Marvel Superhero Movies Order

in Movie News

Marvel Superhero Movies Order: Chronologically & Release Date

by Wizarding Worldz November 7, 2022, 8:24 pm 6.5k Views 0 Comments

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You can choose from two lists. chronological in terms of the Marvel Superhero Movies order of events and release date.

There are currently 28 and counting Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. They all take place in the same universe and have characters, events, and settings that link them together.

So it’s understandable if you’re not sure how they all fit together and in what order to watch them. Marvel’s The Avengers, which came out in 2012, was a first for the company. It brought together heroes from different movies (Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, Chris Evans’ Captain America, and Chris Hemsworth’s Thor) and then split them up into their own sequels.

This way of telling stories had been done in comics, but telling a serialized story over many, many films with different tones and characters was brand new, and it continues to be a gold mine of interesting stories and characters.

But as the number of movies in the MCU has grown, so has its complexity. Some movies take place on other planets, but they happen at the same time as things on Earth. And some movies take place a long time ago.

If you want to know how to watch Marvel movies in the right order, we can help. Here are two ways to look at the Marvel movies: in order of when they came out in theaters or in order of when the events in the movies happened.

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Both are highly recommended and the best way to watch this series is if you want to watch it all in one sitting. Then, we’ll tell you how to watch the Marvel Disney Plus shows in the right order.

The order of these lists is also based a lot on our own detailed MCU timeline, which shows when every event in the Marvel Cinematic Universe takes place.

Marvel Superhero Movies Order of Release

Here is a list of all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in the order they came out. They are separated into “phases,” which is what Marvel Studios calls smaller story arcs within the larger MCU story arc.

Phase One

Iron Man – May 2, 2008
The Amazing Hulk: June 13, 2008
Iron Man 2 – May 7, 2010
Thor – 6 mai 2011
Captain America: The First Avenger came out on July 22, 2011.
The Avengers from Marvel – May 4, 2012

Phase Two

Iron Man 3 – May 3, 2013
Thor: The Dark World comes out on November 8, 2013.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier came out on April 4, 2014.
Guardians of the Galaxy: The First of August, 2014
Age of Ultron comes out on May 1, 2015.
Ant-Man came out on July 17, 2015.

Phase Three

Captain America: Civil War came out on May 6, 2016.
Doctor Strange: The 4th of November, 2016
The movie Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 – May 5, 2017
Spider-Man: Homecoming comes out on July 7, 2017.
Thor: Ragnarok comes out on November 3, 2017.
Black Panther came out on Feb. 16, 2018.
April 27, 2018: Avengers: Infinity War
Ant-Man and the Wasp comes out on July 6, 2018.
Captain Marvel comes out on March 8, 2019
Avengers: Endgame – April 26, 2019
Far from Home comes out on July 2, 2019.

Phase Four

Black Widow is on July 9, 2021.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will come out on September 3, 2021.
Eternals – November 5, 2021
Spider-Man: No Way Home comes out on December 17, 2021.
Doctor Strange and the Many Worlds of Madness comes out on May 6, 2022.
Thor: Love and Thunder come out on July 8, 2022.
Wakanda Forever: Black Panther – November 11, 2022
Quantum Mania comes out on February 17, 2023.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – May 5, 2023
The Marvels, or Captain Marvel 2, will come out on July 28, 2023.
Fantastic Four – To Be Announced
Phase Four and later
Blade – TBA
Untitled Deadpool Movie – To Be Announced
Untitled Captain America Sequel – To Be Announced
Untitled Shang-Chi Sequel—To Be Announced
Untitled Mutant Film – To Be Announced

Marvel Superhero Movies Order of when things happen

Hayley Atwell in “Captain America: The First Avenger.” Image from Marvel Studios.

1. Captain America: The First Avenger

In terms of time, Captain America: The First Avenger is the MCU movie that takes place the farthest back in time. The story of how Steve Rogers came starts in 1940 when Steve (played by Chris Evans) and Bucky Barnes (played by Sebastian Stan) join the army. The story ends in 1945 when Steve’s plane crashes and he is frozen for the next 50 years.

2. Captain Marvel: Marvel Superhero Movies Order

Next is Captain Marvel, which is one of the newest Marvel movies, but its story takes place before the main MCU timeline. The pilot played by Brie Larson crashes her plane in 1989. After that, she is trained as a Kree and then goes back to Earth in 1995, which is when most of Captain Marvel takes place.

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3. Iron Man: Marvel Superhero Movies Order

The first Marvel movie to come out came third in terms of time, and, believe it or not, Marvel’s own timeline says that it takes place in 2010, not 2008 when it came out.

4. The Incredible Hulk

The events of the Hulk movie with Edward Norton happen soon after the events of the Iron Man movie.

5. Iron Man 2

The second Iron Man movie takes place in 2011.

6. Thor: Marvel Superhero Movies Order

Thor also takes place in 2011, around the same time as Iron Man 2, but there are flashbacks to events that happened hundreds of years ago.

7. The Avengers: Marvel Superhero Movies Order

The meeting finally takes place in 2012.

8. Iron Man 3: Marvel Superhero Movies Order

The underrated Iron Man 3 takes place in 2012 and is mostly about Tony Stark’s PTSD after what happened in The Avengers.

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9. Thor: The Dark World

The sequel, which isn’t very good, takes place in 2013.

10. The Winter Soldier: Captain America

The Big Fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. takes place in 2014, a few years after S.H.I.E.L.D. helped form The Avengers.

11. Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy takes place around the same time as The Winter Soldier, in 2014.

12. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Marvel Superhero Movies Order

The second Guardians movie takes place a few months after the first movie.

13. Avengers: Age of Ultron

The second Avengers movie takes place in 2015 after S.H.I.E.L.D. has been broken up.

14. Ant-Man: Marvel Superhero Movies Order

In 2015, Scott Lang is busy becoming Ant-Man while the Avengers are busy fighting Ultron.

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15. Captain America: Civil War

The sequel to Captain America, which is also sort of an Avengers movie, takes place in 2016. It adds more characters to the mix to set up Infinity War and Endgame. But it also has flashbacks that happen between The First Avenger and Iron Man and shows how Tony Stark’s parents died.

16. Black Widow: Marvel Superhero Movies Order

In the Black Widow movie, Natasha Romanoff, played by Scarlett Johansson, is on the run right after the events of Captain America: Civil War. It’s over before Avengers: Infinity War starts.

17. Spider-Man: Homecoming

After the events of Captain America: Civil War, the first MCU Spider-Man movie takes place in the fall, with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker struggling to become his own hero.

18. The Black Panther

2016 is a busy year in the MCU. Black Panther also takes place in Wakanda in 2016.

19. Doctor Strange: Marvel Superhero Movies Order

Doctor Strange fills in the time between 2016 and 2017, since it takes Stephen Strange a while to become a superhero.

20. Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok is set in 2017, not long after what happened in Doctor Strange. Thor goes to see Doctor Strange on Earth to try to find his father.

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21. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Marvel Superhero Movies Order

Even though Ant-Man and the Wasp came out after Avengers: Infinity War, it takes place in 2018, right before Thanos comes to Earth. The movie ends with the famous Thanos Snap. Even though there are scenes from the late 1980s with Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer).

22. Avengers: Infinity War

In 2018, Avengers: Infinity War takes place over a very short amount of time, only 24–48 hours.

23. Avengers: Endgame

The second part of the Infinity Gauntlet story starts soon after Thanos snaps his fingers in 2018. After Thor cuts Thanos’ head off, the movie flashes forward and is mostly set in 2023, but the characters also go back in time to 1970, 2012, 2013, and 2014 to see what happened there.

24. Spider-Man: Far from Home

The events of Avengers: Endgame happen right before the events of Spider-Man: Far from Home.

25. Love and Thunder: Thor

Even though it came out after Multiverse of Madness, the fourth Thor book seems to take place in 2024. We can figure this out by looking at when Jane and Thor broke up, which was probably in late 2015 or early 2016 before Thor left Earth.

In Love and Thunder, Thor corrects Jane when she says that they haven’t been together for 8 years, 7 months, and 6 days. Jane thinks it’s only been 3 or 4 years, but since she vanished after the blip, that time loss makes sense. We won’t know for sure where this movie belongs until Love and Thunder come out on Disney+.

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26. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings start with a prologue that takes place hundreds of years ago and has a lot of flashbacks to 1996, but most of the movie takes place in 2023, not long after the events of Avengers: Endgame.

27. Eternals: Marvel Superhero Movies Order

Even though the Eternals have been on Earth for more than 7,000 years, the main conflict of the film happens after Shang-Chi, about eight months after the events of Endgame.

28. No Way Home, Spider-Man

As we move into the multiverse (and because of COVID), it makes sense that the timelines will be a little off. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is technically supposed to take place before Spider-Man: No Way Home, but the release dates have to be changed. No Way Home is set in the second half of 2024. Since the Snap, time in the MCU is no longer the same as it is in our world.

29. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Marvel Superhero Movies Order

Even though there are a few references to Spider-Man, it’s clear that this story was meant to happen before No Way Home. The official timeline might put this now right after No Way Home in the spring of 2025, but this one is a sure thing. You can switch the order of this and Spider-Man if you want to spend some time in a timeline where this movie came out before Spider-Man.

Marvel Disney Plus Shows in Order of Release Date

WandaVision debuted on January 15, 2021.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier had its first showing on March 19, 2021.
Loki – Premiered June 9, 2021
Marvel’s “What If…” made its debut on August 11, 2021.
Hawkeye made its debut on November 24, 2021.
Moon Knight’s first showing was on March 30, 2022.
Ms. Marvel – Premieres June 8, 2022

Marvel Disney Plus Shows in Chronological Order

So far, all of Marvel’s live-action Disney Plus shows take place after the events of Avengers: Endgame. However, since time travel and multiple universes have been introduced, it can be hard to figure out the exact order.

1. Loki

Loki takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame, but it starts with the alternate Loki escaping with the tesseract. This shows how complicated the timeline is getting.

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So, Loki’s story starts in 2012, after the Battle of New York between the Avengers. But once the TVA is involved, Loki happens at different times and places in time, from the far past to the near future and even outside of time itself when inside the TVA.

2. WandaVision

Even though WandaVision seems to take place in more than one time period, the timeline is actually much clear. The show takes place in 2023, not long after the events of Avengers: Endgame.

Through the different things the characters do, the show takes us from the time the blipped came back until about a month later. This means that the series takes place after Endgame but before Spider-Man: Far From Home, which takes place about eight months after the end of Endgame.

3. The Winter Soldier and The Falcon

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier also takes place in 2023, between Endgame and Far from Home, but a bit later than WandaVision. When we talked to director Kari Skogland, she told us that the series takes place about six months after the events of Endgame.

4. Marvel’s What If…?

The animated series Marvel’s What If…? is set in different versions of the past in the multiverse. isn’t really part of the main MCU timeline, but it’s close to it. It takes place between Captain America: The First Avenger and Guardians of the Galaxy, among other movies.

5. Hawkeye

Hawkeye takes place sometime after Endgame, during the holiday season of 2024. Clint’s family is in the city and having a good time.

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Theoretically, this timeline should line up with Spider-Man: No Way Home. While there is no crossover, both projects do have characters from the Daredevil series. Charlie Cox is in Spider-Man, and Vincent D’Onofrio is in Hawkeye.

6. Moon Knight

We can guess that Moon Knight happens after Hawkeye, and since London doesn’t look that cold, it’s probably not Winter anymore. The series is set in the year 2025.

7. Ms. Marvel

It’s likely that Ms. Marvel comes after Moon Knight, but what’s more important is that it takes advantage of the interest in superheroes after Endgame.

There are more than enough hints about the big fight, and signs of it are all over the place at the Avengers Con that Kamala goes to. It’s not clear when Ms. Marvel takes place, but it’s probably in 2025.