MCU FAQ

Q: What is the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

A: The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a collection of films and television shows based on Marvel Entertainment comic books and characters that exist as part of a shared cinematic continuity.

Q: What productions comprise Marvel Cinematic Universe?

A: The Marvel Cinematic Universe is comprised first and foremost by all projects produced by Marvel Studios, beginning with 2008’s Iron Man. The MCU has grown to include projects produced by other Film Studios such as Sony Pictures, 20^th Century Studios, and the original version of Marvel Television’s now former Netflix shows (The Defenders Saga). This has primarily been achieved through the introduction of the MCU Multiverse, through an agreement between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures in 2015 that brought Spider-Man into the MCU, then The Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of 20^th Century Fox’s film division in 2019, which gave Marvel Studios creative control over the X-Men, Deadpool, and The Fantastic Four, and then the 2019 naming of Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige as the Chief Content Officer of Marvel Entertainment, which, among other things, merged Jeph Loeb’s Marvel Television with Feige’s Marvel Studios.

Q: What projects comprise The Infinity Saga?

A: Officially, The Infinity Saga is comprised of 23 Marvel Studios films from 2008-2019, and 13 television shows that were produced by the original version of Marvel Television for Netflix from 2015-2019.

The movies (in order of release) are Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Ant-Man (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Doctor Strange (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Two (2017), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), and Avengers: Infinity War (2019), and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).

The shows are Daredevil: Season One (2015), Jessica Jones: Season One (2015), Daredevil: Season Two (2016), Luke Cage: Season One (2016), Iron Fist: Season One (2017), The Defenders Mini Series (2017), The Punisher: Season One (2017), Jessica Jones: Season Two (2018), Luke Cage: Season Two (2018), Iron Fist: Season Two (2018), Daredevil: Season Three (2018), The Punisher: Season Two (2019), and Jessica Jones: Season Three (2019).

The television shows are not required viewing to understand the narrative of The Infinity Saga and this is why they have their own distinction as The Defenders Saga. While nothing in the television shows outright contradicts the movies, they were made without oversight from Kevin Feige and therefore serve as street-level deep-dives into the themes of the movies. None of The Defenders appear in Avengers: Endgame, which makes the shows feel rather inconsequential to the movie narrative, but a lot to appreciate can be found in the shows, particularly those that involve the Daredevil character.

Q: Why do many internet sites list additional television shows as part of the MCU (and specifically, The Infinity Saga) that you don’t?

A: Marvel Television was founded on June 28, 2010, and was overseen by longtime comic book writer Jeph Loeb. Initially, all Marvel Television productions were intended to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and early productions such as Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Marvel’s Agent Carter were promoted as such. Both of those series aired on ABC with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D lasting for seven seasons from 2013-2020, and Agent Carter lasting two. However, from its inception, a tremendous behind-the-scenes divide between Marvel Studios and Marvel Television existed and it worsened over time as the two divisions of Marvel live-action productions warred over plot points and character use. For instance, the Marvel Studios team weren’t thrilled with the resurrection of the Phil Coulson character (portrayed by Clark Gregg) after his death inspired the assembling of The Avengers in The Avengers, nor were they pleased with the TV side of things landing characters such as The Defenders and Ghost Rider after Marvel Entertainment regained the rights to them. Meanwhile, the Marvel Television team felt disrespected by Marvel Studios’ insistence on not referencing anything that happened on the small screen on the big screen. It was a tumultuous era, but it was not without its highlights. The First Season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actually tied-in wonderfully with the Hydra Uprising seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the first Season of Marvel’s Agent Carter was produced WITH Marvel Studios and beautifully enriched the Peggy Carter character (portrayed by Hayley Atwell). That being said, all of the tension came to a head in the Fall of 2015, with Kevin Feige reportedly threatening to quit, having grown tired of having to deal with Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter and his “Marvel Creative Committee”, which had wielded influence over the MCU since its inception. In response, Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger moved Marvel Studios out from underneath Marvel Entertainment, with Feige answering directly to Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn. Marvel Television continued making “MCU” projects such as Inhumans (2017), Runaways (2017-2019), and Cloak and Dagger (2018-2019), in addition to Legion (2017-2019), The Gifted (2017-2019), Helstrom (2020), and the animated shows M.O.D.O.K. (2021) and Hit-Monkey (2021), but were merged into Marvel Studios in 2019. With Feige now controlling the entire narrative, the Marvel Television projects were omitted from the Marvel Studios: The Marvel Cinematic Universe – An Official Timeline book, rendering them non-MCU / 616-Universe canon. In 2024, Marvel Studios Head of Streaming, Television, and Animation Brad Winderbaum officially canonized The Defenders Saga to the MCU 616-Universe and later that year, Marvel Television was revived as a division of Marvel Studios run by Winderbaum, but answering to Kevin Feige. As of Spring-2025, the older Marvel Television shows remain ignored as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Feige and his Marvel Studios team. Until they do acknowledge them in an official capacity, I won’t either.

Q: What projects comprise The Multiverse Saga?

A: The Multiverse Saga launched in 2021 after several delays due to the COVID-19 Global Pandemic. Originally, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Three was supposed to launch The Multiverse Saga and Phase Four of the MCU with it, but controversies pertaining to James Gunn changed that. Gunn was eventually rehired by Disney to make that film (which was released in 2023) in addition to a Holiday Special that was released during Christmastime in 2022. As it stand now in 2025, The Multiverse Saga is comprised of the following films and Disney+ live action television shows and specials produced by Marvel Studios: WandaVision (2021), The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (2021), Loki: Season One (2021), Black Widow (2021), Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), Eternals (2021), Hawkeye (2021), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Moon Knight (2022), Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), Ms. Marvel (2022), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022), Werewolf by Night (2022), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022), Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2023), Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Three (2023), Secret Invasion (2023), Loki: Season Two (2023), The Marvels (2023), Echo (2024), Deadpool and Wolverine (2024), Agatha All Along (2024), Captain America: Brave New World (2025), Daredevil: Born Again – Season One (2025), Thunderbolts* (2025), Iron Heart (2025), The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025), Wonder Man (2025), and the beyond-2025 upcoming television series Daredevil: Born Again – Season Two and the upcoming films Avengers: Doomsday (2026) and Avengers; Secret Wars (2027).

Multiverse Saga adjacent films include Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man Trilogy (2002-2007, made canon via the Multiverse due to the appearances of select characters in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home), Sony’s Spider-Man Universe which includes the Venom, Morbius , Madame Web, and Kraven films (made canon via the transporting of the Eddie Brock / Venom characters into the MCU 616-Universe, as seen in a Venom: Let There Be Carnage credits scene and then followed up on in a Spider-Man: No Way Home credits scene), the 13 Fox X-Men films from 2000-2020 (made canon in 2024’s Deadpool and Wolverine through references to the Wolverine character seen in those films and the – temporary – transporting of the Deadpool character from that Universe into the MCU 616-Universe), and Deadpool and Wolverine furthermore canonized the 2005 & 2007 Fantastic Four films with Johnny Storm’s appearance in the Void, the 2003 and 2005 Daredevil and Elektra films with Elektra’s appearance in the Void, the 1998-2004 Blade films due to Blade’s appearance in the Void), and the 2004 Punisher film due to the appearance of The Russian in the Void and an audible reference to The Punisher.

Q: So, what’s the deal with these older Marvel films anyway?

A: Back in the mid-1990’s Marvel founded Marvel Films (1993) in an effort to generate revenue and essentially avoid bankruptcy. Avi Arad was the inaugural Marvel Films / Marvel Studios President and to be completely fair, he and the aforementioned Ike Perlmutter essentially saved Marvel from oblivion with their financial and creative investments. In 1996, Marvel Films became Marvel Studios and arranged lucrative licensing deals that bestowed the rights to Marvel characters and concepts to various Movie Studios, including Fox (The X-Men, Daredevil and Elektra, The Fantastic Four, and Deadpool), Sony (Spider-Man and Ghost Rider), Blade (New Line Cinema), The Punisher (Lionsgate), and The Hulk (Universal). These deals included all supporting characters that applied to the main characters who debuted in their respective series’, including their main villains, i.e. Magneto and The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and The Hellfire Club (X-Men), Kingpin and Bullseye (Daredevil), Doctor Doom, The Silver Surfer, and Galactus (Fantastic Four), The Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, The Sandman, Venom, The Lizard, Electro, and J. Jonah Jameson (Spider-Man), and Jigsaw (The Punisher).

The films that ended up getting made were as follows: Blade (1998), X-Men (2000), Blade 2 (2002), Spider-Man (2002), Daredevil (2003), X2: X-Men United (2003), Hulk (2003), The Punisher (2004), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Blade: Trinity (2004), Elektra (2005), the made-for-TV film Man-Thing (2005), Fantastic Four (2005), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Ghost Rider (2007), Spider-Man 3 (2007), and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007).

These movies generated various levels of success and failures. The X-Men and Spider-Man films were the biggest Box Office hits, hence their continued existence following Marvel Studios’ declaration of independence in 2005.

Marvel Studios officially went independent in the Fall of 2005, procuring a lucrative $525 million loan from Merrill Lynch to produce their own films based on the characters they either still owned the licensing rights to, or rapidly regained: Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Nick Fury, and The Avengers as a team. Marvel Entertainment put up the licensing rights to several of their remaining characters as collateral, but it wouldn’t matter. The Studio grossed enough to cover the Merrill Lynch loan in 2008 alone, with the combined grosses of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk ($850 million). The Marvel Studios team were all set!

In the meantime, the Studios that still owned the licensing rights to various Marvel characters continued to make Marvel films. Initially, these projects were made with the input of Marvel Studios, but once Marvel Studios went independent, the Studios who produced these films did so on their own, though former Marvel Studios President Avi Arad did continue to work with Sony Pictures. Films that were churned out following the launch of the MCU included Punisher: War Zone (2008), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011), Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Wolverine (2013), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Fant4stic (2015), Deadpool (2016), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Logan (2017), Venom (2018), Dark Phoenix (2019), The New Mutants (2020), Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), Morbius (2022), Madame Web (2024), Venom: The Last Dance (2024), and Kraven (2024).

Q: What are the Marvel One-Shot’s?

A: Marvel One-Shot’s are short films that last somewhere between 5-15 minutes, including credits. These shorts were originally advised to add history to characters and context to storylines. Five One-Shot’s were produced by Marvel Studios from 2011-2013: The Consultant (2011), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer (2011), Item 47 (2012), Agent Carter (2013), and All Hail the King (2013).

Q: So, who is Kevin Feige anyway, and why is he so important?

A: Kevin Feige is the architect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first Marvel movie that he worked on was X-Men (2000) and he was hired by Avi Arad shortly thereafter to work for Marvel Studios due to his dedication, passion, and extensive comic book knowledge. When Avi announced his resignation as Marvel Studios President shortly after the Studio declared their independence, a quick decision was made to have Kevin Feige captain the ship. Having learned what did and didn’t work from Marvel Studios’ co-produced films from 2000-2007, Feige was ready, willing, and able to take the helm of Marvel Studios when the opportunity arrived. Feige championed the notion of a Shared Cinematic Universe, and from the outset, refused to shy away from the potential for The Avengers to assemble on-screen. Feige usurped Avi as Marvel Studios President in 2007, and the rest as they say, is history!

Q: What’s the Deal with Kang and The Multiverse?

A: I don’t really know!

The MCU narrative as it currently stands as I write this, suggests that when the Loki Variant known as Sylvie killed the entity known as He Who Remains (as seen in Loki: Season One and followed up on in Loki: Season Two), she unleashed the Multiverse, which had previously been abolished by He Who Remains after He won a Multiversal War against His time-traveling / warmongering (Kang) Variants. This exposed the “Sacred Timeline” to a Multiversal War that will threaten all of Reality, according to He Who Remain(ed). Newly reincarnated (for lack of a better word) Kang Variants, Incursions (the collision of two individual Universes that threatens the existence of one or both), and apparently Doctor Doom now threaten the stability of the Multiverse and Reality as we know it, with it. The Multiverse is in desperate need of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (The Avengers).

The time-traveling and warmongering Marvel character Kang the Conqueror was intended to be the “Big Bad” of The Multiverse Saga, but the actor cast to portray Kang and (all of) his Variants: Jonathan Majors (Loki: Season One, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, and Loki: Season Two) found himself in extensive legal trouble in 2023 due to a domestic violence incident with his then-girlfriend. Majors’ conviction combined with the disappointing critical and financial reception to Quantumania led Marvel Studios to cut ties with the actor and pivot to Marvel super-villain Doctor Doom (portrayed by Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr) as the new “Big Bad” of The Multiverse Saga, as announced at the 2024 San Diego Comic Con.

How this truly affects the overall MCU narrative remains to be seen. Did He Who Remains truly abolish the Multiverse when he created the “Sacred Timeline”, or did he merely isolate the 616-Universe from the greater Multiverse and hide away from His still-lingering Variants? Compelling cases have been made to support both sides, and we probably won’t know for sure until the release of Avengers: Doomsday in 2026 … even then, we, as fans, may never know how Marvel Studios really intended the convoluted Kang arc to play itself out.

Q: So, who is Doctor Doom anyway?

A: Victor Von Doom is arguably the greatest antagonist in the rich history of Marvel Comics. He was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, debuting in Fantastic Four # 5 in 1962. He is the arch-nemesis of The Fantastic Four (specifically Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic) but has had memorable stories with everyone ranging from Iron Man to Doctor Strange. He was a central character in writer Jonathan Hickman’s 2015 Events Series Secret Wars where he became “God Emperor Doom” and before that, in the original 1984-1985 Marvel Secret Wars series. Doom is an Emperor, a Sorcerer, and sometimes, even a (loose) hero. In the MCU, he is set to be the central figure to usurp Kang and cause stress to all of the Marvel Heroes throughout the Multiverse. Doom has been previously portrayed on-screen by Julian McMahon (Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer), and Toby Kebbell (Fant4stic), but, the general consensus is that the character has never been “gotten right.” Kevin Feige and his Marvel Studios team will attempt to do just that moving forward in an effort to simultaneously stick the landing of The Multiversal Saga, which up to this point, for one reason or another, has been a mixed bag financially, critically, and narratively.

Q: What is the “Sacred Timeline?”

A: The Sacred Timeline was a collection of Universes that shared the same baseline, organized and approved by the entity known as He Who Remains in order to prevent another Reality-threatening Multiversal War waged by His time-traveling and warmongering Multiversal Variants. The purpose of this arrangement was to ensure that no Variant of Himself would come to exist, and this consequently meant the prohibition of Free Will. HWR founded the TVA (Time Variance Authority) to police the Sacred Timeline. Anytime someone went against the predetermined script authored by He Who Remains, it was registered as a “Nexus Event” and the TVA arrested the entity and charged them with crimes against the Sacred Timeline. Any “Nexus Event” triggered the spawning of an unapproved Branched Timeline, which was subsequently reset (purged). Most of those arrested (dubbed Variants), were pruned (transported to the Void at the End of Time to serve as food for the Cloud Monster Alioth), though a select few had their memories erased and were reprogrammed to serve as Agents of the TVA.

The Sacred Timeline was ultimately compromised when He Who Remains was slain by the Loki Variant known as Sylvie after He gave her and Loki Variant L1130 (created during The Avengers’ Time Heist) the chance to take over for Him after eons of self-imposed servitude. Sylvie’s companion ended up besting He Who Remains by purposefully permitting the destruction of the all-important Temporal Loom (that began instantaneously overloading upon the death of He Who Remains and the consequent infinite Branching of the Sacred Timeline) and ascending to godhood after breathing life into the dying Timelines that comprised the Multiverse that was birthed and then fashioning them into a healthy system that physically resembled the World Tree: Yggdrasil of Asgardian lore and serving as their Guardian, taking the seat that once belonged to He Who Remains at the End of Time, with the TVA now essentially working for Loki, ensuring that the promised threat of another Multiversal War waged by the Variants of He Who Remains never comes to fruition.

Most of the MCU films and shows produced by Marvel Studios take place upon the Sacred Timeline, or as it is also referred to in-Universe, Earth-616, or the 616-Universe, but there are exceptions. The Loki series primarily takes place outside of time (at the TVA and in the Void), and beyond the 616-Universe while Deadpool and Wolverine primarily takes place either within the Void or another Universe: Earth-10005. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness offered glimpses into a variety of both similar and vastly different Universes, including the memorable Earth-838. The upcoming Marvel Studios film The Fantastic Four: First Steps will take place in another Universe entirely.

Sony’s Spider-Man films, The Fox X-Men movies, The Fox Fantastic Four films, New Line’s Blade movies, etc. all take place in different Universes.

Q: In What Order Should I Watch the MCU?

A: There are two answers to this. The first is chronological by the date of release. That starts with Iron Man in 2008 and will go through The Infinity Saga and then all the way up to Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027, to conclude the current Multiverse Saga. The other way is an in-Universe chronological viewing. For instance, this means watching 2011’s Captain America; The First Avenger (because it’s primarily set in the 1940’s) and 2019’s Captain Marvel (because it’s primarily set during the 1990’s) before watching 2008’s Iron Man (which launched the MCU and is set primarily in 2008). There is no right answer, it’s a matter of preference, but, in case you’re interested, here is my recommended in-Universe chronological MCU viewing for the most satisfying viewing experience (as of 2025):

# 1 – Captain America: The First Avenger (2011 – turn off after Steve goes into the ice and do not watch the credits, because of The Avengers)

… (Watch the Marvel One Shot: Agent Carter here) …

# 2 – Captain Marvel (2019 – do not watch the credits because of Avengers: Infinity War)

# 3 – Iron Man (2008)

# 4 – The Incredible Hulk (2008)

# 5 – Iron Man 2 (2010)

… (Wath the Marvel One-Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer here) …

# 6 – Thor (2011)

… (Watch the Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant here) …

… (Watch the end of Captain America: The First Avenger and its credits here) …

# 7 – The Avengers (2012)

… (Watch the Marvel One-Shot: Item 47 here) …

# 8 – Thor: The Dark World (2013)

# 9 – Iron Man 3 (2013)

… (Watch the Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King here) …

# 10 – Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

# 11 – Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

# 12 – Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Two (2014)

# 13 – Daredevil: Season One (2015)

# 14 – Jessica Jones: Season One (2015)

# 15 – Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

# 16 – Ant-Man (2015)

# 17 – Daredevil: Season Two (2016)

# 18 – Luke Cage: Season One (2016)

# 19 – Iron Fist: Season One (2017)

# 20 – The Defenders (2017)

# 21 – Captain America: Civil War (2016)

# 22 – Black Widow (2021 – do not watch the credits because of Avengers: Infinity War)

# 23 – Black Panther (2018)

# 24 – Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

# 25 – Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018 – do not watch the credits because of Avengers: Infinity War)

# 26 – The Punisher: Season One (2017)

# 27 – Doctor Strange (2016)

# 28 – Jessica Jones: Season Two (2018)

# 29 – Luke Cage: Season Two (2018)

# 30 – Iron Fist: Season Two (2018)

# 31 – Daredevil: Season Three (2018)

# 32 – The Punisher: Season Two (2019)

# 33 – Jessica Jones: Season Three (2019)

# 34 – Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

# 35 – Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

… (Watch the Ant-Man and The Wasp credits scenes here) …

… (Watch the Captain Marvel credits here) …

# 36 – Avengers: Endgame (2019)

… (Watch the Black Widow credits here) …

# 37 – Loki: Season One (2021)

# 38 – Loki: Season Two (2023 – don’t watch the credits scene because Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania)

# 39 – WandaVision (2021)

… Watch the Fox X-Men films (2000-2020), the 2005 and 2007 Fantastic Four films, the 2003 Daredevil and 2005 Elektra films, New Line’s three Blade films (1998-2004), and the 2004 Punisher film here if you want to take a deeper dive into the Multiverse …

# 40 – Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)

# 41 – Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

# 42 – The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (2021)

# 43 – Eternals (2021)

… Watch Sony’s 2002-2007 Spider-Man Trilogy, the 2012 and 2014 Amazing Spider-Man films, and 2018’s Venom and 2018’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage here if you want to take a deeper dive into the Multiverse …

# 44 – Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

# 45 – Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

# 46 – Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

# 47 – Hawkeye (2021)

# 48 – Moon Knight (2022)

# 49 – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

# 50 – Echo (2024)

# 51 – She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022)

# 52 – Ms. Marvel (2022)

# 53 – Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

# 54 – Werewolf by Night (2022)

# 55 – The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022)

# 56 – Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Three (2023)

# 57 – Ant-Man and The Wasp Quantumania

… (Watch the Loki: Season Two credits scene here) …

# 58 – Secret Invasion (2023)

# 59 – The Marvels (2023)

# 60 – Agatha All Along (2024)

# 61 – Daredevil: Born Again – Season One (2025)

# 62 – Captain America: Brave New World (2025)