Start My Marvel Series
Over the past decade, Marvel has amassed a sprawling pop culture phenomenon that’s more than just a series of briskly paced action movies. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become a fully interconnected world that has multiple layers and the ability to connect with different timelines, giving audiences an entirely new experience each time they sit down to watch one of these films or TV shows.
As a result, the Watch order for Marvel Movies can have a significant impact on your understanding of what’s happened in the universe so far. If you want to know how everything fits together, watching the films in chronological order is the best way to go.
But which film should you start with? The answer is probably the earliest one that you can catch. Jon Favreau’s Iron Man, the first film to open the MCU, is a strong entry that sets up most of the core saga. Robert Downey Jr’s swaggering billionaire Stark feels fully-formed and complex from the outset, his performative bravado masking a world-weariness that will be central to the arc that follows.
How Should I Start My Marvel Series?
From there, you can move on to Ang Lee’s introspective Hulk (2003), Louis Leterrier’s less-inspiring The Incredible Hulk (2008) and then the first three Avengers films. The latter is a natural place to pick up the saga, as it explores many of the same themes and characters (such as Loki returning as an evil villain) that are set up by the earlier films.
You can then move on to the two Guardians of the Galaxy films (both directed by James Gunn) and the first half of Phase Three, which includes ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA and CAPTAIN MARVEL. The final Avengers movie, ENDGAME, is also a great place to begin, as it sets up most of what will follow and features a bittersweet coda that’ll help to shape the next chapter of the story.
Once you’ve finished with those, the rest of the MCU is open to you. There are plenty of spin-offs and standalone movies that will still give you a deeper appreciation for the core saga if you’re willing to dive in – such as the Netflix series Daredevil or Jojo Bianchi’s She-Hulk, both of which feature loose connections to the main saga.
And then there’s the Disney+ exclusive title, WandaVision. This oddball flick may not be necessary to understand the MCU, but it’s a lot of fun, and it’s an interesting look at a different side of the MCU that you can’t get anywhere else. It combines the typical MCU elements of chiseled heroes, bombastic violence and swelling orchestral crescendoes with a picture-perfect 1950-something neighborhood and the family drama of Wanda Maximoff and Vision. It’s the sort of off-center film that will allow you to see that the MCU isn’t all about macho superheroics and the big battles. It’s about the small moments that make a universe tick.