The ultimate superhero crossover live action movie is less than a week away. Coming Friday (27 April), the world will witness Marvel Entertainment’s most ambitious project till date – Avengers: Infinity War.
In the run-up to Infinity War, Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has given us 18 feature length films, few Netflix series, TV shows and one-shots (small films available on DVD).
Now, if you haven’t watched the TV series, then following the order in which Marvel movies were released is totally fine as every MCU film ends with a post-credit scene, which finely stitches it to the next installment.
However, many mega-fans have taken on the gigantic task of going through everything that has happened so far in the past ten years in MCU before watching the heroes ultimate battle against Thanos in Infinity War.
So, here is the order based on the sequence of events in the MCU:
Phase One
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Agent Carter - Seasons 1 and 2
Iron Man (2008)
Iron Man 2 (2010)
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Thor (2011)
Avengers (2012)
The phase one does the groundwork for MCU exceptionally well, especially with Iron Man being the best possible way to start the franchise and Avengers being a delightful unprecedented superhero ensemble on the big screen.
But start your MCU marathon with The First Avenger as it takes place in the 1940s introducing us to some key elements like Steve Rogers, Howard Stark, Peggy Carter and Hydra.
Phase Two
When MCU entered its second phase, the franchise started expanding aggressively with new superheroes, TV shows and web series. So, this is how you go through the second act:
Iron Man 3 (2013)
Agents of Shield - Season 1: Episodes 1 to 7
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Agents of Shield - Season 1: Episodes 8 to 16
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Agents of Shield - Season 1: Episodes 17 to 22
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Daredevil - Season 1
Agents of Shield - Season 2: Episodes 1 to 19
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Agents of Shield - Season 2: Episodes 20 to 22
Ant-Man (2015)
Jessica Jones - Season 1
Daredevil - Season 2
Agents of Shield - Season 3: Episodes 1 to 19
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is from phase three, but watching it after the prequel makes sense because it starts right were the first one left off.
Phase Three
Now this is where the sh*t gets real (sorry for the language, Captain America). The best MCU movies have come out in phase three. However, with many new TV shows and crossovers, the right order to follow could be messy. Like Black Panther and Spider-man: Homecoming take place right after Captain America: Civil War, however, the release order differs.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Agents of Shield - Season 3: Episodes 20 to 22
Luke Cage - Season 1
Doctor Strange (2016)
Agents of Shield - Season 4
Iron Fist - Season 1
The Defenders - Season 1
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Inhumans - Season 1
The Punisher - Season 1
Runaways - Season 1
Black Panther (2018)
Jessica Jones - Season 2
Agents of Shield - Season 5: Episodes 1 to 14
Cloak and Dagger - Season 1
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Still here? Congratulations, you have completed a refresher course of the franchise, which has grossed over $14 billion just from movie tickets and has no plans of slowing down. MCU already has Ant Man and The Wasp, Captain Marvel and the Infinity War sequel slated to be released in phase three itself.
After splitting in Civil War the heroes are going to come together in Infinity War and fight side-by-side against the Mad Titan Thanos and his Black Order. And yes, some of them will die.
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