If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

From Iron Man to Agatha: How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies & series in order by release date and chronologically)

How to watch Marvel Studios' movies, TV shows, and specials in order - from Iron Man to Agatha All Along, with every single project in between.

Guides by Graeme McMillan, Editor

Additional contributions by Chris Arrant, Hayden Hefford

Published on Fri Jun 07 2024

Popverse's top stories of the day

As trailers for both Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* — and just the general hype surrounding Disney+’s Daredevil: Born Again — make clear, 2025 looks set to be a very big year for Marvel Studios, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole, as it gathers momentum heading towards the re-emergence of the Avengers and the return of Robert Downey Jr. to the MCU as Doctor Doom. As the buzz for all of these upcoming projects keeps building, maybe you’re thinking that it’s time to go back and rewatch the MCU so far. We’re here to help with that.

There is, after all, a lot of Marvel Cinematic Universe to deal with at this point; it’s been around for 16 years, with multiple projects per year for the majority of that time. We’re more than 30 movies into the franchise at this point, so you might be forgiven for wondering what the best way to tackle a revisit would be. It’s a good question, and we’d like to think we’ve got a couple of good answers.

Below, we’ll explain how to watch the MCU in chronological and release order, covering the main differences between the two so that you can choose your preferred experience. As for how to watch these shows and movies, most of the MCU can be found on Disney+, with a couple exceptions. If you don't have Disney+, we will be linking to what is available on Amazon, in the cases where the shows and movies are available for rent and purchase.

If you're looking ahead to the future, we have a guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and TV shows on the horizon.

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

Where can I watch the MCU?

Let's get this out of the way first. Virtually all of the Marvel Studios' MCU movies and TV shows can be easily found on Disney+. If you're unable to subscribe to Disney+ however, we have links below to buying each MCU project individually.

How to watch the MCU in release order

Avengers: Endgame — Image credit: Marvel Studios

Watching the MCU in release order allows you to follow the events as they occurred in theatres (and on the small screen), allowing you to relive the saga as it unfolded the first time. Below, we’ll list how to watch the MCU in release order, including all of the movies and series in each phase — but not including the Marvel shows that were made for ABC or Hulu, which are not part of official MCU canon. We’ll get to those shows soon enough.

We are including the Netflix shows, because at least two sources say that they count, officially. Yes, even though there's an officially licensed book that says otherwise; it's very confusing, but we're erring on the side of the most recent statements on the matter, here.

For now, the official MCU canon in release order:

Marvel Studios' MCU Phase One

Iron Man (2008)
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Thor (2011)
Marvel One Shot: The Consultant (2011)
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Marvel One Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer (2011)
The Avengers (2012)
Marvel One Shot: Item 47 (2012)

Marvel Studios' MCU Phase Two

Iron Man 3 (2013)
Marvel One Shot: Agent Carter (2013)
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Marvel One Shot: All Hail the King (2013)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Daredevil Season 1 (2015)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Ant-Man (2015)
Jessica Jones Season 1 (2015)

Marvel Studios' MCU Phase Three

Marvel Studios' MCU Phase Four

Marvel Studios' MCU Phase Five

For those wondering how to watch all of this without buying each movie individually, just remember: all of the above is available on Disney+).

How to watch the non-canonical MCU Marvel shows in release order

Cast your mind back to 2012, when Marvel Television announced plans to make shows that were definitely, 100% in continuity with the MCU, that would appear on multiple platforms — including network and cable TV and streaming services, with ABC, Netflix, and Hulu all part of the plan. These shows didn’t include anything that was definitely in their own continuity, such as FX’s Legion, Hulu’s Hit-Monkey, or anything related to Spider-Man, but were instead shows that were initially promoted as being part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe… but have since been officially declared non-canonical by Marvel, even thought parts of them may be referenced or folded into the MCU for future projects. Confused? That’s understandable. Think of them as MCU Apocrypha for now.

Agents Of SHIELD Season 1 (2013-2014)
Agents Of SHIELD Season 2 (2014-2015)
Agent Carter Season 1 (2015)
Agents Of SHIELD Season 3 (2015-2016)
Agent Carter Season 2 (2016)
Agents Of SHIELD: Slingshot web series (2016)
Agents Of SHIELD Season 4 (2016-2017)
Inhumans (2017)
Runaways Season 1 (2017-2018)
Agents Of SHIELD Season 5 (2017-2018)
Cloak and Dagger Season 1 (2018)
Runaways Season 2 (2018)
Cloak and Dagger Season 2 (2019)
Agents Of SHIELD Season 6 (2019)
Runaways Season 3 (2019)
Agents Of SHIELD Season 7 (2020)

Some, but not all, of the above is available on Disney+. The links above are to purchase each season individually on Amazon, but there is, inexplicably, no way to purchase Runaways Season 2 on Amazon currently, hence no link above. Similarly, the Agents Of SHIELD web series Slingshot is not available for purchase currently. (Neither are available on Disney+, either.)

What about the Fox material, like the X-Men movies, Fantastic Four, and Daredevil? Or the Sony Spider-Man movies? Aren't they part of the MCU because of the multiverse?

In theory, yes - both Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool and Wolverine basically fold almost every single earlier Marvel movie ever made into the MCU via the multiverse. But none of those projects were made to be part of the MCU, so we're not including them in this watch order. (Not least because it would significantly add to the number of projects included.) That said, don't be surprised if we put a Marvel Cinematic Multiverse watch order out there sooner rather than later...

How to watch the canonical MCU in chronological order

The Marvel Cinematic Universe started in 2008, but it has since explored both the distant past and the future while covering a range of intertwining storylines. While it may all seem a bit tricky to follow, watching the MCU in chronological order makes it easy to map the official timeline. It’s a great way for fans to understand how the various movies fit together, and makes for a fun rewatch if you’re after something to do while getting excited for the next movie.

However, be aware that watching the MCU in chronological order probably isn’t best for new fans. Most movies have a post-credits scene, and these often spoil content that would have followed in the release order. Captain Marvel, for example, takes place in 1995, but the post-credit scene ties into Avengers: Endgame and contains major spoilers for Infinity War. Chronological watches can be useful for keeping track of the events, but get ready for some confusing spoilers if you haven’t already watched through the MCU before.

Below, we’ll list how to watch the MCU in chronological order, including every movie and series, along with the year in which they take place:

Loki season 2 (1868/time travel is messy)
Captain America: The First Avenger (1942-1945)
Marvel One Shot: Agent Carter (1946)
Loki season 2 (1977/1982 in an alternate timeline/time travel is messy)
Captain Marvel (1995)
Iron Man (2010)
Iron Man 2 (2011)
The Incredible Hulk (2011)
Marvel One Shot: The Consultant (2011)
Marvel One Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer (2011)
Thor (2011)
The Avengers (2012)
Loki season 1 (2012/time travel is messy)
Marvel One Shot: Item 47 (2012)
Iron Man 3 (2012)
Marvel One Shot: All Hail the King (2012)
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Daredevil Season 1 (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 (2014)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Ant-Man (2015)
Jessica Jones Season 1 (2015)
Daredevil Season 2 (2015)
Luke Cage Season 1 (2015)
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Team Thor Part 1 & Part 2 (2016)
Black Widow (2016)
Black Panther (2016)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2016 - beware that the “8 years later” card shown after the intro is a mistake, and was later retconned to be 4 years to match the series of events presented in this list.)
Iron Fist Season 1 (2016)
The Defenders (2016)
The Punisher Season 1 (2016)
Doctor Strange (2016)
Jessica Jones Season 2 (2017)
Luke Cage Season 2 (2017)
Iron Fist Season 2 (2017)
Daredevil Season 3 (2017)
The Punisher Season 2 (2017)
Jessica Jones Season 3 (2017)
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Team Darryl (2017)
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
Deadpool & Wolverine (one scene in 2018)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Avengers: Endgame (2023)
Loki season 1 (2023/time travel is messy)
WandaVision (2023)
Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2023)
Deadpool & Wolverine (some scenes in 2023)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2023)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2023)
Eternals (2023)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2024)
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2024)
Hawkeye (2024)
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Moon Knight (2025)
She-Hulk (2025)
Ms Marvel (2025)
Thor: Love and Thunder (2025)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2025)
Werewolf By Night (2025)
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2025)
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2025)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2025)
Secret Invasion (2025)
The Marvels (2025)
Echo (2025)
Agatha All Along (2025)
Loki season 1 (2023/void at the end of time/time travel is messy)
Loki season 2 (void at the end of time/time travel is messy)

Impossible to place in this timeline are the two seasons of What If…?, which take place in different timelines, across different eras. Think of them as taking place parallel to the above list.

How to watch the canonical and apocryphal MCU in chronological order

The Marvels — Image credit: Marvel Studios

If you want to include the non-canonical, but maybe they will be in the future, projects, this is what the timeline looks like. Again, What If…? doesn’t make it on there because of how impossible it is to place due to the different timelines and different time settings, but otherwise, we’ve included everything from Iron Man to Echo, along with the various One Shots, Hulu, Freeform, and Netflix series, and all seasons of Agents Of Shield. For this one, we’ve opted to include them to give fans the biggest possible picture — which looks something like this:

Loki season 2 (1868/time travel is messy)
Captain America: The First Avenger (1942-1945)
Marvel One Shot: Agent Carter (1946)
Agent Carter Season 1 & Season 2 (1946)
Loki season 2 (1977/1982 in an alternate timeline/time travel is messy)
Captain Marvel (1995)
Iron Man (2010)
Iron Man 2 (2011)
The Incredible Hulk (2011)
Marvel One Shot: The Consultant (2011)
Marvel One Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer (2011)
Thor (2011)
The Avengers (2012)
Loki season 1 (2012/time travel is messy)
Marvel One Shot: Item 47 (2012)
Iron Man 3 (2012)
Marvel One Shot: All Hail the King (2012)
Agents Of Shield Season 1, episodes 1-7 (2013)
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Agents Of Shield Season 1, episodes 8-16 (2014)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Agents Of Shield Season 1, episodes 17-22 (2014)
Daredevil Season 1 (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 (2014)
Agents Of Shield Season 2, episodes 1-19 (2015)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Agents Of Shield Season 2, episodes 20-22 (2015)
Ant-Man (2015)
Jessica Jones Season 1 (2015)
Daredevil Season 2 (2015)
Luke Cage Season 1 (2015)
Agents Of Shield Season 3 episodes 1-19 (2015)
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Team Thor Part 1 & Part 2 (2016)
Agents Of Shield Season 3 episodes 20-22 (2016)
Agents of Shield: Slingshot web series (2016)
Agents Of Shield Season 4 (2016)
Black Widow (2016)
Black Panther (2016)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2016 - beware that the “8 years later” card shown after the intro is a mistake, and was later retconned to be 4 years to match the series of events presented in this list.)
Iron Fist Season 1 (2016)
The Defenders (2016)
The Punisher Season 1 (2016)
Doctor Strange (2016)
Inhumans (2017)
Cloak and Dagger Season 1 (2017)
Jessica Jones Season 2 (2017)
Luke Cage Season 2 (2017)
Iron Fist Season 2 (2017)
Daredevil Season 3 (2017)
Runaways Season 1, 2, & 3 (2017)
The Punisher Season 2 (2017)
Jessica Jones Season 3 (2017)
Cloak and Dagger Season 2 (2017)
Agents Of Shield Season 5 episodes 1-11 (2017)
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Team Darryl (2017)
Agents Of Shield Season 5 episodes 12-22 (2018)
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
Deadpool & Wolverine (one scene in 2018)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Agents Of Shield Season 6-7 (2018 - these Seasons do not connect to the events of Infinity War, and seem to represent a major dent in Agents of Shield’s questionable status as part of the MCU canon.)
Avengers: Endgame (2023)
Loki season 1 (2023/time travel is messy)
WandaVision (2023)
Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2023)
Deadpool & Wolverine (some scenes in 2023)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2023)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2023)
Eternals (2023)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2024)
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2024)
Hawkeye (2024)
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Moon Knight (2025)
She-Hulk (2025)
Ms Marvel (2025)
Thor: Love and Thunder (2025)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2025)
Werewolf By Night (2025)
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2025)
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2025)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2025)
Secret Invasion (2025)
The Marvels (2025)
Echo (2025)
Agatha All Along (2025)
Loki season 1 (2023/void at the end of time/time travel is messy)
Loki season 2 (void at the end of time/time travel is messy)

Upcoming Marvel movies & TV series

Following the the multiversal jumpstart that was the R-rated Deadpool & Wolverine, Marvel Studios has a busy couple years planned out between movies and TV shows. With Phase 5 (which began in 2023) fully underway, and Phase 6 set to kick off in July 2025 with Fantastic Four: First Steps there's a lot to look forward to.

Marvel Studios' Phase 5

February 14, 2025: Captain America: Brave New World (theatrical movie)
March 2025: Daredevil: Born Again, season 1 (Disney+ show)
May 2, 2025: Thunderbolts* (theatrical movie)

Marvel Studios' Phase 6

July 25, 2025: The Fantastic 4: First Steps (theatrical movie)
November 7, 2025: Blade (theatrical movie)
May 1, 2026: Avengers: Doomsday (theatrical movie)
May 7, 2027: Avengers: Secret Wars (theatrical movie)

Marvel Studios' unscheduled but upcoming TV shows & movies:

Armor Wars (theatrical movie)
Black Panther 3 (theatrical movie)
Eyes of Wakanda, season 1 (Disney+ series)
Ironheart, season 1 (Disney+ series)
Marvel Zombies, season 1 (Disney+ series)
Shang-Chi 2 (theatrical movie)
What If...? season 3 (Disney+ series)
Wonder Man, season 1 (Disney+ series)
What If...? season 3 – TBA (Disney Plus series)
Wonder Man – TBA (Disney Plus series)

How many Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are there?

Chris Evans as Captain America — Image credit: Marvel Studios

As of 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, there have been 34 MCU movies, with a further seven having been announced and scheduled, and at least two more scheduled with not officially announced. You can get all of that information right here.

What is the correct order to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Loki and Sylvie — Image credit: Marvel Studios

It depends if you're wanting to watch the entire MCU, or a particular sub-section of it. Obviously, fans can follow individual characters - like, for example, Tony Stark - or individual series within the larger MCU, and in almost all of those cases, release order is the way to go. Arguably, the one character/storyline that stands in the most obvious contradiction to that is Black Widow, whose solo movie in 2021 takes place a significant period before her death in 2019's Avengers: Endgame, but I'd assume that was fairly obvious...

What order should I watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in?

Fontaine and Yelena in Black Widow — Image credit: Marvel Studios

That's obviously up to you, but if you ask us, watching in release order is probably the best order for new fans. This is largely due to the post-credit scenes, which often tease upcoming movies regardless of their position in the timeline. You could just avoid the post-credit scenes, of course, but they often include crucial details that tie into future appearances of your favourite characters. So... try release order and see how it feels.

What is Marvel's longest movie?

Somewhat fittingly, Avengers: Endgame is Marvel Studios' longest movie to date - at 3 hours and 2 minutes. It needed that much for everything it encompasses, but even we forget some moments of the movie or don't remembering they're in this one. Is Peter Dinklage in this Avengers movie? You'll have to think about that for a bit. (Or, you know, use Google.)

Anyway, the answer is: “Avengers: Endgame," at 3 hours and 2 minutes.

Are there any flop movies from Marvel?

This one stings - 2023's The Marvels is the biggest movie flop for Marvel Studios, taking in just $206.1 million worldwide against a budget of $274.8 million. Even the beleaguered 2024 film Madame Web managed to earn a profit at theaters - something The Marvels can't claim it did.

What is the shortest Marvel movie?

At a brisk 102 minutes, 2023's The Marvels is the shortest Marvel Studios movie. If you count the one-off Werewolf by Night as a movie, that would be the shortest at 53 minutes. Besides those, the shortest Marvel movies are Thor: The Dark World and The Incredible Hulk, both at 118 minutes.

When's the Marvel movie coming out?

The next Marvel movie expected in theaters is February 14, 2025's Captain America: Brave New World. If you're curious about upcoming Marvel movies, we have a handy guide for you right here.

Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:

How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in release or chronological order
The best Marvel Comics stories of all time
All the MCU movies ranked from best to worst
Our weekly Marvel insider's column, Marvel Matters

Follow Popverse for upcoming event coverage and news

Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.