X-Men '97 is not officially part of the MCU timeline

The long-awaited X-Men '97 has arrived on Disney+ as the second Marvel offering of 2024, following Echo's release in January.

It's a sequel to X-Men: The Animated Series and you might be wondering whether it's part of the main MCU timeline now. Showrunner Beau DeMayo (who has since been let go by Marvel) confirmed in February 2024 that the show is its "own thing".

That makes it easier if you're planning to watch X-Men '97 as all you need to do is rewatch the original series and nothing else Marvel-wise. It's also why we've kept it out of our timelines below.

If you did want to rewatch the entire MCU anyway, we're here to help.

There are a couple of ways to approach an MCU rewatch. You can either watch everything in the order they were released, or you can watch everything in chronological order which will require some jumping around the various Marvel Phases.

Whichever way you choose though, we're here to help with the definitive guide of how to watch the entire MCU in order, including movies, TV shows, TV specials and One-Shot shorts.

(While we've got you, were you looking for Star Wars' timeline? We've got that covered. X-Men's movie order? Help yourself. What about DC Comics movies' chronological order? Easy peasy. All the Spider-Man movies? We've got them all caught up in a web.)

(Oh, and if you're wondering why we haven't included Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Morbius it's because even though their credit scenes feature MCU crossovers, the movies themselves aren't MCU movies.)

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How to watch MCU in release order

If you want the easiest way to watch the entire MCU to date, then stick with the release order – although there are obviously still a lot of movies and TV shows to get through with this method.

You could slim down this list by not watching Agents of SHIELD or the Netflix shows as even though they are part of the MCU with recurring characters, it's now official that they're not part of the Sacred Timeline of the MCU. Instead, they take place in other timelines, but they're still canon.

(Yes, we know that the likes of Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio are back as Daredevil and Kingpin, but just don't think about it too much.)

This all changed on the TV side from Phase 4 onwards as any show after WandaVision was very much part of the MCU, sometimes critical even to understanding what happened in the movies they were connected to.

In the following list, movies are in bold type, shorts are in italics and TV shows and one-off specials are neither.

1. Iron Man (May 2008)
2. The Incredible Hulk (June 2008)
3. Iron Man 2 (April 2010)
4. Thor (April 2011)
5. Captain America: The First Avenger (July 2011)
6. The Consultant one-shot on the Thor DVD (September 2011)
7. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer one-shot on the Captain America: The First Avenger DVD (October 2011)
8. The Avengers (aka Avengers Assemble) (April 2012)
9. Item 47 one-shot on the Avengers Assemble DVD (September 2012)
10. Iron Man 3 (April 2013)
11. Agent Carter one-shot on Iron Man 3 DVD (September 2013)
12. Agents of SHIELD season 1 (September 2013 – May 2014)
13. Thor: The Dark World (November 2013)
14. All Hail the King one-shot on the Thor: The Dark World DVD (February 2014)
15. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (March 2014)
16. Guardians of the Galaxy (July 2014)
17. Agents of SHIELD season 2 (September 2014 – May 2015)
18. Agent Carter season 1 (January 2015 – February 2015)
19. Daredevil season 1 (April 2015)
20. Avengers: Age of Ultron (April 2015)
21. Ant-Man (July 2015)
22. Agents of SHIELD season 3 (September 2015 – May 2016)
23. Jessica Jones season 1 (November 2015)
24. Agent Carter season 2 (January 2016 – February 2016)
25. Daredevil season 2 (March 2016)
26. Captain America: Civil War (April 2016)
27. Agents of SHIELD season 4 (September 2016 – May 2017)
28. Luke Cage season 1 (September 2016)
29. Doctor Strange (October 2016)
30. Iron Fist season 1 (March 2017)
31. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (April 2017)
32. Spider-Man: Homecoming (July 2017)
33. The Defenders season 1 (August 2017)
34. Inhumans season 1 (September 2017 – November 2017)
35. Thor: Ragnarok (October 2017)
36. The Punisher season 1 (November 2017)
37. Runaways season 1 (November 2017 – January 2018)
38. Agents of SHIELD season 5 (December 2017 – May 2018)
39. Black Panther (February 2018)
40. Jessica Jones season 2 (March 2018)
41. Avengers: Infinity War (April 2018)
42. Cloak & Dagger season 1 (June 2018 – August 2018)
43. Luke Cage season 2 (June 2018)
44. Ant-Man and the Wasp (July 2018)
45. Iron Fist season 2 (September 2018)
46. Daredevil season 3 (October 2018)
47. Runaways season 2 (December 2018)
48. The Punisher season 2 (January 2019)
49. Captain Marvel (March 2019)
50. Cloak & Dagger season 2 (April 2019 – May 2019)
51. Avengers: Endgame (April 2019)
52. Agents of SHIELD season 6 (May 2019 – August 2019)
53. Jessica Jones season 3 (June 2019)
54. Spider-Man: Far From Home (July 2019)
55. Runaways season 3 (December 2019)
56. Agents of SHIELD season 7 (May 2020 – August 2020)
57. Helstrom (October 2020)
58. WandaVision (January 2021 – March 2021)
59. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (March 2021 – April 2021)
60. Loki (June 2021 – July 2021)
61. Black Widow (July 2021)
62. What If...? season 1 (August 2021 – October 2021)
63. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (September 2021)
64. Eternals (November 2021)
65. Hawkeye (November 2021 – December 2021)
66. Spider-Man: No Way Home (December 2021)
67. Moon Knight (March 2022 – May 2022)
68. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (May 2022)
69. Ms Marvel (June 2022 – July 2022)
70. Thor: Love and Thunder (July 2022)
71. I Am Groot season 1 (August 2022)
72. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (August 2022 – October 2022)
73. Werewolf By Night (October 2022)
74. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (November 2022)
75. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (November 2022)
76. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (February 2023)
77. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (May 2023)
78. Secret Invasion (June 2023 – July 2023)
79. I Am Groot season 2 (September 2023)
80. Loki season 2 (October 2023 – November 2023)
81. The Marvels (November 2023)
82. What If...? season 2 (December 2023)
83. Echo (January 2024)

MCU timeline: How to watch the MCU in chronological order

This is the ultimate watch order for MCU completists to watch events of the MCU play out in chronological order, but there are some rules we've had to impose to make it as straightforward as possible.

If something takes place in multiple time periods, such as Eternals, we've put it where the bulk of the movie or TV show takes place.

As for The Marvels, it technically picks up straight after the credit scene of Ms Marvel, but it's also definitely after Secret Invasion as Nick Fury is back up in space on SABER station which means that, chronologically speaking, The Marvels is the latest MCU outing.

We'd also suggest watching both seasons of Loki after Avengers: Endgame, not only because that's when 2012's Loki breaks off into his own timeline, but also because the events of the second season establish how the multiverse was created which is a major part of Phase 4 onwards.

What If...? also exists in its own space and could technically be watched any time given that it involves multiple universes and timelines.

The same goes for the second season, so we've popped them next to each other on the chronological order, but you could really watch any of the episodes at any time during your marathon MCU watch.

We'd suggest watching What If...? after Loki though, as that's the show that introduces the multiverse to the MCU.

And don't even get us started on Agents of SHIELD's final season, which mostly took place in an alternate timeline before eventually merging back with the main MCU timeline. For the sake of ease, watch it all after season six, and it'll make as much sense.

But aside from that, it's generally pretty straightforward even when the multiverse comes into play.

As with the release order list, movies are in bold type, shorts are in italics and TV shows and one-off specials are neither.

1. Captain America: The First Avenger
2. Agent Carter (one-shot on Iron Man 3 DVD)
3. Agent Carter (season 1)
4. Agent Carter (season 2)
5. Captain Marvel (mid-credit scene set after Infinity War)
6. Iron Man
7. Iron Man 2
8. The Incredible Hulk
9. The Consultant (one-shot on the Thor DVD)
10. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer (one-shot on the Captain America: The First Avenger DVD)
11. Thor
12. The Avengers (aka Avengers Assemble in some regions)
13. Item 47 (one-shot on the Avengers Assemble DVD)
14. Agents of SHIELD (season 1, eps 1-7)
15. Thor: The Dark World
16. Agents of SHIELD (season 1, eps 8-16)
17. Iron Man 3
18. All Hail the King (one-shot on the Thor: The Dark World DVD)
19. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
20. Agents of SHIELD (season 1, eps 17-22)
21. Guardians of the Galaxy
22. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
23. I Am Groot (season 1)
24. I Am Groot (season 2)
25. Daredevil (season 1)
26. Agents of SHIELD (season 2, eps 1-10)
27. Jessica Jones (season 1)
28. Agents of SHIELD (season 2, eps 11-19)
29. Avengers: Age of Ultron
30. Agents of SHIELD (season 2, eps 20-22)
31. Daredevil (season 2, eps 1-4)
32. Luke Cage (season 1, eps 1-4)
33. Daredevil (season 2, eps 5-11)
34. Luke Cage (season 1, eps 5-8)
35. Daredevil (season 2, eps 12-13)
36. Luke Cage (season 1, eps 9-13)
37. Ant-Man
38. Agents of SHIELD (season 3, eps 1-10)
39. Agents of SHIELD (season 3, eps 11-19 – split due to new story arc)
40. Iron Fist (season 1)
41. Captain America: Civil War
42. Team Thor (one-shot on the Captain America: Civil War DVD)
43. Team Thor: Part 2 (one-shot on the Doctor Strange DVD)
44. Black Widow (watch credits scene after Avengers: Endgame)
45. Agents of SHIELD (season 3, eps 20-22)
46. The Defenders (season 1)
47. Agents of SHIELD (season 4, eps 1-6)
48. Doctor Strange
49. Black Panther
50. Agents of SHIELD (season 4, eps 7-8)
51. Agents of SHIELD: Slingshot (season 1, eps 1-6)
52. Agents of SHIELD (season 4, eps 9-22)
53. Spider-Man: Homecoming
54. Thor: Ragnarok
55. Team Darryl (one-shot on the Thor: Ragnarok DVD)
56. Inhumans (season 1)
57. The Punisher (season 1)
58. Runaways (season 1)
59. Agents of SHIELD (season 5, eps 1-10) – allowing for time travel craziness
60. Jessica Jones (season 2)
61. Agents of SHIELD (season 5, eps 11-18)
62. Cloak & Dagger (season 1)
63. Cloak & Dagger (season 2)
64. Luke Cage (season 2)
65. Iron Fist (season 2)
66. Daredevil (season 3)
67. Runaways (season 2)
68. The Punisher (season 2)
69. Jessica Jones (season 3)
70. Ant-Man and the Wasp (watch credits scene after Infinity War)
71. Avengers: Infinity War
72. Agents of SHIELD (season 5, eps 19-22) – concurrent with Infinity War
73. Agents of SHIELD (season 6) – takes place in Endgame's five-year time jump
74. Agents of SHIELD (season 7) – takes place in Endgame's five-year time jump
75. Runaways (season 3) – seems to take place post-Snap mostly
76. Avengers: Endgame
77. Loki (season 1) (allowing for timey-wimey, alternate timeline weirdness)
78. Loki (season 2)
79. What If...? (season 1)
80. What If...? (season 2)
81. WandaVision
82. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
83. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
84. Eternals
85. Spider-Man: Far From Home
86. Spider-Man: No Way Home
87. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
88. Hawkeye
89. Moon Knight
90. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
91. Echo
92. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
93. Ms Marvel
94. Thor: Love and Thunder
95. Werewolf by Night
96. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
97. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
98. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3
99. Secret Invasion
100. The Marvels

How to watch Marvel movies in release order

Not interested in the TV shows of the MCU? We get it. There's only so many hours in the day, after all, so we've simplified the timeline to just focus on the movies.

We've stuck to the release order here so if you're a total newcomer to the Marvel universe, you can watch the series as everybody else did. If you want to go in timeline order, then just refer to the movies in the chronological order above.

(With just movies in this list, we've done away with the bold and italic formatting as there's no need to differentiate between them.)

Phase 1

1. Iron Man (May 2008)
2. The Incredible Hulk (June 2008)
3. Iron Man 2 (April 2010)
4. Thor (April 2011)
5. Captain America: The First Avenger (July 2011)
6. The Avengers (aka Avengers Assemble) (April 2012)

Phase 2

7. Iron Man 3 (April 2013)
8. Thor: The Dark World (November 2013)
9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (March 2014)
10. Guardians of the Galaxy (July 2014)
11. Avengers: Age of Ultron (April 2015)
12. Ant-Man (July 2015)

Phase 3

13. Captain America: Civil War (April 2016)
14. Doctor Strange (October 2016)
15. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (April 2017)
16. Spider-Man: Homecoming (July 2017)
17. Thor: Ragnarok (October 2017)
18. Black Panther (February 2018)
19. Avengers: Infinity War (April 2018)
20. Ant-Man and the Wasp (July 2018)
21. Captain Marvel (March 2019)
22. Avengers: Endgame (April 2019)
23. Spider-Man: Far From Home (July 2019)

Phase 4

24. Black Widow (July 2021)
25. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (September 2021)
26. Eternals (November 2021)
27. Spider-Man: No Way Home (December 2021)
28. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (May 2022)
29. Thor: Love and Thunder (July 2022)
30. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (November 2022)

Phase 5

31. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (February 2023)
32. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (May 2023)
33. The Marvels (November 2023)

Upcoming MCU movies and TV shows

• Deadpool & Wolverine – July 26, 2024
• Agatha: Darkhold Diaries – Autumn 2024
• Captain America: Brave New World – February 14, 2025
• Thunderbolts – May 2, 2025
• Fantastic Four – July 25, 2025
• Blade – November 7, 2025
• Avengers 5 – May 1, 2026
• Avengers: Secret Wars – May 7, 2027
• Daredevil: Born Again – TBA
• Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man – TBA
• Ironheart – TBA
• Wonder Man – TBA
• X-Men – TBA
• Armor Wars – TBA
• Marvel Zombies – TBA
• Eyes of Wakanda – TBA

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