Avengers film order: How will Phase 4 movies fit in the MCU timeline?

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been released in phases, though many may not have noticed. The most recent phase, Phase 3, brought to an end the journeys of many of our favourite superheroes, including Iron Man and Captain America. However, with more movies already in the pipeline, many will be wondering how the timeline will fit together.

{%=o.title%}

For fans wanting to watch the pre-existing movies in chronological order, this is pretty tricky.

There are certain films which do not necessarily have a definite time when they were meant to fit, while others are clear in their dates, eg. Captain Marvel takes place in the 1990s.

That being said, some have attempted to come up with lists on how fans can watch all the movies chronologically, so it is now possible.

Here is a list of when movies are set, and how to watch them chronologically.

Marvel Phase 4 timeline

Marvel Phase 4 timeline (Image: Marvel)

Captain America: The First Avenger (takes place during WWII)

Captain Marvel (takes place in 1995)

Iron Man (takes place in 2010)

Iron Man 2 (takes place after Iron Man)The Incredible Hulk (ambiguous, but before Avengers Assemble)

Thor (takes place six months before Avengers Assemble)

Avengers Assemble (takes place in 2012)

Iron Man 3 (takes place six months after Avengers Assemble)

Thor: Dark World (takes place after Avengers Assemble and before Age of Ultron)

Captain America: Winter Soldier (takes place after Avengers Assemble and before Age of Ultron)

Guardians of the Galaxy (takes place in 2014)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (takes place after GOTG 1)

Avengers: Age of Ultron (takes place in 2015)

Ant-Man (takes place in 2015)

Captain America: Civil War (takes place after Age of Ultron and before Infinity War)

Spider-Man: Homecoming (takes place after Age of Ultron and before Infinity War)

Doctor Strange (takes place in 2016)

Black Panther (takes place in 2017)

Thor: Ragnarok (takes place after Age of Ultron and before Infinity War)

Avengers: Infinity War (takes place in 2017)

Ant-Man and The Wasp (ambiguous, but between Infinity War and Endgame)

Avengers: Endgame (begins in 2017 and finishes in 2022)

Spider-Man: Far From Home (takes place after Endgame)

Black Widow is the first Phase 4 movie to come out

Black Widow is the first Phase 4 movie to come out (Image: Marvel)

For some of these, working out their date is a mix of chronology and release date, if there is no specific way to work out the exact date they take place.

But there are a whole bunch of films about to come out, including Black Widow – so where do these fit in?

Here are the movies set to come out in Phase 4:

Black Widow (November 6, 2020)

The Eternals (February 2, 2021)

Shang-Chi: And the Legend of the Ten Rings (May 7, 2021)

Spider-Man 3 (July 26, 2021)

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (November 5, 2021)

Thor: Love and Thunder (February 18, 2022)

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Image: Marvel)

There are also TV series within this, but it is easier to focus in on the movies at present.

One thing we know for certain is Black Widow takes place immediately after Captain America: Civil War.

In the movie, Natasha Romanoff (played by Scarlett Johansson) leaves when the Avengers have split up to complete some “unfinished business” back in Russia.

At the end of Civil War, she tells this to Captain America, so it’s fair to say this movie would take place concurrently with Spider-Man: Homecoming, which also takes place pretty much straight after Civil War.

For The Eternals, we know this takes place after Avengers: Endgame, as the official synopsis of the movie tells us so.

Doctor Strange's movie will likely be seen throughout time

Doctor Strange’s movie will likely be seen throughout time (Image: Marvel)

In the movie, the Celestials, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years, are forced to come out of the shadows.

This may be another which happens concurrently with a Spider-Man movie, though this one would be Spider-Man: Far From Home, which took place pretty much straight after Avengers: Endgame.

However, given the next phase continues the story on, it is likely this will sit just after Spider-Man: Far From Home in the story.

Spider-Man 3 will likely take place after Spider-Man: Far From Home, given the absolute bombshell dropped in the post-credits sequence.

In fact, it would not be surprising if the film picked up immediately where that movie left off, meaning it would take place concurrently or around a similar time to The Eternals.

Wanda and Vision will appear in the Doctor Strange movie

Wanda and Vision will appear in the Doctor Strange movie (Image: Marvel)

The Shang-Chi movie is likely to be an origin story, so there is no telling where it could fall in the timeline.

However, there are some more clues for Thor 4 and Doctor Strange 2.

As for Thor: Love and Thunder, this will take place after Avengers: Endgame, as it will feature the Guardians of the Galaxy in the movie.

At the end of Avengers: Endgame, Thor jumps into the ship with the Guardians, so they will likely be questing together after that took place.

With regards to Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, things are very complicated indeed.

Marvel Phase Four movies collected

Marvel Phase Four movies collected (Image: Marvel/Express)

This movie ties in directly with WandaVision and Loki, two Marvel TV series to air on Disney +.

The first sees Scarlet Witch attempting to keep living alongside Vision, despite his death in Infinity War.

The second is a series following Loki, where he uses the Tesseract to travel through time and alter history.

Of course, he was killed at the beginning of Endgame, so this is another case of people being brought back from the dead.

As a result of all this, the new Doctor Strange movie will likely see a great deal of jumping in time, and though it is set after Endgame, we may see some people from earlier movies which were not expecting.

Source link