I’ve met a lot of people who started following Marvel movies after watching the Avengers while some were just fans of Captain America. Given there are so many movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with all of them linked to each other at certain point, it’s best to watch all of them and in the perfect order to get it all right.
To your surprise, there’s no exact order which should be followed as it works out for some watching it in the order of their release while some of coined their own order. Although I’ve watched all the movies and have been following Marvel comics as well to a good extent. So here’s the order which I suggest to everyone who asks me about it.
1: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
The movie is set in 1940s and shows the formation story of Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D.
2: Captain Marvel (2019)
It’s the origin story of Captain Marvel set somewhere in mid 1990s. It also sets the story of Kree which is an alien race and are later on shown in Guardians of the Galaxy.
3: Iron Man (2008)
This was the first movies released in MCU but it makes more sense to watch it at number 3. As the name suggests, this one shows how Tony Stark turns into Iron Man.
4: Iron Man 2 (2010)
Lets continue watching Iron Man do things.
5: The Incredible Hulk (2008)
As per Marvel’s timeline, The Incredible Hulk takes place at the time of Iron Man 2 and we get to see Iron man in the post credits scene as a consultant of S.H.I.E.L.D
6: Thor (2011)
This is where the story starts of Asgard giving everyone sense of Thor.
7: The Avengers (2012)
The story continues all the arcs shown and Loki comes in major play with the attack on New York. This is where our major superheroes unite to protect the world but they are not aware of the infinity stone story.
8: Thor: The Dark World (2013)
It shows the further story of Thor and Loki. It also lets us know about the origin story of reality stone.
9: Guardians Of Galaxy (2014)
This movie showcases us the Power stone which is found on an abandoned planet called Morag while further introducing to a lot of new and important characters.
10: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
After watching the first part, it only makes sense to watch immediately the 2nd part as the story occurs within few months.
11: Iron Man 3 (2013)
Let’s come back to the story of Tony Stark. Now that you have a lot of context about other heroes, you’ll get to see Tony Stark dealing with all the aftermath after Avengers destruction.
12: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
It’s said that this movies and Iron Man 3 were happening at the same time and that’s the reason neither Tony Stark nor Steve Rogers were able to help each other out during their fight. Captain America gets to meet his long lost friend in a very unexpected way.
13: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
This one follows Hydra’s arc and reveals the Mind stone which is later on used to create Vision. We also see Wanda’s character being developed in this movie.
14: Ant-Man (2015)
It follows the destruction done in Avengers Age of Ultron and introduces us the character of Ant-Man. We also get to see Sam Wilson a lot in this movie.
15: Captain America: Civil War (2016)
This one is hard to watch as we see Avengers fighting among each other mostly because of Captain America and Iron Man.
16: Black Panther (2018)
It’s time to visit Wakanda and see their out of the world technology.
17: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
As per MCU Timeline, this movie shows the post story of Civil War while Tony Stark heals himself. This one also introduces Spider-Man as one of the Avengers.
18: Doctor Strange (2016)
We get to see Time Stone in this one while also getting introduced to the concept of quantum realm.
19: Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
This is the story of downfall of Asgard as Thor’s sister Hela comes into the scene to claim everything.
20: Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
Let’s go back to the adventures happening on Earth and further continue the story of Ant-Man. This one happens right before the Infinity War.
21: Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
This is one of the biggest movies of MCU as it leaves a strong impact on all the characters and audiences. We get to see the power of all infinity stones coming together which eventually ends the movies on a sad note.
22: Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Our Ant-Man is the one gives hope to other main heroes left that they can still save the situation. Earth loses some very important heroes like Black Widow and Iron Man in order to bring others back to life.
23: Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Now this is a movie everyone has been waiting for as it follows the death of Tony Stark after Avengers Endgame and will also set context to next phase of Marvel Universe.
So that’s the order you need to follow. And once done, you should definitely watch WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier followed by Loki as they further continue the story of these heroes and adding up to phase 4 of Marvel.