Notes

The Infinity Saga: Phase One (2008-2012)

Iron Man (May 2, 2008)
The Incredible Hulk (June 13, 2008)
Iron Man 2 (May 7, 2010)
Thor (May 6, 2011)
Captain America: The First Avenger (July 22, 2011)
Marvel’s The First Avengers (May 4, 2012)
Phase Two (2013-2015)

Iron Man 3 (May 3, 2013)
Thor: The Dark World (November 8, 2013)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (April 4, 2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy (August 1, 2014)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 1, 2015)
Ant-Man (July 17, 2015)
Phase Three (2016-2019)

Captain America: Civil War (Mat 6, 2016)
Doctor Strange (November 4, 2016)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (May 5, 2017)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (July 7, 2017)
Thor: Ragnarok (November 3, 2017)
Black Panther (February 16, 2018)
Avengers: Infinity War (April 27, 2018)
Ant-Man and the Wasp (July 6, 2018)
Captain Marvel (March 8, 2019)
Avengers: Endgame (April 26, 2019)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (July 2, 2019)
The Multiverse Saga: Phase Four (2021-2022)

Black Widow (July 9, 2021)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (September 3, 2021)
Eternals (November 5, 2021)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (December 17, 2021)
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (May 6, 2021)
Thor: Love and Thunder (July 8, 2022)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (November 11, 2022)
Phase Five (2023-2024)

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (February 17, 2023)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (May 5, 2023)
The Marvels (July 28, 2023)
Captain America: New World Order (May 3, 2024)
Thunderbolts (July 26, 2024)
Blade (September 6, 2024)
Phase Six (2024-2026)

Deadpool 3 (November 8, 2024)
Fantastic Four (February 14, 2025)
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (May 2, 2025)
Avengers: Secret Wars (May 1, 2026)

You can check out our regular feature on all upcoming Marvel movies with key details! Now, on to if you want to watch the MCU chronologically in-universe. So while Iron Man, set and released in 2008, can claim the banner as the first of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, within its story, Chris Evans has got Robert Downey Jr. beat. That’s because Evans’ origin story as Captain America in The First Avenger takes action in 1942. There, we’re also first fully introduced to the Tessarect, an energy cube that initializes the Infinity Saga, climaxing in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.

The next movie set in the timeline is Captain Marvel, the blockbuster with a Blockbuster, set in 1995 with Brie Larson starring as the cosmic Carol Danvers. And then it’s time to hit the start with Iron Man and RDJ’s world-making turn as Tony Stark. The movies can be seen in release order after that, except for 2021’s Black Widow, which is set in the aftermath of 2016’s Captain America: Civil War.

Through the epic finale of Endgame (which essentially completed the first 3 phases of the MCU), there was a forward time jump of 5 years, placing most everything in Phase 4 and onward in the near future. Phase 4 started at the movies with Shang-Chi, and has been inviting its lineup of series to really do some heavy lifting, with Loki, Wandavision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Hawkeye pushing the story forward. Then there was the gigantic one-two Spider-Man punch with Far From Home and No Way Home. Moon Knight, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and now Thor: Love and Thunder are all set chronologically by release after that. And now, we’ve added She-Hulk.

So if you want to watch the MCU by release order, the list above is your guide. But if you want to take an alternate route and see the movies chronologically within its own timeline (including the TV shows), check out our guide below!