The MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) is a series of inter-connected movies based on Marvel comics and characters. The MCU includes most movies based on Marvel characters produced under Disney’s ownership of Marvel.
The MCU is organized in “phases” of releases. Each phase with its own loose story arc. Films are listed here in release order, which is easier to understand and less full of spoilers than watching in chronological order.
The Main MCU
Movies and TV Series (+ One-shots)
Phase I
- Iron Man (May 2008)
- The Incredible Hulk (June 2008)
- Iron Man 2 (April 2010)
- Thor (April 2011)
- Captain America: The First Avenger (July 2011)
- The Consultant one-shot (September 2011)
- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer one-shot (October 2011)
- The Avengers (aka Avengers Assemble) (April 2012)
- Item 47 one-shot (September 2012)
Phase II
- Iron Man 3 (April 2013)
- Agent Carter one-shot (September 2013)
- Agents of SHIELD season 1 (September 2013 – May 2014)
- Thor: The Dark World (November 2013)
- All Hail the King one-shot (February 2014)
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (March 2014)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (July 2014)
- Agents of SHIELD season 2 (September 2014 – May 2015)
- Agent Carter season 1 (January 2015 – February 2015)
- Daredevil season 1 (April 2015)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (April 2015)
- Ant-Man (July 2015)
- Agents of SHIELD season 3 (September 2015 – May 2016)
- Jessica Jones season 1 (November 2015)
- Agent Carter season 2 (January 2016 – February 2016)
- Daredevil season 2 (March 2016)
Phase III
- Captain America: Civil War (April 2016)
- Agents of SHIELD season 4 (September 2016 – May 2017)
- Luke Cage season 1 (September 2016)
- Doctor Strange (October 2016)
- Iron Fist season 1 (March 2017)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (April 2017)
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (July 2017)
- The Defenders season 1 (August 2017)
- Inhumans season 1 (September 2017 – November 2017)
- Thor: Ragnarok (October 2017)
- The Punisher season 1 (November 2017)
- Runaways season 1 (November 2017 – January 2018)
- Agents of SHIELD season 5 (December 2017 – May 2018)
- Black Panther (February 2018)
- Jessica Jones season 2 (March 2018)
- Avengers: Infinity War (April 2018)
- Cloak & Dagger season 1 (June 2018 – August 2018)
- Luke Cage season 2 (June 2018)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp (July 2018)
- Iron Fist season 2 (September 2018)
- Daredevil season 3 (October 2018)
- Runaways season 2 (December 2018)
- The Punisher season 2 (January 2019)
- Captain Marvel (March 2019)
- Cloak & Dagger season 2 (April 2019 – May 2019)
- Avengers: Endgame (April 2019)
- Agents of SHIELD season 6 (May 2019 – August 2019)
- Jessica Jones season 3 (June 2019)
- Spider-Man: Far From Home (July 2019)
- Runaways season 3 (December 2019)
- Agents of SHIELD season 7 (May 2020 – August 2020)
- Helstrom (October 2020)
Phase IV
- WandaVision (January 2021 – March 2021)
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (March 2021 – April 2021)
- Loki (June 2021 – July 2021)
- Black Widow (July 2021)
- What If…? (August 2021 – October 2021)
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (September 2021)
- Eternals (November 2021)
- Hawkeye (November 2021 – December 2021)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (December 2021)
- Moon Knight (March 2022 – May 2022)
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (May 2022)
- Ms Marvel (June 2022 – July 2022)
- Thor: Love and Thunder (July 2022)
- I Am Groot (August 2022)
- She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (August 2022 – October 2022)
- Werewolf by Night (October 2022)
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (November 2022)
- The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (November 2022)
A Note on TV Shows
All TV shows in the MCU prior to phase IV were considered canonically part of the MCU at the time of release, though are now largely considered ambiguously non-canon. All phase IV shows are considered canon to the MCU.
Upcoming Projects
• Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania – February 17, 2023
• Secret Invasion – Spring 2023
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 – May 5, 2023
• Echo – Summer 2023
• Loki season 2 – Summer 2023
• The Marvels – July 28, 2023
• Ironheart – Autumn 2023
• X-Men ’97 – Autumn 2023
• Agatha: Coven of Chaos – Winter 2023
• What If…? season 2 – 2023
• Daredevil: Born Again – Spring 2024
• Captain America: New World Order – May 3, 2024
• Thunderbolts – July 26, 2024
• Blade – September 6, 2024
• Deadpool 3 – November 8, 2024
• Spider-Man: Freshman Year – 2024
• Fantastic Four – February 14, 2025
• Avengers: The Kang Dynasty – May 2, 2025
• Avengers: Secret Wars – May 1, 2026
• X-Men – TBA
• Armor Wars – TBA
• Marvel Zombies – TBA
The Multiverse
How Do Non-MCU Movies Fit With Canon
Spider-Man No Way Home and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, among other phase IV projects, establish the existence of the multiverse as well as the placement of prior Marvel non-MCU projects as a part of that multiverse. The following movies are not necessary to completely watch the MCU but might make some easter eggs more noticeable, etc.
Webb-Verse / Sony-Verse Watch Order
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
Raimi-Verse Watch Order
- Spider-Man (2002)
- Spider-Man 2 (2004)
- Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Spider-Verse Watch Order
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
- Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (2024)
Other Movies (unknown canon universe)
- Venom (2018)
- Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)
- Morbius (2022)
Fox’s X-Men Watch Order (+ Deadpool)
- X-Men (2000)
- X2: X-Men United (2003)
- X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
- X-Men: First Class (2011)
- The Wolverine (2013)
- X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
- Deadpool (2016)
- X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
- Logan (2017)
- Deadpool 2 (2018)
- X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)
- The New Mutants (2020)
RiverMoose-Reads 