The MCU is coming to the end of its fifteenth year. During that period, there’s been a huge number of films, TV shows, web series, and one-shots. The universe has sprawled in size, and even for the most ardent Marvel fans, it’s a serious challenge to both watch everything and keep your head around the timeline.
We’ve put together a chronological timeline of the Marvel movies, shows, and more, so you know which order to watch the Marvel movies and shows in – and what phases they all fit in with. Alternatively, if you’d prefer to watch them in the order that they actually came out, we’ve also put together a release date order for all the shows and films.
Marvel has issued its own official timeline for the movies in the book Marvel Studios: The First Ten Years , which does its best to give specific years for when the various films are set (up to, but not including, Captain Marvel & Avengers: Endgame):
Marvel’s Official Timeline
- 1943-1945: Captain America: The First Avenger
- 1995: Captain Marvel
- 2010: Iron Man
- 2011: Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor
- 2012: The Avengers, Iron Man 3
- 2013: Thor: The Dark World
- 2014: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- 2015: Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man
- 2016: Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming
- 2016/2017: Doctor Strange
- 2017: Black Panther, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man & the Wasp
For reference, we’re now in Phase 6 , which is the final segment in the Multiverse Saga. This kicked off with The Fantastic Four: First Steps .
You can also read 5 forgotten MCU characters that need their futures resolved , and if the Avengers: Doomsday trailer doesn’t do these 3 things, I riot .
How to watch the Marvel movies and TV shows in chronological order
It doesn’t help that Marvel broke its own timeline. There are a few little inconsistencies dotted around the place, but the most egregious is Spider-Man: Homecoming, which claims to take place eight years after the New York attack in the first Avengers. That would set the film in 2020 – two or three years after Avengers: Infinity War, which Marvel itself claims is set in 2017 despite ample evidence that the Snap took place in the spring of 2018.
It’s a pretty minor gaffe in the scheme of things, but it’s a reminder not to take the MCU’s chronological timeline too seriously – even Marvel itself can’t keep it all straight, so as long as you watch things in about the right order you’ll be fine.
If you want the visual cliff notes, Marvel has now released every single post-credit scene up to Endgame (including Captain Marvel’s) in order in one giant Twitter thread , so you can revisit every little tease as they built the MCU up.
Marvel.com also has its own timeline order . However, we have only used this to inform the shows in the Phase Four and Phase Five sections , as parts of the list conflict with previous ones from Marvel Studios. For example, it claims that Thor: The Dark World takes place before Iron Man 3, which would set this film in 2013, and not 2012 as previous sources stated.
Disney+ updated its list in January 2024 to include the Netflix Marvel shows, and we have reordered our own list based on this.
We’ve split everything into Marvel’s ‘phases’, but there are some grey areas: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was made within Phase Three, but is set almost immediately after its predecessor; Captain Marvel was one of the final Phase Three films, but is set before most of Phase One, and some of the TV shows sit awkwardly between the different movie phases.
In addition, though Marvel claims that Spider-Man: Far From Home is the last film in Phase Three, it takes place after the first two Disney+ shows – so we’ve adjusted the order to accommodate for this.
Without further ado, here’s our chronological ordering of the Marvel film universe as it stands right now. The films are in bold, TV shows are not. You can watch the majority of the films and shows by signing up for Disney+ , except for those that are exclusively in cinemas – these are marked with an asterisk.
Phase One: 1943-2012
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- Agent Carter (seasons one and two)
- Agent Carter (one-shot)
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps *
- Captain Marvel
- Iron Man
- Iron Man 2
- The Incredible Hulk
- A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Thor’s Hammer (one-shot)
- Thor
- The Consultant (one-shot)
- The Avengers (Avengers: Assemble in the UK)
Disney
Phase Two: 2012-2015
- Item 47 (one-shot)
- Iron Man 3
- All Hail the King (one-shot)
- Agents of Shield (season one: episodes 1 — 7)
- Thor: The Dark World
- Agents of Shield (season one: episodes 8 — 16)
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Agents of Shield (season one: episodes 17 — 22)
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- I Am Groot season 1 (episode 1)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- I Am Groot season 1 (episodes 2-5)
- I Am Groot season 2
- Daredevil (season one)
- Jessica Jones (season one)
- Agents of Shield (season two: episodes 1 — 19)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Agents of Shield (season two: episodes 20 — 22)
- Ant-Man
- Daredevil (season two)
- Luke Cage (season one)
- Agents of Shield (season three: episodes 1 — 19)
- Iron Fist (season one)
- The Defenders (season one)
Disney
Phase Three: 2015-2023
- Captain America: Civil War
- Black Widow
- Agents of Shield (season three: episodes 20 — 22)
- Black Panther
- Spider-Man: Homecoming *
- The Punisher (season one)
- Agents of Shield (season four: episodes 1 — 8)
- Doctor Strange
- Agents of Shield: Slingshot (web series)*
- Agents of Shield (season four: episodes 9 — 22)
- Jessica Jones (season two)
- Inhumans
- Runaways (season one and two)
- Cloak and Dagger (season one)*
- Luke Cage (season two)
- Iron Fist (season two)
- Daredevil (season three)
- Thor: Ragnarok
- The Punisher (season two)
- Jessica Jones (season three)
- Cloak and Dagger (season two)*
- Runaways (season three)
- Agents of Shield (season five, episodes 1 — 19)
- Ant-Man and The Wasp
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Agents of Shield (season five, episodes 20 – 22)
- Agents of Shield (season six)
- Agents of Shield (season seven)
- Avengers: Endgame
Disney
Phase Four: 2023-2025
- Loki season 1 (Read below)
- What If…? season 1 (Read below)
- Marvel Zombie (Read below)
- WandaVision
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- Deadpool and Wolverine
- The Falcon And The Winter Soldier
- Spider-Man: Far From Home *
- Eternals
- Spider-Man: No Way Home *
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- Hawkeye
- Moon Knight
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
- Ironheart (see below)
- Echo
- She-Hulk
- Ms. Marvel
- Thor: Love and Thunder
- Werewolf By Night
- The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
Disney
Phase Five: 2025 onwards
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
- Secret Invasion
- The Marvels
- Loki season 2 (Read below)
- What If…? season 2
- Agatha All Along
- What If…? season 3
- Captain America: Brave New World
- Daredevil: Born Again
- Thunderbolts*
- – not available on Disney Plus
As you may notice, there are some recent releases further up the timeline, including Marvel Zombies, The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Ironheart – allow us to explain (as spoiler-free as we can).
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is set in an alternate universe, Earth-828, rather than Earth-616, so it’s in a separate timeline from the sacred one. However, taking that out of the equation, the movie is estimated to take place in a retro-futuristic version of the 60s, placing it after Captain America: The First Avenger (1943) and Agent Carter (1946), but before Captain Marvel (1995).
Marvel Zombies is hard to place in the timeline, because it follows on from an episode of What If…? which is set around Infinity War. However, both of these shows aren’t technically in the sacred timeline, so it doesn’t matter too much if you watch it out of order.
Writer of Ironheart, Chinaka Hodge, confirmed in a social video that it’s set in “the days after” Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and this was later confirmed on Marvel’s website . That sets it in Phase Four, way before other films such as Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*.
Deadpool and Wolverine is estimated to take place in 2024 in Marvel’s ‘official’ timeline, but before Spider-Man: Far From Home and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. However, it deals with time travel and also references the film Logan, which is set in another universe in the year 2029.
So, it’s hard to put it on the official timeline – especially without the context of other films and shows.
The Marvel live-action series, Echo, is set five months after Hawkeye, which places it right before She-Hulk in the fictional timeline.
Daredevil: Born Again has a cold-open flashback, though the events after that are expected to occur just before 2027. The plot of Captain America 4 also straddles 2026 and 2027, so the two overlap rather than one taking place exactly after the other.
Thunderbolts* takes place in 2027, so it’s presumably after Captain America 4, and either runs alongside the events of Born Again, or after.
Marvel Studios
It’s worth noting that Loki takes place in its own separate branch of time. Technically, the first episode picks up during 2012 in the Battle of New York. However, seeing as the scene that Loki time-travels from is in Avengers: Endgame, the show makes a lot more sense in the context of all the other films as it deals with topics such as the Infinity Stones and Kang.
What If…? also features stories that are scattered throughout the MCU timeline. Again, the show needs the context of previous films to make sense.
Spider-Man: No Way Home draws on other Spider-Man universe films, but we have not included these in the official MCU timeline. The same goes for other films starring Marvel characters that weren’t made by Marvel Studios such as Fox’s X-Men, the three Blade films and Ghost Rider.
We have included Agents of Shield, Inhumans, Cloak and Dagger and The Runaways in this list. Even though Disney+ does not include them on the ‘official’ timeline right now, they reference events in the sacred timeline (watch Loki season 1 for context).
How to watch the Marvel films and TV series in release date order
If you’d prefer to watch the films and series in the order in which they were released, then this is a lot less complicated. We’ve listed below everything that has come out so far in the MCU. For the TV series, we’ve listed the date from when the first episode took place, and for how long the show was on the air.
It may make more sense to watch everything in release date order, as Marvel has broken its own timeline on multiple occasions. Plus, although some films and shows are set earlier in the universe, they reference events that take place later, as they deal with time travel and multiverses.
We haven’t included the DVD shorts here – you’ll be able to find them with each of the movies, or on Disney+. As with the above list, the movies are marked in bold.
- Iron Man (2008)
- The Incredible Hulk (2008)
- Iron Man 2 (2010)
- Thor (2011)
- Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
- The Avengers (2012)
- Agents of Shield (2013-2020)
- Thor 2 (2013)
- Iron Man 3 (2013)
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
- Agent Carter (2015-2016)
- Daredevil (2015-2018)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
- Ant-Man (2015)
- Jessica Jones (2015-2019)
- Captain America: Civil War (2016)
- Luke Cage (2016-2018)
- Doctor Strange (2016)
- Iron Fist (2017-2018)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. II (2017)
- Spiderman: Homecoming (2017)
- The Defenders (2017)
- Inhumans (2017)
- Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
- The Punisher (2017-2019)
- Runaways (2017-2019)
- Black Panther (2018)
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
- Cloak and Dagger (2018-2019)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
- Captain Marvel (2019)
- Avengers: Endgame (2019)
- Spiderman: Far From Home (2019)
- WandaVision (2021)
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021)
- Loki (2021-2023)
- Black Widow (2021)
- What If…? (2021-2024)
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
- Eternals (2021)
- Hawkeye (2021)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
- Moon Knight (2022)
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
- Ms. Marvel (2022)
- Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
- I Am Groot (2022-2023)
- She-Hulk (2022)
- Werewolf By Night (2022)
- The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022)
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
- Secret Invasion (2023)
- The Marvels (2023)
- Echo (2024)
- Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)
- Agatha All Along (2024)
- Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
- Daredevil: Born Again (2025)
- Thunderbolts* (2025)
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
- Marvel Zombies (2025)
All the upcoming Marvel movies and TV shows
- Wonder Man (27 January 2025)
- Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 (4 March 2026)
- The Punisher Special Presentation (mid-2026, release date TBA)
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day (cinema release 31 July 2026)
- VisionQuest (2026, release date TBA)
- X-Men ’97 Season 2 (2026, release date TBA)
- Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season 2 (2026, release date TBA)
- Avengers: Doomsday (cinema release 18 December 2026) – previously titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty
- Avengers: Secret Wars (cinema release 17 December 2027)
- Nova (release date TBA)
- Shang-Chi 2 (release date TBA)
- Armor Wars (release date TBA)
- Doctor Strange 3 (release date TBA)
Author: Hannah Cowton-Barnes, Entertainment Editor, Tech Advisor
As Tech Advisor’s Entertainment Editor, Hannah is the resident expert in all things streaming, film and TV. Before joining Tech Advisor in 2019, she studied Theatre and Performance at the University of Leeds and created a website dedicated to geek culture and lifestyle. She’s also reviewed a whole range of gadgets including flagship smartphones, wearables and styling tools. Outside of Foundry, she’s written freelance pieces for Polygon, Metro and Den of Geek, and is proud to be a Women Techmakers Ambassador for Google.
Recent stories by Hannah Cowton-Barnes:
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