Marvel Movies Before Avengers

Whether you’re checking out the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the first time, coming back to it after a long hiatus or just curious about how things fit together, it can be tough to know where to start. The best order to watch the MCU movies is actually quite simple — just follow the chronological timeline. This allows you to see how the studio worked out the kinks and perfected their approach to long-form storytelling. And it gives you the chance to witness all of the little callbacks and payoffs that make these 21 movies so interconnected.

It’s also important to remember that these movies can be viewed on their own terms, and that they all lead up to the epic saga of Avengers: Endgame. The overarching story involves interstellar Really Bad Guy Thanos hunting for six cosmically powered gems called the Infinity Stones. If he acquires all six, it’s Game Over. All of the Infinity Stones show up in various films and have their own subplots, but the key arc is that each of them comes into play during Endgame.

To make it easy for you, we’ve ranked all of the MCU movies below based on their chronology (not release date) and have grouped them into three categories: Essential, Optional and Neutral. The essentials are the ones that have a huge impact on the story of the Avengers and should not be skipped. The optionals are the films that offer more character foundation but don’t have a major impact on the final battle in Endgame. And the neutrals are the films that aren’t essential but have a small but important contribution to make.

Should I Watch All Marvel Movies Before Avengers?

So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at the best MCU films to Watch order for Marvel Movies prepare for the biggest movie of all: Avengers: Endgame.

The first film in the MCU, this is a good introduction to Robert Downey Jr’s super-nerdy hero and how he became a reluctant hero. It also introduces the rest of the Avengers team — jaded CIA agent turned superhero Nick Fury, ex-spy Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow and bow-and-arrow marksman Clint Barton/Hawkeye. They’re all brought together when a superpowered alien warlord invades Earth, led by Thor’s brother Loki and stealing the Tesseract.

This sequel reteams the stars of the first film plus Michael Douglas as Hank Pym and Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. It lays the groundwork for much of the action in the next two films and introduces us to Valkyrie, a mysterious female Asgardian warrior. It also features the introduction of Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther and a very important post-credit scene that connects to The Avengers: Infinity War.

This is a great superhero-movie-as-paranoid-espionage-thriller and features the MCU’s best SHIELD agent, Phil Coulson (Clarke Gregg). It doesn’t have anything to do with Thanos, but it does provide important backstory for the heroes’ next battle.

Tony Stark’s attempt to create a sentient AI ends up making him the amoral Iron Monkey. This leads to a civil war between him and CIA director Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). It also introduces us to the arrogant New York surgeon Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his mystical powers, which will play an important role in the finale of this phase.