A Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) timeline is probable what you are searching for. Here’s how to watch the Marvel movies in chronological order, establishing with Steve Rogers’ foundation in WWII with Captain America: The First Avenger, and ending with Peter’s high school trip in Spider-Man: Far From Home. This Marvel movies order is fantastic if you favor seeing the MCU events take place as they happened. If you are curious when WandaVision and The Falcon and Winter Soldier are set, they’re set after Endgame however earlier than Far From Home you will locate them below, too.
Here’s How to Watch the Marvel Movies in Order (Chronologically and by Release Date)
- Captain America: The First Avenger (takes place during WWII)
- Captain Marvel (takes place in 1995)
- Iron Man (takes place in 2010)
- Iron Man 2 (takes place after Iron Man)
- The Incredible Hulk (time unspecified, pre-Avengers)
- Thor (takes place six months before Avengers)
- The Avengers (takes place in 2012)
- Iron Man 3 (takes place six months after The Avengers)
- Thor: Dark World (post-Avengers, pre-Ultron)
- Captain America: Winter Soldier (post-Avengers, pre-Ultron)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (sometime in 2014)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (after Guardians)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (takes place in 2015)
- Ant-Man (takes place in 2015)
- Captain America: Civil War (post-Ultron, pre-Infinity War)
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (post-Civil War, pre-Infinity War)
- Doctor Strange (takes place in 2016)
- Black Panther (takes place in 2017)
- Thor: Ragnarok (post-Ultron, pre-Infinity War)
- Avengers: Infinity War (takes place in 2017)
- Ant-Man and The Wasp (ambiguous, but fits nicely between IW and Endgame)
- Avengers: Endgame (starts in 2017, finishes in 2022)
- Spider-Man: Far From Home (eight months post-Endgame)
WandaVision, meanwhile, actually takes place mere weeks after Endgame. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which is releasing now, is confirmed to be set six months after Endgame – so both shows take place before Spider-Man: Far From Home if you’re factoring those into your marathon. Here they are:
- WandaVision (three weeks after Endgame)
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (around six months after Endgame)
With Black Widow coming in July 2021, we’ll update this list at release – it’s already been confirmed the movie takes place after Captain America: Civil War, but we won’t add it until you’ve actually got the chance to see the movie.
Captain America: The First Avenger
Chronologically speaking, the film that is set the earliest in the MCU timeline is Captain America: The First Avenger. The Steve Rogers origin storybegins in the year 1940 with Steve (Evans) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) enlisting and ends in 1945 with Steve’s plane crashing and him being frozen for the next half century.
Captain Marvel
Next up we have Captain Marvel, which is actually one of the most recent Marvel movies but whose events precede those of the main MCU timeline. Brie Larson’s pilot charactercrashes her plane in the year 1989 and is subsequently trained as a Kree before returning to Earth in 1995, which is the year in which most of Captain Marvel takes place.
Iron Man
The first Marvel movie released is third in chronological order, and believe it or not—according to Marvel’s own timeline—it actually takes place in the year 2010 and not 2008 when it was released.
The Incredible Hulk
The events of the Edward Norton Hulk movie take place shortly after the events of Iron Man.
Iron Man 2
The Iron Man sequel is set in the year 2011.
Thor
The events of Thor also take place in 2011, around the same time as the events in Iron Man 2, although there are flashback to events that go back centuries.
The Avengers
The team-up finally occurs in the year 2012.
Iron Man 3
The underrated Iron Man 3, which deals heavily with Tony Starks’ PTSD from the events of The Avengers, take place in the year 2012.
Thor: The Dark World
The forgettable sequel is set in the year 2013.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The big fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. is set a couple years after the organization helped form The Avengers, set in 2014.
Guardians of the Galaxy
The events of Guardians of the Galaxy also take place in 2014, around the same time as The Winter Soldier.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
The Guardians sequel takes place a couple of months after the events of the first film.
Avengers: Age of Ultron
The second Avengers team-up film takes place in the wake of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s dismantling, in the year 2015.
Ant-Man
While the Avengers are fighting off ol’ Ultron, Scott Lang is busy becoming Ant-Man in 2015.
Captain America: Civil War
The Captain America sequel that’s also kinda-sorta an Avengers movie takes place in 2016, bringing additional characters into the fold to set the table for Infinity War and Endgame. But it also contains flashbacks that take place between The First Avenger and Iron Man, revealing the circumstances that surrounded the death of Tony Stark’s parents.
Spider-Man: Homecoming
The first MCU Spider-Man movie takes place the fall after the events of Captain America: Civil War, with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker struggling to become his own hero.
Black Panther
2016 is a busy year in the MCU, as it’s also when Black Panther takes place over in Wakanda.
Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange bridges the gap between 2016 and 2017, as Stephen Strange’s transformation into a superhero takes a bit of time.
Thor: Ragnarok
Thor: Ragnarok takes place in 2017 shortly after the events of Doctor Strange, as we see Thor visit Doctor Strange on Earth to try and track down his father.
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Despite being released after Avengers: Infinity War, the events of Ant-Man and the Wasp take place in 2018 right before Thanos arrives on Earth and the film ends with the infamous Thanos Snap. Although there are flashbacks to Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) in the late 1980s.
Avengers: Infinity War
The events of Avengers: Infinity War take place over a very compressed time period—just 24-48 hours—in 2018.
Avengers: Endgame
The second have of the Infinity Gauntlet storyline begins shortly after the Thanos snap in 2018, but after Thor cuts Thanos’ head off, the film flashes forward and is set primarily in the year 2023—although it also sees the characters traveling back in time to events in the years 1970, 2012, 2013, and 2014.
Spider-Man: Far from Home
The most recent MCU movie, Spider-Man: Far from Home, takes place shortly after the events of Avengers: Endgame and is set in the year 2023.
Marvel Movies in Order of Release
And here are all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in order of when they were released, broken up into “phases” that Marvel Studios uses to denote smaller story arcs within the larger MCU arc.
Phase One
Iron Man – May 2, 2008
The Incredible Hulk – June 13, 2008
Iron Man 2 – May 7, 2010
Thor – May 6, 2011
Captain America: The First Avenger – July 22, 2011
Marvel’s The Avengers – May 4, 2012
Phase Two
Iron Man 3 – May 3, 2013
Thor: The Dark World – November 8, 2013
Captain America: The Winter Soldier – April 4, 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy – August 1, 2014
Avengers: Age of Ultron – May 1, 2015
Ant-Man – July 17, 2015
Phase Three
Captain America: Civil War – May 6, 2016
Doctor Strange – November 4, 2016
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 – May 5, 2017
Spider-Man: Homecoming – July 7, 2017
Thor: Ragnarok – November 3, 2017
Black Panther – February 16, 2018
Avengers: Infinity War – April 27, 2018
Ant-Man and the Wasp – July 6, 2018
Captain Marvel – March 8, 2019
Avengers: Endgame – April 26, 2019
Spider-Man: Far from Home – July 2, 2019
Marvel movies on Disney Plus
Wondering which Marvel movies are on Disney Plus? The Incredible Hulk and the Spider-Man movies are now not reachable on Disney Plus due to the fact Universal and Sony very own the distribution rights to them respectively. You’ll have to purchase or rent them on DVD, Blu-Ray, or digital if you prefer a full Marvel movie marathon.
These are the Marvel movies on Disney Plus in the US, UK and Australia:
- Iron Man
- Thor
- Iron Man 2
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- The Avengers
- Iron Man 3
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Thor: The Dark World
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Ant-Man
- Captain America: Civil War
- Doctor Strange
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- Captain Marvel
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Avengers: Endgame
- Thor: Ragnarok
- Black Panther
- Ant-Man and the Wasp
Alongside that, these are the series coming to Disney Plus. Aside from WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki, which had their release dates confirmed at Disney’s Investor Day in late 2020 (then adjusted later for Loki), these dates are tentative.
- WandaVision (now available)
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (March 19, 2021 – now available)
- Loki (June 11, 2021)
- What If…? (summer 2021)
- Ms Marvel (late 2021)
- Hawkeye (late 2021)
- She-Hulk (TBA)
- Moon Knight (TBA)
- Secret Invasion (TBA)
- Ironheart (TBA)
- Armor Wars (TBA)
- Wakanda series (TBA)
Best Marvel movies
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – Rating: 8.4
- Avengers: Endgame (2019) – Rating: 8.4
- The Avengers (2012) – Rating: 8.0
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) – Rating: 8.0
- Iron Man (2008) – Rating: 7.9
- Thor: Ragnarok (2017) – Rating: 7.9
- Captain America: Civil War(2016) – Rating: 7.8
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) – Rating: 7.7
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) – Rating: 7.6
- Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) – Rating: 7.5
- Doctor Strange (2016) – Rating: 7.5
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) – Rating: 7.4
- Black Panther (2018) – Rating: 7.3
- Avengers: Age of Ultron(2015) – Rating: 7.3
- Ant-Man (2015) – Rating: 7.3
- Iron Man 3(2013) – Rating: 7.2
- Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) – Rating: 7.1
- Thor (2011) – Rating: 7.0
- Iron Man 2(2010) – Rating: 7.0
- Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) – Rating: 6.9
- Thor: The Dark World(2013) – Rating: 6.9
- Captain Marvel (2019) – Rating: 6.9
- The Incredible Hulk (2008) – Rating: 6.7
How to download Marvel movies
The content you download on your smartphone will continue to be in your device’s primary memory if it doesn’t have an external microSD card slot. That includes all Apple iPhone smartphones, iPad tablets, and a few others handsets (like the Google Pixel 3a).
A 1-hour download takes about 400MB of storage relying on your download quality: High excellent is six times higher than standard quality whilst medium is 50% higher than standard quality (which is the Disney Plus app’s default).
If you want to purchase the movies, Just thru Amazon Prime, that’ll additionally permit you to download Marvel films locally.
