Marvel Movies in Order: Release and Timeline Order (2026)

The Short Answer

Watch in release order. The MCU is the only franchise on this scale that was written and released as a serial, one film at a time, with each one assuming you had seen the last. Release order is not a compromise here, it is the intended cut: the reveal at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the ending of Infinity War and the whole shape of Endgame all depend on knowing exactly what the audience in the cinema that week knew.

Watch in timeline order on a rewatch. Marvel Studios publishes its own in-universe order as a Disney+ collection, and it is the version this page uses. It moves 26 of the 37 placed films, and one of them a long way: Captain Marvel goes from release position 21 to timeline position 2. That is a better history and a worse first watch.

All 38 films back to back run 83h 5m. The 23-film Infinity Saga, Phases One to Three, is 49h 58m of that, and it is a complete story with an ending, which makes it the honest answer to "where do I stop".

Which Marvel Movie Is Actually the Best?

The order is answerable. The ranking never is, so before the lists here it is as five head-to-head choices: the five longest films in the franchise, which is also the five that asked the most of you. Tap the one you prefer and your ranking builds itself, which is the whole of what Shortlist does, across everything you watch.

Make your tier list right here

Five films, head-to-head. Tap the one you prefer and we will build your order, then label it S through D.

Which do you prefer?

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

2022

VS

Avengers: Endgame

2019

Tap your favorite

Marvel Movies in Release Order

All 38 theatrical MCU films, oldest to newest, with the phase each one belongs to. Runtimes are theatrical cuts.

The longest film in the franchise is Avengers: Endgame at 3h 1m; the shortest is The Marvels at 1h 45m. The average is about 131 minutes, which is the most consistent thing about the MCU.

Marvel Movies in Timeline Order

This is Marvel Studios' own in-universe order, read from the timeline collection Marvel publishes for Disney+ and filtered to the theatrical films. It is the only chronological MCU order with a publisher behind it, which matters more than it sounds: past Endgame the question is genuinely contested, and most lists you will find are somebody's reading of this one.

Not yet placed: Spider-Man: Brand New Day

One film is missing from the list above, and it is missing on purpose. Spider-Man: Brand New Day opened on July 31, 2026 and Marvel has not added it to the published timeline yet, so nobody with authority has said where it sits. We could guess, and the guess would look exactly as confident as the 37 rows above it. We would rather tell you the list has a hole in it. Watch it last, which is where release order puts it anyway.

Where the Two Orders Disagree

26 of the 37 placed films move, and 11 do not move at all. Most of the movement is small, a place or two as a year's slate gets rearranged into its own history. These are the ones that move enough to change what you know when:

Captain Marvel is the whole argument for release order in one row. It arrived 21 films into the run, six weeks before Endgame, and it is set in the 1990s, so the timeline plays it at position 2. Watching it there tells you a decade early what the film was built to reveal late, and it turns Endgame's arrival scene into a rerun.

So Which Order Should You Actually Watch?

The Phases, and Where You Can Stop

Marvel groups its films into phases, and two of those groupings are real stopping points rather than marketing. The Infinity Saga is Phases One to Three: 23 films, 49h 58m, beginning with Iron Man and ending with a resolution that was ten years in the writing. Everything after it is the Multiverse Saga, 15 films and 33h 7m so far, and it is still mid-story.

Do You Need to Watch the Marvel TV Shows?

No, not for either order above. Marvel's own complete timeline interleaves the Disney+ series and the Netflix run with the films, and several of them are better than the weaker films, but none of the 38 theatrical releases requires one to make sense. The films that come closest are Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which is easier if you have seen WandaVision, and The Marvels, which picks up characters Ms. Marvel introduced. Neither is a prerequisite so much as a head start. If you want to rank the shows, that is a separate list, and our TV show tier list guide covers how to do it.

Marvel Watch Order FAQ

What order should I watch the Marvel movies in?

Release order, for a first watch. The MCU was written and released as a serial where each film assumes you saw the last, so release order is the intended cut rather than a compromise. Marvel's own in-universe timeline order is the better rewatch: it moves 26 of the 37 placed films, and it plays Captain Marvel at position 2 instead of 21, which gives away a reveal built for late in the run.

How many Marvel movies are there?

38 Marvel Cinematic Universe films have been released in cinemas, running 83h 5m back to back. That is Phases One to Six, from Iron Man in 2008 to Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

How long would it take to watch all the Marvel movies?

83h 5m of film, which is about 11 full days at eight hours a day, or 28 evenings at three hours each. The 23-film Infinity Saga on its own is 49h 58m, and it is a complete story with an ending, which makes it the sane target.

What is the first Marvel movie in the timeline?

Captain America: The First Avenger, which was released in 2011 but is set during the Second World War. Captain Marvel comes second in Marvel's published timeline, decades before the film that follows it, and only then does the order reach Iron Man, the film the franchise actually started with.

Where does Spider-Man: Brand New Day fit in the Marvel timeline?

Nowhere published yet. It opened on July 31, 2026 and Marvel has not added it to the timeline collection it publishes, so no in-universe position for it has any authority behind it. Watch it last, which is where release order puts it anyway.

Related Guides

• Marvel Movies Tier List
• Spider-Man Movies in Order
• Star Wars Movies in Order
• DC Movies Tier List
• Movie Tier List