Marvel-ous Monday: Debating The Order You Should Watch All 21 Marvel Films Before ‘Endgame’

Avengers: Endgame is near, and I need a way to distract myself from all the fan theories and all the hype leading up to this film.  With approximately 38 days until early showings commence in theaters around the country, I have plenty of time to re-watch all 21 MCU films in preparation! However, as I browse through my Blu Ray collection, I am hit with a dilemma:  What’s the best order to watch these movies?

As my mind begins to sort through various plot lines and story arcs, I realized that there could be numerous ways fans prefer to unfold the franchise, and upon reading similar articles and fan forums, this order is highly debatable. Maybe you have a “purist” view of the matter and only watch the films in their theatrical release order.  Maybe you want to watch them chronologically starting with Captain America: The First Avenger. You could even prefer omitting some of the less popular films like The Incredible Hulk or Thor: The Dark World.   Heck, there are even some fans who want to tackle the whole Marvelverse and include Agent Carter, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and all the Netflix series like The Punisher and Daredevil in their lists.

Well, here is the order I will follow:

Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain Marvel

Iron Man

The Incredible Hulk 

Iron Man 2

Thor

The Avengers

Iron Man 3

Thor: The Dark World

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Guardians of the Galaxy 

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Ant-Man

Captain America: Civil War

Black Panther

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Dr. Strange

Thor: Ragnarok

Avengers: Infinity War

Ant-Man and the Wasp

For me, the Infinity Stones are such a huge part of the phases, so the order of the films I like revolves around them.  Therefore, I tried to order the films based on that mindset.  I even debated placing Guardians of the Galaxy earlier on my list simply due to the Collector’s description of them.  I also like splitting up the two Guardians flicks out of personal preference, but watching Vol. 2 before Ultron is perfectly fine.  Now, the whole debate over the chronology of Dr. Strange and Captain America: Civil War was also considered, but I fall in the camp that Civil War happened first.  Regardless of order, one thing is for certain: These movies are fantastic.  If you watch all of them or just a few, the Marvel creative does an amazing job of making sure that not only can each film stand on its own, but each can also be a part of something much larger. I know what my family and I will be doing for the next month, but I’m curious as to how many of you will be re-watching the films.  Happy bingeing!