The Correct Order To Watch Marvel's Avengers Movies
It is the end of 2023, and geek culture is dead.
For over 20 years, the world has been reveling in nerd culture the same way a cat interacts with catnip. Entire journalistic ecosystems have thrived underneath the tree canopy of geek-friendly film properties like "Star Wars," "The Lord of the Rings," "Harry Potter," the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and other effects-based, adolescence-prolonging blockbuster franchises. In 2023, we are walking out of the woods, the trees are becoming less densely packed, and audiences are emerging into a landscape that contains hits like "Oppenheimer," "Barbie," and "The Boy and the Heron."
The box office champion of the last 15 years has clearly been the MCU. The universe based on decades of Marvel Comics has, since 2008, released 33 films and over 20 television shows. It's one of the most talked-about and written-about film franchises in cinema history, and a generation was raised watching them, anticipating them, memorizing their details, adhering to their characters, and involving themselves deeply in the byzantine details of its universe.
Pointing out the correct order of "Avengers" team-up movies, of course, seems churlish to those many MCU obsessives who likely have seen every hour of the franchise and written dozens of think pieces for each installation. This, then, is not an article for the fans and familiars, but to those slightly on the outside who might be familiar with the movies, but who haven't devoted themselves to seeing each and every chapter. This is, in short, an article for your parents or grandparents. The ones who may be able to identify Iron Man in a lineup but are still a little baffled by someone like, say, Rocket Raccoon.
The release order of the Avengers films
Each of the "Avengers" team-up films — that is, the films with the word "Avengers" in the title — were all the climax events of their respective "phases," so watching just the team-up films may leave a lot of the story missing for neophytes. The 2012 film was the climax of phase 1, the 2015 film was the climax of phase 2, and both the 2018 and 2019 films were a massive, two-part climax to phase 3. There was no "Avengers" team-up film at the end of phase 4. The release order was thus:
- Joss Whedon's "Marvel's The Avengers" (2012)
- Joss Whedon's "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015)
- Anthony and Joe Russo's "Avengers: Infinity War" (2018)
- Anthony and Joe Russo's "Avengers: Endgame" (2019)
A marathon of just those four films may provide a certain kind of distraction, but the primary gimmick of the MCU was its ongoing interconnectivity. No single film was a thrill unto itself without the added knowledge that the main characters would be featured in a future installment. As such, a lot will feel like it's missing from just those four "Avengers" movies. It won't be thrilling seeing a character like, say, Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) getting involved in the action without having also seen the films wherein Black Panther had his own adventures.
At the very least, a gag about Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and his hammer, set up in "Ultron," is satisfyingly paid off during a fight scene in "Endgame." None of the repeated Avengers' catchphrases — "I can do this all day," "I am Iron Man" — will feel quite the same without having already heard them repeated throughout 19 movies.
The entire Marvel Cinematic Universe
As mentioned, Phase Four of the MCU didn't build up to a crossover event of all the extant Avengers teaming up to fight a major supervillain. According to press releases, the final film in Phase Four was "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" in 2022, while its final TV event was "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" the following month. Phase Five, then, began with "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" in February 2023. As of this writing, no crossover event is planned for Phase Five either.
In 2026, however, another crossover event called "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty" is planned, with the interdimensional tyrant Kang (Jonathan Majors) set to play the villain. Loki (Tom Hiddleston) served as the villain for Phase One, the evil robot Ultron (James Spader) was the villain in "Age of Ultron," and the mad alien Thanos (Josh Brolin) was the villain in both "Infinity War" and "Endgame." A sixth Avengers film called "Avengers: Secret Wars" is planned for release in May of 2027, and it appears it will be a direct sequel to "The Kang Dynasty."
Of course, as of this writing, there are currently 89 chapters in the MCU, if we are willing to count every film, separate out every season of TV, and fold in the repurposed Sony Spider-Man films that crossed over with "Spider-Man: No Way Home." There may be even more than 89, depending on how Marvel elects to include Deadpool in the MCU, possibly incorporating multiple X-Men films into the series as well. By the time "Secret Wars" comes out, at least eight more seasons of TV, and at least six more movies will be included in the series.
Take notes. There will be a quiz.