It's been 15 years since the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film was released, when 2008's Iron Man launched the franchise with humour, spiky charm and endless fight scenes.
No-one (except possibly the seers in the marketing department) could have guessed the immense success the Marvel franchise would go on to have, but more than 30 blockbuster films later it’s become a cinematic game-changer. A combination of enormous star power, staggering box-office earnings and some of the most imaginative and gripping blockbuster cinema in recent years have made the MCU a global institution.
Next up to roll off the Marvel conveyor belt is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the third film in the Ant-Man franchise and Marvel’s 31st film. Directly following on from the events of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, this time a returning cast of Scott Lang aka Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Hope van Dyne aka Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) are exploring the Quantum Realm.
With so many films to choose from, and with each one littered with Easter eggs, sometimes it can be difficult to know how to best watch the Marvel films. So if you are looking to catch up on Marvel before Ant-Man’s big release on February 17, or just want to watch the films in order, we have you covered.
How to watch Marvel films
Viewers have two options to see the films in some kind of order – watching either by release date, or chronologically with the MCU timelines. Producer Kevin Feige intended fans to catch up on the films in the order they originally opened in cinemas, with the post credits scenes often explaining or introducing other films.
This gives the franchise a sense of rhythm, but it doesn't tell the story in order of what's happening and when, with some of the films set in a different period to the one in which they were released. 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger takes place at the end of the Second World War, for instance, while Captain Marvel, which came out at the beginning of March in 2019, is set in the mid-Nineties.
Marvel films and TV shows, in chronological order of setting
This is a list of Marvel films and TV series shown in order of when they're set. As it happens, in most cases, the release date and the time period match up perfectly.
The films are in bold, while television shows and shorts are in italics.
Captain America: The First Avenger (set 1943 - 1945, released 2011, read our review)
Agent Carter one-shot, from Iron Man 3 DVD (set 1946, released 2013)
Agent Carter (seasons one and two, set 1946, released 2015)
Captain Marvel (set 1995, released 2019, read our review)
Iron Man (set 2010, released 2008)
Iron Man 2 (set 2011, released 2010. According to Marvel, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk and Thor all take place within the same week, and there is a little overlap)
The Incredible Hulk (set 2011, released 2008.)
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Thor’s Hammer (one-shot — Captain America: First Avenger DVD) (set and released 2011)
Thor (set and released 2011)
The Consultant (one-shot — Thor DVD, released 2011, set 2011 post Thor)
Avengers (set and released 2012)
Item 47 (one-shot — Avengers DVD, released 2012 and set in the same year, just after the Avengers' Battle of New York)
Marvel on Netflix: The shows you need to watch
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Thor: The Dark World (set and released 2013)
Agents of Shield (season one: episodes 8 — 16) (set late 2013, early 2014, released at the same time)
Iron Man 3 (set late 2012 to early 2013, released 2013)
All Hail the King (one-shot – Thor: The Dark World) (set 2013, released 2014)
Agents of Shield (season one: episodes 1 — 7) (set late 2013, released 2013)
Agents of Shield (season one: episodes 17 — 22) (set late 2013, early 2014, released at the same time)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (set and released 2014, read our review)
Guardians of the Galaxy (set and released 2014, read our review)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (set in 2014, released in 2017, read our review. The flash back scene involving Young Ego and Peter Quill’s human mother is set in 1980)
Agents of Shield (season two: episodes 8 — 19) (set 2014, released 2014 - 2015)
Daredevil (season one) (set and released 2015)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (set and released 2015, read our review)
Ant-Man (2015, read our review. The prologue is set 1989, in which we see Michael Douglas’s Hank Pym reisgn from S.H.I.E.L.D)
Agents of Shield (season two: episodes 20 — 22) (set and released 2015)
Jessica Jones (season one) (set and released 2015)
Daredevil (season two) (set and released 2015)
Agents of Shield (season three: episodes 1 — 19) (set and released 2015)
Captain America: Civil War (set and released 2016, read our review. The flashback scene showing the death of Tony Stark's parents at the hands of Hydra is set in 1991)
The top 10 Marvel post-credit sequences, ranked
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Luke Cage (season one) (set and released 2016)
Agents of Shield (season three: episodes 20 — 22) (set and released 2016)
Black Widow (set in 2016 and released in 2021. Some of the earlier scenes begin in 1995.)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (set in 2016, released in 2017, read our review. One of the time cards at the beginning of the movie says the events of Homecoming take place eight years after Avengers, which would mean it was set in 2020. However, it appears to be a mistake from Marvel, as the film takes place just shortly after the events of Civil War, which is set in 2016. It’s one of the few examples of discrepancy in the timeline.)
Agents of Shield (season four: episodes 1 — 8) (set and released 2016)
Agents of Shield: Slingshot (web series) (set and released 2016)
Agents of Shield (season four: episodes 9 — 22) (set and released 2017)
Black Panther (set in 2016, released in 2018. read our review)
Iron Fist (season one) (set and released 2017)
The Defenders (season one) (set and released 2017/2018)
Doctor Strange (set and released in 2016, read our review)
Thor: Ragnarok (set and released 2017, read our review)
Agents of Shield (season five, episodes 1 — 19) (set and released 2017)
Cloak and Dagger (season one) (set and released 2017)
Inhumans (season one) (set and released 2017)
The Punisher (season one) (set and released 2017)
Runaways (season one) (set and released 2017-18)
Jessica Jones (season two) (set and released 2018)
Luke Cage (season two) (set and released 2018)
Iron Fist (season two) (set and released 2018)
Daredevil (season 3) (set and released 2018)
Runaways (season 2) (set and released 2018)
Ant-Man and The Wasp (set and released 2018, read our review)
Avengers: Infinity War (set and released 2018, read our review)
Agents of Shield (season five, episodes 20 - 22, set and released 2018)
The Punisher (season 2) (set and released 2019)
Avengers: Endgame (set in 2023 and released 2019, read our review. Some of the earlier scenes are set in 2018.)
Loki (set in 2019 and released 2021. However this is an alternate version of Loki – a new timeline which begins in 2012 and was created in the 2019 Avengers: Engame. This Loki hasn’t been through 2013’s Thor: The Dark World or 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok.)
What If...? (The series travels through time. The first episode is set in WW2, the second episode is set in 1988. Thereafter, the series is set in the modern day. Released in 2021)
WandaVision (The series also travels through time. The first episode is set in the 1950s, the second episode in the 1960s, the third in the 1970s. The pattern continues up to the modern day, which is 2023. In episode eight they zip back to Salem in 1693. It was released 2021, read our review)
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (set 2023, released 2021, read our review)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (set in 2023 and released 2019, read our review)
Eternals (set 2023 and released 2021, read our review. Opening scenes begin in 5000 BC.)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings (It starts off a thousand years ago, makes a stop in 1996, but is thereafter set in 2023/2024. It was released in 2021, read our review)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (set in 2024 and released in 2021, read our review)
Hawkeye (set 2024 and released 2021)
Moon Knight (set 2025 and released 2022)
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (set 2025 and released 2022, read our review)
Ms. Marvel (set 2025 and released 2022, read our review)
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (set 2025 and released 2022, read our review)
Thor: Love and Thunder (set late 2025 and released 2022, read our review)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (set late 2024, early 2025 and released 2022, read our review)
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (set to be released February 17, 2023)