Release OrderRecommended
0 / 40 watchedThe order these films actually came out in theaters, grouped by Phase. This is the order Marvel Studios recommends for a first watch.
Phase 1
- 1 Iron Man
- 2 The Incredible Hulk
- 3 Iron Man 2
- 4 Thor
- 5 Captain America: The First Avenger
- 6 The Avengers
Phase 2
- 7 Iron Man 3
- 8 Thor: The Dark World
- 9 Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- 10 Guardians of the Galaxy
- 11 Avengers: Age of Ultron
- 12 Ant-Man
Phase 3
- 13 Captain America: Civil War
- 14 Doctor Strange
- 15 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- 16 Spider-Man: Homecoming
- 17 Thor: Ragnarok
- 18 Black Panther
- 19 Avengers: Infinity War
- 20 Ant-Man and the Wasp
- 21 Captain Marvel
- 22 Avengers: Endgame
- 23 Spider-Man: Far From Home
Phase 4
- 24 Black Widow
- 25 Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- 26 Eternals
- 27 Spider-Man: No Way Home
- 28 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- 29 Thor: Love and Thunder
- 30 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Phase 5
- 31 Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
- 32 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
- 33 The Marvels
- 34 Deadpool & Wolverine
- 35 Captain America: Brave New World
- 36 Thunderbolts*
Phase 6
- 37 The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- 38 Spider-Man: Brand New Day
- 39 Avengers: Doomsday Releases December 18, 2026.
- 40 Avengers: Secret Wars Releases December 17, 2027, closing out the Multiverse Saga.
Chronological Order
0 / 39 watchedThe in-universe timeline, best suited to a rewatch once you already know the story. Phases 1 to 3 follow a fairly clean single timeline; Phase 4 onward gets looser as the multiverse takes over, so treat the later placements as the commonly cited approach rather than a fixed answer.
- 1 Captain America: The First Avenger Set in 1942.
- 2 Captain Marvel Set mostly in 1995.
- 3 Iron Man
- 4 Iron Man 2
- 5 The Incredible Hulk
- 6 Thor
- 7 The Avengers
- 8 Thor: The Dark World
- 9 Iron Man 3
- 10 Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- 11 Guardians of the Galaxy
- 12 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- 13 Avengers: Age of Ultron
- 14 Captain America: Civil War
- 15 Black Widow Set shortly after Civil War, despite releasing much later.
- 16 Black Panther
- 17 Spider-Man: Homecoming
- 18 Doctor Strange
- 19 Thor: Ragnarok
- 20 Ant-Man and the Wasp
- 21 Avengers: Infinity War
- 22 Avengers: Endgame
- 23 Spider-Man: Far From Home
- 24 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
- 25 Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- 26 Eternals Spans thousands of years, but its climax lands in the present day.
- 27 Spider-Man: No Way Home
- 28 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- 29 Thor: Love and Thunder
- 30 Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
- 31 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
- 32 The Marvels
- 33 Deadpool & Wolverine
- 34 Captain America: Brave New World
- 35 Thunderbolts*
- 36 The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- 37 Spider-Man: Brand New Day
- 38 Avengers: Doomsday
- 39 Avengers: Secret Wars
About Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is Marvel Studios' shared continuity, built from six numbered Phases that group films around a central Avengers team-up. The first three phases (the Infinity Saga) run from Iron Man in 2008 to Avengers: Endgame in 2019. Phases four through six (the Multiverse Saga) pick up from there, introducing the multiverse and building toward Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Disney+ series like WandaVision, Loki and Daredevil: Born Again sit inside this same continuity and occasionally matter for a film's setup, but this guide focuses on the theatrical films, since that is what most newcomers mean by "the MCU" and what release order and chronological order actually apply to.
Good to know
Release order is what Marvel Studios designed the films around, so reveals like Nick Fury's post-credits cameo in Iron Man or Thanos's appearance at the end of The Avengers land the way they were intended. Chronological order is a fun rewatch once you already know the story, but it is a genuinely poor way to meet it for the first time, since it spoils character arcs out of sequence.
Post-Endgame, the multiverse makes strict chronology harder to pin down since several films now happen in parallel or overlapping realities rather than one straight line. The chronological list below reflects the most commonly cited placement, not an official Marvel Studios timeline.
