The Marvel universe is easily one of the most interesting to watch, and birthing hit after hit. If you want to dive back into this marvelous series, we can help you figure out which way to go, since there are multiple ways to watch this long list of films.
Out of the 50 highest-grossing films, Marvel has its stamp on nine of them with Avengers: Endgame scoring highest after it managed to dethrone Avatar.
Starting with 2008, Marvel movies have been popping up at an impressive rage, bringing superhero movies to the quality level they deserve. They've been split into four phases, with the fourth one set to begin in November, this year, if things don't get delayed due to the pandemic.
As mentioned, there are multiple ways you can watch Marvel movies - Chronological, by Release Date, or the Spaghetti Order.
Chronological Vs. Release Vs. Spaghetti Order
There are a few ways you can watch Marvel films - chronological, by release date or spaghetti order. Each of these will put the films in a new light and bring new details into your mind that you may have otherwise missed. Let's go over these so you can learn more about them:
Release Order - This part is pretty obvious, as you get to watch the films in the order they were released, experiencing the storyline as the world did.
Chronological Order - Watching the Marvel movies in Chronological order means you watch them in the order the action takes place in the movies. For instance, the first Captain America movie takes place back in the '40s.
Spaghetti Order - While the name may sound weird, it takes you from one movie to the other by following the hints you get in the after-credit scene.
What's the Best Order to Watch the Marvel Movies?
With so many great movies, is there really a better or worse way to watch them? Personally, we'd love to follow each path and watch them all, but that's going to take a while. In the end, we're going to help you make the best decision for you.
How to Watch the Marvel Movies in Order - Release Date?
The Marvel universe was released in Phases, as we already discussed, so watching them as everyone did - one at a time as they were released in theaters - may be the way to go.
Marvel Phase One
- Iron Man (May, 2008)
- The Incredible Hulk (June, 2008)
- Iron Man 2 (May, 2010)
- Thor (May, 2011)
- Captain America: The First Avenger (July 22, 2011)
- Avengers Assemble (May 4, 2012)
Marvel Phase Two
- Iron Man 3 (May, 2013)
- Thor: The Dark World (November, 2013)
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (April, 2014)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (August, 2014)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (May, 2015)
- Ant-Man (July, 2015)
Marvel Phase Three
- Captain America: Civil War (May, 2016)
- Doctor Strange (November, 2016)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (May, 2017)
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (July, 2017)
- Thor: Ragnarok (November, 2017)
- Black Panther (February, 2018)
- Avengers: Infinity War (April, 2018)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp (July, 2018)
- Captain Marvel (March, 2019)
- Avengers: Endgame (April, 2019)
- Spider-Man: Far From Home (July, 2019)
And this is where we left off - this is where we are right now, with several storylines complete.
How to Watch the Marvel Movies in Order - Chronological Order?
So, the Release Date order is pretty clear - we're watching them as they came out in theaters, but the storyline is not always linear. Some movies take us back decades, while others take us forward. Watching them in Chronological order should help you avoid various spoilers while keeping the story more clear. Here's the order you can watch them in, featuring the film's name and the year the action takes place in:
- Captain America: The First Avenger - 1942
- Captain Marvel - 1995
- Iron Man - 2010
- Iron Man 2 - 2011
- The Incredible Hulk - 2011
- Thor - 2011
- The Avengers - 2012
- Iron Man 3 - 2012
- Thor: The Dark World - 2013
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 2014
- Guardians of the Galaxy - 2014
- Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - 2014
- Avengers: Age of Ultron - 2015
- Ant-Man - 2015
- Captain America: Civil War - 2016
- Spider-Man: Homecoming - 2016
- Doctor Strange - 2016-2017
- Black Panther - 2017
- Thor: Ragnarok - 2017
- Ant-Man and the Wasp - 2017
- Avengers: Infinity War - 2017
- Avengers: Endgame - 2018-2023
- Spider-Man: Far From Home - 2023
How to Watch the Marvel Movies in Order - Spaghetti Order?
The Marvel movies can also be watched in a different order. The whole thing was put together by writer Jonathan Sim who went by a different logic - follow the post-credit scene. Those scenes kept everyone in their seats for an extra ten minutes after the long movies were already over. And yet, this method allows users to watch the movies by following the cut-scenes. Here's how that would go:
- Iron Man (2008)
- The Incredible Hulk (2008)
- Iron Man 2 (2010)
- Thor (2011)
- Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
- The Avengers (2012)
- Iron Man 3 (2013)
- Thor: The Dark World (2013)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (2017)
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
- Ant-Man (2015)
- Captain America: Civil War (2016)
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
- Black Panther (2018)
- Doctor Strange (2016)
- Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
- Captain Marvel (2019)
- Avengers: Endgame (2019)
- Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
- What Movies Are Part of Phase 4?
There are six movies that are currently part of Phase 4:
- Black Widow - November 6, 2020
- The Eternals - February 12, 2021
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - May 7, 2021
- Untitled Spider-Man Far from Home sequel - December 17, 2021
- Thor: Love and Thunder - February 11, 2022
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - March 25, 2022
Whether or not these movies will retain their release dates remains to be seen, since the whole process is in the air due to the pandemic and Hollywood is trying to figure things out.
What Are the Best Marvel Movies to Watch?
When it comes to which movies are "best" it depends on who you're asking. If we're talking about which movies did best in the Box Office, we have one list:
- Avengers: Endgame - $2.797 billion
- Avengers: Infinity War - $2.048 billion
- The Avengers - $1.518 billion
- Avengers: Age of Ultron - $1.405 billion
- Black Panther - $1.346 billion
- Incredibles 2 - $1.242 billion
- Iron Man 3 - $1.214 billion
- Captain America: Civil War - $1.153 billion
- Spider-Man: Far From Home - $1.131 billion
- Captain Marvel - $1.128 billion
If you're going to ask Rotten Tomatoes, the list looks a bit different:
- Black Panther - 96%
- Avengers: Endgame - 94%
- Iron Man - 94%
- Thor: Ragnarok - 93%
- Spider-Man: Homecoming - 92%
- The Avengers - 92%
- Captain America: Civil War - 91%
- Guardians of the Galaxy - 91%
- Spider-Man: Far From Home - 90%
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 90%
Judging by the IMDb ranking, the list also differs a bit:
- Avengers: Endgame - 9.0 rating
- Avengers: Infinity War - 8.5 rating
- The Avengers - 8.1 rating
- Guardians of the Galaxy - 8.1 rating
- Iron Man - 7.9 rating
- Thor: Ragnarok - 7.9 rating
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 7.8 rating
- Captain America: Civil War - 7.8 rating
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 - 7.7 rating
- Doctor Strange - 7.5 rating
Which Marvel Movies Are on Disney+?
Since Marvel is now owned by Disney, the service has been pulling movies from competitors (namely Netflix) and pushing them to Disney+. Right now, you can stream quite the marathon as many of them are available on the service. Here they are, in alphabetical order. A few are still missing, but we're sure they'll end up on Disney+ soon enough.
- Ant-Man
- Ant-Man and the Wasp
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Avengers: Endgame
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Black Panther
- Captain America: Civil War
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Captain Marvel
- Doctor Strange
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- Iron Man
- Iron Man 2
- Iron Man 3
- The Avengers
- Thor
- Thor: Ragnarok
- Thor: The Dark World
Disney+ is also preparing a long list of really cool shows you'll be able to watch. Hopefully, we'll get them sooner rather than later.
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
- WandaVision
- Loki
- What If...?
- Hawkeye
- Ms. Marvel
- Moon Knight
- She-Hulk
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The first five were supposed to be released by next summer, but with the pandemic ranging on, we're not sure that's going to happen. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier originally had an August 2020 release date, but with August nearly over, that's clearly not happening.
Clearly, keeping up with the MCU is a total experience, and we're eager to watch them all time and time again.
Which Marvel Movies Are Missing on Disney+ and Where to Watch Them?
There are three movies that are currently missing from Disney+ - The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Spider-Man: Far From Home is available to stream on Hulu right now. Since the movie's rights are in Sony's pocket, you won't find it on Disney+ for now.
The other movies are not available to stream on any major platform right now, but you can definitely rent them from the likes of Amazon Prime Video.
How to Download Marvel Movies on Disney+?
One of the great things about Disney+ is that you can download the movies and shows it offers so you can watch them later, without even needing a WiFi connection. Assuming you have a Disney+ subscription, here's what you have to do:
- First, you need to go to your account, look up the Marvel movie you need.
- Once the page is open, you need to tap on the Download button. The process will begin immediately.
- You can find all the downloads in the special tab. When the movie is on your device, you'll see a checkmark.
- Press Play and enjoy it anytime you want!