Version 1.6 | Updated January 11, 2024
This site is a guide to watching the entire, extended Marvel Cinematic Universe, including all pre-Disney+ TV shows and related Sony Marvel projects.
Just like the comic books, the Marvel films and TV shows take place in a fictional, but shared Multiverse. There is a timeline order by which certain events happen in sequence, and are referenced by the various shows or films, and frequently, characters from one title will appear in another title, usually portrayed be the same actor. While other shows or movies have had crossover events before, nothing has been this deliberate or ambitious in it's scope, with over a hundred films, shorts and tv seasons combined.
Of course not. You don't have to watch any of it! But if you do want to understand every reference, and follow along with the saga narratives, and totally immerse yourself in the world of Marvel, you've come to the right place.
Absolutely! Using the filters below, disable everything besides the "MCU" content. Anything tagged as "MCU" has been produced by Marvel Studios, and has the most continuity with itself.
Mostly, you will miss out on additional world building, fun easter eggs, and some backstory for cross-over events.
The phases are primarily a way that Disney and Marvel Studios discuss the release order of content. The phases are mostly ignored on this site since some films and shows are released out of order, they don't really apply to this guide.
This is essentially everything from Captain America: The First Avenger through Avengers: Endgame. While there are plenty of excellent standalone stories that happen in between, there is an overarching narrative that has varying levels of importance to the stories told in between. Without giving too much away, it involves infinity stones, ancient magical cosmic objects that all control some aspect of the universe. The overall saga involves Thanos on his quest to collect them all in order to wipe out half of all living creatures in the universe in order to solve overpopulation (in his mind). The Avengers, along with the Guardians of the Galaxy, and just about every other protaginist try to stop him in the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame
Immediately after the events of The Infinity Saga, and especially the events in Loki, the multiverse concept is introduced, where variants of characters exist in multiple parallel universes at the same time. Most of the MCU happens in what is now referred to as The Sacred Timeline which helps explain how things like Sony's MCU can co-exist and sometimes share characters.
Due to licensing deals and company mergers, different studios had the film rights to certain Marvel characters over the years, preventing them from appearing in Marvel Studios projects. However Marvel Studios has found a creative way to retcon some of these projects, by explaining them as having happened in different universes, within the same multiverse. With the multiverse saga in full swing, it has allowed for fun crossovers, and even many returning actors to be part of one sprawling shared fictional universe. Here is how I define each of these universes:
This includes everything produced by Marvel Studios*, or as a joint production between Marvel Studios and Sony. This is the main universe that includes the Avengers, Iron Man, etc.
*Note: Marvel Studios has released some content that exists outside of the sacred timeline such as What If...? and parts of Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But since these are presented alongside the sacred timeline, they are listed together with it.
It's now clear that anything tagged here as MCU/TV happens in a different universe from the MCU however Marvel recently revealed that the Defenders Sagais considered part of the sacred timeline/MCU proper. Good news for Daredevil fans!
This universe includes the two Venom films,Morbius, and the upcoming Kraven and Madame Web films. There are some actual crossover events with the MCU in the after-credits scenes in some of these
This is the Spider-Man trilogy starring Tobey Maguire, which eventually crosses over with the MCU in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
These are the two Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield. It's worth noting that it's currently unclear if these take place in a separate universe from the Venom films, and are listed separately for now.
This includes all of the X-Men related films from Fox/20th Century Studios. While the content of these almost entirely happen on their own, after Disney purchased 20th Century Studios, the MCU has started teasing some shared continuitiy that the multiverse may eventually help explain, such as a certain cameo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
This watch list mostly follows the chronological timeline order, across the different universes, and I recommend thinking of the films as stand-alone stories that have occurred in a sequence rather than treating this all as one long TV series... until you get to Agents of SHIELD. At this point, the seasons are broken up by episode because they directly deal with the events of the MCU films. Season 1 directly deals with events from Avengers and Iron Man 3, Thor: Dark World happens part of the way through season 1, and by the time Captain America: Winter Soldier happens, the rest of the season handles the fall of SHIELD and the rise of Hydra... and has several cameos from the films.
Similarly, season 2 of Daredevil and season 1 of Luke Cage are broken up by episode because they happen at the exact same time, and Claire Temple has some signifigant events happen to her in both shows.
Most of the rest of the watch order is more straightforward, with only a few titles slightly shuffled around. For example, Iron Fist season 1 technically takes place before Black Widow, but it makes more sense to watch Black Widow directly after the few episodes of Agents of SHIELD that deal with the events from Captain America: Civil War, and Iron Fist season 1 directly before Defenders, since it leads right into it.