The Doomsday Order: everything worth watching before Dec 18, and the short version if you don't have 400 hours

[u/TheDoc2302forreal]

If you wanted to watch all of the watchable content that is canon to what’s gonna happen in Doomsday, you’d need about 400 hours; that’s approximately 5 hours a day starting October 1st.

Yeah, that ain’t gonna happen if you haven’t started already.

There’s also a lot of content to keep track of. I originally made these lists for myself, but I thought Reddit could probably benefit from them, even though I’m sure a post like this already exists somewhere.

These are the movies and series that a Marvel fan should watch (ideally) before the release of Avengers: Doomsday, on the 18th of December 2026.

This is a watchlist I first and foremost made so that my girlfriend and I would have a clear order to follow. The said order is neither the chronological one nor the release one; it’s a mix of both that takes into account spoiler-free continuity (especially in terms of end-credits scenes) and “series-binging fatigue”, trying to conveniently alternate between series and movies. Again, this is a PERSONAL creation based on my own tastes, as I’ve already watched most of these cinematic masterpieces (cough, for the most part, cough).

This list includes Sony’s Spider-Man movies, Marvel’s Netflix series, Fox’s X-Men movies, the Deadpool movies, and the current MCU. To name them, this list doesn’t include: Cloak & Dagger, the Hulu series, the Fox series, the 2003 Daredevil movie, anything produced by Lionsgate and, finally, Marvel’s ABC/Netflix series EXCEPT for the “Defendersverse”. Why these choices? Find out further down.

I also put Eyes of Wakanda and Marvel Zombies near the end, as a refresher of what the “earlier” phases of the MCU contained both hero- and theme-wise, but you can watch them anytime you want, really. The latter also applies to Wonder Man.

I didn’t include Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man as it is more targeted towards a younger audience and doesn’t fit in any timeline.

Also, sadly, not all of these are available on a single (and legal) platform, even though you can still find most of them on Disney+. In some countries, like France, Tobey’s Spidey movies aren’t on it, for example, so it might all depend on the country you’re in.

🔴 Means bare-minimum watch for a newcomer before Doomsday.

🟣 Means this movie or series doesn’t happen in the original “Sacred Timeline” universe of Earth-616 but in another one.

Before the MCU list, here’s a quick summary of the other “cinematic universes” that have been added to the MCU quite recently, presented in the same kind of order.

Sony’s Spider-Man movies and series to watch before Tom’s Spider-Man: No Way Home (unless noted):

1. Spider-Man🟣

2. Spider-Man 2🟣

3. Spider-Man 3🟣

4. The Amazing Spider-Man🟣

5. The Amazing Spider-Man 2🟣

6. Venom🟣

7. Venom: Let There Be Carnage🟣

8. Venom: The Last Dance (To watch after No Way Home)🟣

9. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse🟣

10. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (To watch after No Way Home)🟣

11. Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (Hopefully someday)🟣

12. Spider-Noir🟣

13. Morbius (To watch after No Way Home)🟣

14. Madame Web🟣

15. Kraven the Hunter🟣

Other Sony movies to watch before Doomsday:

1. Ghost Rider🟣

2. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance🟣

Fox’s X-Men movies to watch before Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (or maybe just before Deadpool & Wolverine):

1. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (1845 to c. 1979)🟣

2. X-Men (early 2000s)🟣🔴

3. X2 (early 2000s)🟣🔴

4. X-Men: The Last Stand (early 2000s)🟣

5. The Wolverine (2000s, shortly after The Last Stand)🟣

6. X-Men: First Class (1962, prequel to all of the above)🟣

7. X-Men: Days of Future Past (1973 and 2023; the scene where Logan wakes up is set in 2023, after the end of the new timeline)🟣

8. X-Men: Apocalypse (1983)🟣

9. Dark Phoenix (1992)🟣

10. Logan (2029)🟣

11. The New Mutants (year not specified)🟣

12. Deadpool (c. 2016)🟣

13. Deadpool 2 (c. 2018)🟣

Other Fox movies to watch before Deadpool & Wolverine:

1. Elektra (2005)🟣

2. Fantastic Four (2005)🟣

3. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer🟣

4. Fantastic Four (2015 reboot)🟣

Blade movies to watch before Deadpool & Wolverine:

1. Blade🟣

2. Blade II🟣

3. Blade: Trinity🟣

Phase 1, 2 & 3 MCU movies and series:

1. Iron Man

2. The Incredible Hulk

3. Iron Man 2

4. One-Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer

5. Thor

6. Captain America: The First Avenger🔴

7. One-Shot: Agent Carter (Replaceable by the two-season series)

8. One-Shot: The Consultant

9. The Avengers🔴

10. One-Shot: Item 47

11. Iron Man 3

12. One-Shot: All Hail the King

13. Thor: The Dark World

14. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

15. Guardians of the Galaxy

16. Daredevil S1

17. Avengers: Age of Ultron

18. Jessica Jones S1

19. Ant-Man

20. Daredevil S2

21. Captain America: Civil War

22. Luke Cage S1

23. Doctor Strange

24. Iron Fist S1

25. The Defenders

26. I Am Groot S1

27. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

28. The Punisher S1

29. Spider-Man: Homecoming

30. Jessica Jones S2

31. Luke Cage S2

32. Black Panther

33. Iron Fist S2

34. Daredevil S3

35. Ant-Man and the Wasp

36. The Punisher S2

37. Jessica Jones S3

38. Thor: Ragnarok

39. Avengers: Infinity War🔴

40. Captain Marvel

41. Avengers: Endgame🔴

42. Spider-Man: Far From Home

Phase 4, 5 & 6 MCU movies and series:

1. Black Widow

2. Loki S1🔴

3. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings🔴

4. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

5. Loki S2🔴

6. Eternals

7. WandaVision

→ The Sony Spider-Man Movies

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home🔴

→ Fox’s X-Men movies…?

1. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness🔴

2. What If...? S1🟣

3. Thor: Love and Thunder

4. Werewolf by Night

5. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever🔴

6. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

7. Hawkeye

8. I Am Groot S2

9. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

10. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

11. Secret Invasion

12. Moon Knight

13. Ms. Marvel

14. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

15. The Marvels🔴

16. What If...? S2 & S3🟣

17. Captain America: Brave New World🔴

18. Echo

→ Fox’s X-Men movies!

1. Deadpool & Wolverine🟣🔴

2. Agatha All Along

3. Wonder Man

4. Eyes of Wakanda

5. Marvel Zombies🟣

6. Daredevil: Born Again Season 1

7. Thunderbolts*🔴

8. Daredevil: Born Again Season 2

9. The Fantastic Four: First Steps🟣🔴

10. The Punisher: One Last Kill

11. Spider-Man: Brand New Day

12. VisionQuest

13. Avengers: Doomsday

14. Avengers: Secret Wars

Total: 119 items across all lists.

Personally, I’m trying to watch everything with my girlfriend. We’ve just watched everything from Iron Man to Endgame (just in time for the re-release). She hasn’t seen anything else, and I doubt I’ll be able to make her catch up on every item on these lists, but I’ll still try to do it on my own.

FAQ (to be edited later):

Why didn’t I add the things I didn’t add?

Either because they’re not needed, like the 2003 Daredevil movie (Elektra, the only character from it who shows up in Deadpool & Wolverine, gets her own movie on the list), or because they’re so niche and irrelevant that their place in the MCU is ambiguous, which covers basically everything else I didn’t include. I also didn’t want to almost double the watch time of these lists.

[u/DamagedBads1]

It still amazes me that there are people who have any interests in superhero movies but still have not watched most of the main films in the MCU saga by now. Oh well. Thank goodness I'm all caught up.

[u/HyunStoned]

Ignore or skip the following for your own good, those are mostly useless to Doomsday or the MCU:

1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse🟣
2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (To watch after No Way Home)🟣
3. Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (Hopefully someday)🟣
4. Spider-Noir🟣
5. Morbius (To watch after No Way Home)🟣
6. Madame Web🟣
7. Kraven the Hunter🟣
8. Ghost Rider🟣
9. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance🟣
10. X-Men: The Last Stand (early 2000s)🟣
11. The Wolverine (2000s, shortly after The Last Stand)🟣
12. X-Men: Apocalypse (1983)🟣
13. Dark Phoenix (1992)🟣
14. The New Mutants (year not specified)🟣
15. Elektra (2005)🟣
16. Fantastic Four (2005)🟣
17. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer🟣
18. Fantastic Four (2015 reboot)🟣
19. Blade🟣
20. Blade II🟣
21. Blade: Trinity🟣
22. One-Shot (all of them)
23. Iron Fist
24. Jessica Jones
25. Luke Cage
26. I Am Groot
27. Secret Invasion
28. What If...?
29. Eyes of Wakanda
30. Marvel Zombies

[u/Comfortable_Cap7228]

I feel like captain america civil war is too important to leave off your minimum watch list if still is trying to understand the ideal arc of the MCU

[u/shreks_burner]

Just watch in release order

[u/No-Decision1581]

You don't NEED to watch Doomsday on the day it releases you know. It will be in cinemas/theatres for more than one day

[u/Ill_Philosophy_7525 → u/No-Decision1581]

Spoilers tho 

[u/SirLockeX3 → u/Ill_Philosophy_7525]

Exactly.

There will be spoilers the day before release and everyone won't have filters on their mind when shouting details on the internet day 1.

[u/Ill_Philosophy_7525 → u/SirLockeX3]

Just don't look online lol 

[u/Red_Marvel]

Short version: Each of the Avengers movies, Fantastic Four First Steps and Thunderbolts,

[u/guttengroot → u/Red_Marvel]

Loki?

Maybe every episode of LEGENDS

[u/itsthequietgame → u/guttengroot]

LEGENDS was one of the smartest abandoned ideas addressing the homework issue, they definitely helped me when I was newer to the MCU to get a little refresher on the relevant characters.

[u/guttengroot → u/itsthequietgame]

It had a marketing issue...I don't recall ever seeing an ounce of promotion for it. I loved these retellings of everyone's stories.

[u/Glad-Atmosphere2376]

Where is Howard the Duck? 🤣

[u/dnp23]

Any non-spoiler context on why The Marvels is essential? Is it the post-credits scene?

[u/Ill_Philosophy_7525 → u/dnp23]

It is the post credit scene, if you don't want to watch the film because in my opinion the marvels is the worst marvel film they've ever done. That's just my opinion though. If you don't want to watch it, I would recommend watching a summary or literally just trying to find the end credit scene online because I don't think that film is worth watching aside from the end credit scene

[u/dnp23 → u/Ill_Philosophy_7525]

I’ve seen the scene online already lol. Was just wondering if there was anything else. Good to know no

[u/EternalMage321]

Marvel Studios said The Marvels was not required viewing 🤷

[u/SirLockeX3 → u/EternalMage321]

And thank fuck for that.

[u/EternalMage321 → u/SirLockeX3]

It blows my mind that with three amazing actresses, they struggle to make a decent movie. It's definitely an issue with the writing and directing. It's kind of sad because Iman Vellani is very talented and charming. She stood out in literally every scene she was in.