Iron Man, Avengers, Thor, X-men, Jessica Jones and so on: the number of movies and tv-series of the Marvel cinematic universe (MCU) is growing. It might be a tad difficult to keep track of the correct viewing order of everything. That is why this post is devoted to present all Marvel movies and tv-series in chronological order. We update the post continuously. If you detect an error, please don’t hesitate to contact us!
X-men vs Avengers
In the comic books, X-men and Avengers belong to the same universe. In the cinema, it works a little differently due to rights management:
- 20th Century Fox has the rights to X-men and mutants.
- Marvel Studios has the rights to Avengers (Iron Man, Captain America etc).
- These corporations has agreed on what characters that should be included in each storyline.
For example, the Quicksilver character belonged to both X-men and Avengers in the comics. When Fox used the character, they were not allowed to call him an Avenger. When Marvel Studios used him (e.g. in Age of Ultron) they could not mention X-men or “mutant”. They used words such as “enhanced”, “miracles” or “inhuman” instead.
To sum up, X-men and Avengers belong to separate storylines when filmed. This post continuous with presenting each faction in chronological order.
X-men: chronological order
X-men is a bit tricky to sort because of the movie X-men: Days of Future Past initiate a new timeline due to time travel. Up to DOFP, the timeline looks like this:
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine
- X-Men: First Class
- X-Men
- X2
- X-Men: The Last Stand
- The Wolverine
- X-Men: Days of Future Past
However, due to the alternative timeline because of DOFP, we also have to create the following chronology:
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine
- X-Men: First Class
- X-Men: Days of Future Past
- X-Men: Apocalypse
- Logan
Simple, huh?
Avengers: chronological order
Let’s continue with Avengers. We do not have to worry that much about time travel (yet). However, we have a lot of tv-series to take into account. The list below is an approximation, with reservation for the fact that different seasons sometimes overlap. Sometimes points of references are missing, which makes it difficult to position a certain season. Moreover, some parts of the timeline simply isn’t coherent due to mistakes in the storyline productions.
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- Agent Carter, season 1 and 2
- Captain Marvel
- Iron Man
- Iron Man 2
- The Incredible Hulk
- Thor
- Avengers
- Iron Man 3
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 1, episode 1-7
- Thor: The Dark World
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 1, episode 8-16
- Captain America: Winter Soldier (also known as Captain America 2 / Return of the first Avenger)
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 1, episode 17-22
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Guardians of the Galaxy 2
- Daredevil season 1
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 2, episode 1-10
- Jessica Jones season 1
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 2, episode 11-19
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 2, episode 20-22
- Daredevil, season 2, episode 1-4
- Luke Cage, season 1, episode 1-4
- Daredevil, season 2, episode 5-11
- Luke Cage, season 1, episode 5-8
- Daredevil, season 2, episode 12-13
- Luke Cage, season 1, episode 9-13
- Ant Man
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 3, episode 1-10
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 3, episode 11-19
- Iron Fist (season 1)
- Captain America: Civil War
- Black Widow
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 3, episode 20-22
- The Defenders, season 1
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 4, episode 1-6
- Black Panther
- Doctor Strange
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 4, episode 7-8
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Slingshot
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 4, episode 9-22
- Spider-Man: Homecoming
- Thor: Ragnarok
- Inhumans, season 1
- The Punisher, season 1
- Runaways, season 1
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 5, episode 1-10
- Jessica Jones, season 2
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 5, episode 11-18
- Cloak & Dagger season 1+2
- Luke Cage season 2
- Iron Fist season 2
- Daredevil season 3
- Runaways season 2
- The Punisher season 2
- Jessica Jones season 3
- Ant Man and the Wasp
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 5, episode 19-22 (parallel with Infinity War)
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 6 (parallel with Endgame)
- Avengers: Endgame
- Loki
- What if…? season 1
- WandaVision
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- Eternals
- Spider-Man: Far from Home
- Spider-Man: No way Home
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- Hawkeye
- Moon Knight
- She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
- Ms Marvel
- Thor: Love and Thunder
- Werevolf by night
- Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever
- Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (december, 2022)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
We should also mention movies that cannot be placed on the above list (yet) due to weak or no referrences to the rest of the MCU:
- Venom
- Hulk (2003) (this movie can, with a bit of imagination, be positioned before Iron Man that takes place in 2008. According to MCU, Bruce Banner got exposed to gamma rays in 2005).
We are updating this post regularly, but feel free to comment below, or contact us if you have additional information!