Millions of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fans want 18 December 2026 to arrive as soon as possible. Why? Avengers: Doomsday is coming, pitting some of the best Marvel superheroes against one of the most powerful supervillains — Doctor Doom. But to understand how everything in the past 18 years has led to this day, you have hundreds of hours of Marvel movies and TV shows to watch before Avengers: Doomsday.
But is it important to watch every title? Yes. You wouldn’t otherwise feel in your sinew the emotional weight of actor Robert Downey Jr. playing Doom after immortalising Iron Man. You might fail to walk with Letitia Wright’s Shuri as she goes from a grieving sister to a new Black Panther, carrying an honourable legacy that is heavier than anything. Or, underappreciate the quest of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker as he tries to rebuild his ‘forgotten identity’ in Brand New Day, which reminds us that life can still have meaning even if our dear ones don’t remember us.
Avengers: Doomsday is the penultimate title in ‘The Multiverse Saga’. Within the MCU, the saga started with the movies and TV shows in Phase Four. Though the first title in this phase is the TV series WandaVision, which arrived in January 2021, the multiverse storyline actually started six months later with Loki.
Do you have to start there? No. You need to go back way beyond that to understand the threads that led to the events of Phase Four.
How many hours will it take to watch the MCU?
Marvel has released Countdown to Doomsday, an official playlist featuring 15 movies and TV shows that fans must watch to catch up on all the action before Avengers: Doomsday.
But if you want to understand Doomsday like someone who created the multiverse, you’d have to start with the first MCU title — Iron Man. It hit theatres in May 2008. For context, Netflix had not even completed 18 months of its streaming service, and Instagram was still two years away when Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark hammered a suit in a cave. Another era, you say? Well, of course!
It’s no joke to catch up on two decades of a franchise that is one of the largest in entertainment, with 38 movies and over 20 TV shows (and their seasons). Understanding every aspect, every character arc, every Easter egg, and every storyline of the franchise before watching Doomsday requires over 330 hours of binge-watching. That’s around 14 days of non-stop streaming.
Also read: 23 most powerful characters in the MCU (Thunderbolts included)
And all of this does not even include Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the ABC series featuring several MCU characters. Several episodes in each of its seven seasons from 2013 to 2020 connect with events in MCU movies up to Endgame. But they have a standalone character and their place in the MCU is debatable, which means the entire series, with approximately 90 hours of runtime, can be ignored if the focus is on understanding Doomsday.
To summarise:
- Total time in minutes: Around 330 hours
- Non-stop viewing: Around 14 days
- Daily viewing of around 10 hours: Around 33 days
Now, over to the titles.
Complete MCU watching order before Avengers: Doomsday
This list includes live-action and animated titles, and is presented in Marvel’s official chronological order.
- Eyes of Wakanda
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- Marvel Studios One Shot: Agent Carter
- Captain Marvel
- Iron Man
- Iron Man 2
- The Incredible Hulk
- Marvel Studios One Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer
- Thor
- Marvel Studios One Shot: The Consultant
- The Avengers
- Marvel Studios One Shot: Item 47
- Thor: The Dark World
- Iron Man 3
- Marvel Studios One Shot: All Hail the King
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- I Am Groot season 1
- I Am Groot season 2
- Daredevil season 1
- Jessica Jones season 1
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Ant-Man
- Daredevil season 2
- Luke Cage season 1
- Iron Fist season 1
- The Defenders
- Captain America: Civil War
- Black Widow
- Black Panther
- Spider-Man: Homecoming
- The Punisher season 1
- Doctor Strange
- Jessica Jones season 2
- Luke Cage season 2
- Iron Fist season 2
- Daredevil S3
- Thor: Ragnarok
- The Punisher season 2
- Jessica Jones S3
- Ant-Man and the Wasp
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Avengers: Endgame
- Loki season 1
- What If…? season 1
- Marvel Zombies
- WandaVision
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- 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
- Echo
- She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
- Ms. Marvel
- Thor: Love and Thunder
- Ironheart
- Werewolf By Night
- The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
- Secret Invasion
- The Marvels
- Loki season 2
- What If…? season 2
- Deadpool & Wolverine
- Agatha All Along
- What If…? S3
- Daredevil: Born Again season 1
- Captain America: Brave New World
- Thunderbolts*
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- Wonder Man
- Daredevil: Born Again season 2
- The Punisher: One Last Kill
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Too many? Here’s a pared-down list.
Marvel’s official list of movies and TV shows
Marvel includes the first two X-Men movies, even though they are not part of the MCU. This is because some of the original X-Men actors and the characters they played in the original trilogy appear in Doomsday. Watching all the titles will take approximately 42 hours.
- X-Men (2000)
- X2: X-Men United (2003)
- Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
- The Avengers (2012)
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
- Avengers: Endgame (2019)
- Loki, both seasons (2021 to 2023)
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
- Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
- Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
- Thunderbolts* (2025)
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
Still too many? Here’s an even shorter one.
Also read: Our ranking of the best live-action Spider-Man
Our pick of the most essential Marvel movies and TV shows to watch before Avengers: Doomsday
Binge-watching all of these titles will take you only about 33.5 hours, and you’ll get all the essential details before the action in Doomsday. Doable, isn’t it?
- The Avengers
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Avengers: Endgame
- Loki season 1
- Spider-Man: No Way Home
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
- Loki season 2
- Deadpool & Wolverine
- Thunderbolts*
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Happy watching!
(Hero image: Marvel Studios/MARVEL STUDIOS – © 2025 20th Century Studios / © and ™ 2025 MARVEL via IMDb; Marvel Studios/@MarvelStudios via X; Chuck Zlotnick/MARVEL STUDIOS – © MARVEL 2025 via IMDb / Featured image: Courtesy of Disney – © Disney via IMDb)
Note : The information in this article is accurate as of the date of publication.
