potts and Tony struggles to keep his life together since everything seems like it's falling apart. But when Pepper gets kidnapped, he has to save her, himself, and defeat the Mandarin even when it seems like everything he's worked for is working against him.
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
This movie takes you way back into the past, to the days of Thor's grandfather Bor. During Bor's time, the people of Asgard fought a war against a race called The Dark Elves. Asgard wins and their ultimate weapon, the Aether, was hidden away in a secret location.
Many years later, Doctor Jane Foster finds the Aether. She accidentally awakens it and it uses her body to continue its mission of destroying the Nine Realms, which includes Earth.
Thor has to team up with his brother Loki to save the day.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
While the first Captain America movie takes place in the 1930s and 40s, the second film takes place in modern times. You'll want to watch the first Avengers film to find out how that's possible.
Anywho, Steve finds himself adjusting to the modern world and working for S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick begins to become suspicious of operations at the spy agency and is later attacked by a group of assassins led by The Winter Solider. Nick does his best to warn Steve that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been compromised.
Steve becomes a fugitive after being framed for a crime and finds allies in Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) and Sam Wilson (Falcon). Together, the three of them work together to take down The Winter Solider and discover the mole in S.H.I.E.L.D.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
This fun throwback film followsPeter Quill who is abducted by aliens after his mother's death. As an adult, Peter becomes a thief. He tries to steal an orb and pawn it off, but the more he tries, the more people try to kill him for it. That's how Peter meets fellow guardians, Gamora, Rocket and Groot.
To Peter's surpise, the orb they are all trying to steal is actually an Infinity Stone that can destroy everything if left in the wrong hands. That's when he teams up with his new friends to stop bad guys from using the stone.
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
The Avengers found an A.I. in Loki's scepter. Tony and Bruce put their massive brains together and try to use the A.I. to jumpstart the peacekeeping program Ultron, but things don't go as planned. Ultron comes to the conclusion that humans are the reason peace cannot exist on Earth (and it's not like Ultron is wrong...), so he sets out to destroy everyone. The Avengers obviously are not about that life and do what they can to destroy Ultron first.
This movie is also where fellow Avengers Wanda Maximoff is introduced and when Vision is created.
Ant-Man (2015)
Ant-Man is pretty badass. Scott Lang is a thief who just gets out of prison and is stealing yet again to survive. On one of his heists, Scott steals what he thinks is a motorcycle suit but it turns out to be a suit with Hank Pym's shrinking technology. After he tries it on, Scott gets super small. He tries to return the suit but gets caught by police.
Turns out, Hank knew Scott was breaking into his home and wants him to use the suit so he can become the new Ant-Man.
Hank knows his former protégé turned bad guy Darren Cross has made his own suit with Hank's shrinking technology called Yellowjacket. Hank wants to train Scott to be Ant-Man and steal the Yellowjacket suit before Cross can take it back and sell it, along with the Ant-Man suit, to Hydra.
Hydra by default is full of bad guys. Remember when S.H.I.E.L.D. was compromised? Hydra did that.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
When the Avengers find out that the government wants to establish laws that limit superheroes' actions, it tears them apart. Tony is open to the idea, while Steve is completely against it.
This movie focuses on the divide between Iron Man and Captain America and how it threatens to destroy the Avengers and let their enemies win.
Doctor Strange (2016)
This movie follows Dr. Stephen Strange (yes, that's really his name), a big shot neurosurgeon in NY who is very full of himself and very materialistic. But Dr. Strange's whole life changes when he gets into a serious car accident that damages his hands.
In search of a way to fix his hands, he discovers The Ancient One, a mystic who becomes his mentor and teaches him about different dimensions and Stephen secretly learns about manipulating time.
The bad guy in this movie, named Kaecilius, weakens Earth's protection from other dimensions, and Doctor Strange has to use all his training to protect Earth from these otherworldly threats.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
By the time of the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie, the group is actually known for its good deeds and is hired for protection jobs regularly. But old habits die hard, and when they're asked by Ayesha of the Sovereign race to protect some very valuable batteries, Rocket steals one and Ayesha finds out. While trying to escape, they crash land on a nearby planet. This is extra bad because the Guardians were doing that job in exchange for Nebula, Gamora's adopted sister.
Turns out that this planet is ruled by a god-like being named Ego who says he's Peter Quill's dad. Having lost his mother at a young age and having never known his father, Peter is ready to have his dad in his life, even though they others are more than a little suspicious.
Turns out that Ego isn't a great guy after all and Peter has to decide if he wants to live with or without his newfound father.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
This isn't the first Spider-Man movie ever (shout out to Toby Maguire), but this is the first one in the MCU. It introduces you to Peter Parker, a kid from Queens, NY who gets spider-like powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider. We first see him in Captain America: Civil War, while he fights alongside The Avengers he gets Tony's attention.
In Homecoming, Peter Parker goes back to living his regular life but now he's got Tony watching over him as a mentor. He doesn't know that Tony has made some enemies over time and they want revenge.
Even though Tony tells Peter to give up crime fighting, he's not going to give up his suit (the new fancy one that Tony made for him) so easily.
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
In the third Thor movie, Thor goes on a quest to find his father Odin after Loki says he dumped him in a retirement home in NYC. When they get to the city, Thor finds his way to Doctor Strange who helps him find his father.
Odin lets Thor and Loki know that they have a long lost sister named Hela, but she was locked away because her heart was consumed by darkness, If they don't defeat her, she will bring about Ragnarok, the destruction of their home planet Asgard.
Not to give too much of the story away, but at the time of this movie The Hulk is on Asgard living his best life.
Black Panther (2018)
Black Panther is about the Prince of Wakanda, T'Challa dealing with the aftermath of his father's death. Now that the king is dead, it's T'Challa's turn to take the throne, but he doubts that he's ready for so much responsibility. Wakanda is a very advanced African nation hidden away from the rest of the world and King T'Chaka didn't want his nation's secrets to be exposed.
Basically, during T'Challa's entire lifetime, he's had a cousin named Erik who was raised in America, away from all the technological wonders of Wakanda. At a young age, Erik finds his father dead and uses his father's Wakandan items to find the hidden world to avenge his father's death, steal the Wakandan throne and oppress those who have historically oppressed Africans and African Americans.
Wakanda is also the source of vibranium, the indestructible material that Captain America's shield is made out of and criminals are looking to steal it for their own gain. As Black Panther, T'Challa can't let any of this happen and enlists the help of his fellow Wakandans including his sister (Disney) Princess Shuri.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
This is where the big plot line with Thanos takes place. We saw in Guardians of the Galaxy that he was already looking for the Infinity Stones, but now we see him on his quest to get the rest of them (six in total) in order to complete his plan to eliminate half of the universe's population to salvage resources.
The Avengers assemble throughout the movie and get different plans in place in order to stop Thanos from obtaining all the stones.
There are SERIOUS spoilers ahead for those who haven't seen Endgame.
Ant Man and the Wasp (2018)
Our fave ant-sized hero is back, and this time, he's got a partner. Hope Pym (Hank's daughter) is now The Wasp and can do all the cool size-altering stuff Ant-Man can do and she can fly.
Scott finds out that Hank and Hope have developed a portal to the quantum realm in order to find Janet, Hank's wife and Hope's mom who was lost in the realm . But a new villain named Ghost wants their technology for herself.
In the post-credits scene for this movie, we see the Pym family back together as Scott enters the quantum realm. Before he can make it back, Thanos' snap occurs and takes the entire Pym family with it. Scott is trapped in the realm. This is very important for what happens in Endgame.
Bri is the editorial and social media assistant at ELLE.com. Before joining the team at ELLE, she worked as the editorial assistant for Seventeen.com and Cosmopolitan.com where she covered all things celebrity news and pop culture. You can probably find her sipping an oatmilk iced chai while searching for the best new makeup products or thrifting her entire wardrobe.
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