Time for the Return
Hello everyone,
I will try to keep it short. I pretty much stopped watching Marvel movies after the Endgame. A lot of shows came out after and some more movies. I am trying to do a restart by starting from scratch. By scratch, I mean I have been following Disney's Movie Chronogical Order. I am currently at GotG II. Before I come to the Endgame or after the Endgame. Am I supposed to watch any shows? Is it necessary? Or continue to follow Disney's movie order? I want to be ready for next Avengers movie properly.
I just don't know if I will be able to dedicate myself to finish multiple seasons for each shows.
Thanks all!
I will try to keep it short. I pretty much stopped watching Marvel movies after the Endgame. A lot of shows came out after and some more movies. I am trying to do a restart by starting from scratch. By scratch, I mean I have been following Disney's Movie Chronogical Order. I am currently at GotG II. Before I come to the Endgame or after the Endgame. Am I supposed to watch any shows? Is it necessary? Or continue to follow Disney's movie order? I want to be ready for next Avengers movie properly.
I just don't know if I will be able to dedicate myself to finish multiple seasons for each shows.
Thanks all!
Commentaires
After Endgame, definitely watch Loki (both seasons). You should also watch WandaVision before Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. You don't have to watch the rest of the shows if you don't want to. If you like the Netflix Daredevil series, there's also a more recent sequel/reboot series called "Daredevil: Born Again".
You can skip **Cloak & Dagger**, **Runaways**, and **Helstrom** without any issue if you're just wanting the bigger movie connections. These don't really have any and likely won't.
You can skip **Inhumans**, but you will miss out on a cameo in a later entry if you do. If you don't care about small cameos, skip Inhumans. If you want to be able to get the fun out of that character's reappearance, watch the premiere or the finale of Inhumans, but don't bother with the rest.
**Agents of SHIELD** - This show will likely never be necessary to understand the plot of any of the movies, but it does give a lot of extra depth to the MCU, it makes the events of Dark World, Winter Soldier, Civil War, and Infinity War a little deeper, it fills in some plot holes or unanswered questions from Age of Ultron and Multiverse of Madness, and it's a generally great show. It takes a good number of episodes before it gets consistently great, but it's worth watching, IMO. But as already said, not at all necessary. If you do decide to tackle it, it's best watched in episode batches between the movies so that after you watch a movie, you get to see how it affected the characters in AoS, but since you're past all of the major crossovers at this point, I wouldn't begrudge you skipping that step if you decide to watch this show. Marvel knows that this show has a bunch of vocal fans, so it might get a shout-out in a future movie, but right now for your purposes, it just makes the story of Age of Ultron and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness make more sense.
**Agent Carter** - Worth watching if you really liked Agent Carter from Captain America: The First Avenger, but otherwise very skippable. Season 1 is important if you plan to watch Agents of SHIELD Season 7, but otherwise you won't really be missing anything if you skip this show. A character from this show appeared in Endgame, and Season 2 of the show gets the smallest of easter egg callouts in What If...? S3, but otherwise you can skip. Also, S2 ends in a bit of a cliffhanger, so if that would bother you, you can treat S1 as a standalone and skip S2.
**Daredevil** - Introduces the MCU's Daredevil who shows up in several other movies and shows, but the plot line of this show is really only important for The Defenders and Daredevil: Born Again. Note that if you decide to watch this show, watch The Defenders between S2 and S3. All three seasons are worth watching, but none of them are required viewing right now.
**Jessica Jones** - The general consensus is that most people love the first season and aren't terribly fond of S2 and S3. You'd be totally fine just watching the first season or skipping the whole thing. Not currently relevant to anything other than The Defenders and Luke Cage. Could probably get by watching a YouTube recap of the first season if you're not interested.
**Luke Cage** - Skippable but has ties to The Defenders, Iron Fist, and Cloak & Dagger. Not at all necessary for the movies right now. Could skip both seasons, just watch first season (since second ends in a small cliffhanger), or watch both. Could probably get by watching a YouTube recap of the first season if you're interested.
**Iron Fist** - First season is rough, but informs a lot for The Defenders. Second season is much better but extremely skippable. Overall not necessary at all. Not likely to be super relevant in the future. Could probably get by watching a YouTube recap of the first season.
**The Defenders** - This is the Avengers-esque teamup for Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. It's not the best, but it acts like S2.5 for Daredevil and S1.5 for Iron Fist. Otherwise not currently relevant.
**The Punisher** - Continues the story of The Punisher that began in Daredevil S2, but completely skippable if you wish.
**WandaVision** - Very important for informing Wanda's journey and setting things up for future movies and shows. Also just a really good show. Recommend watching.
**The Falcon and the Winter Soldier** - Pretty important for setting up or introducing characters for future projects.
**Loki** - Important for setting things up for the multiverse and future projects. Also just a really good show.
**What If...?** - Relevant for several of the animated shows, and possibly upcoming projects, but there's no guarantee of that. Pretty skippable right now.
**Hawkeye** - Introduces a character that shows up in the movies and sets things up for future shows, but unknown how relevant it will be to the upcoming movies. It's a really good show though.
**Moon Knight** - Completely skippable right now since we don't know when the characters introduced in it might show up again. That said, some people really like this show. The less you know about Moon Knight from the comics, the more likely you are to enjoy this show.
**Ms. Marvel** - Helps give some context for a later movie and a later show and answers an unanswered question from No Way Home, but otherwise technically skippable. I think it makes more sense to watch, but I think you could get by with skipping if you wanted.
**I Am Groot** - Fun little series but entirely skippable.
**She-Hulk: Attorney at Law** - Answers some lingering questions from Shang-Chi and some other general MCU questions and introduces some characters that might be important in the future, but no telling when that will be. Watch if you like getting that extra MCU depth; skip if you don't care.
**Werewolf By Night** - Very unlikely to be relevant for a while, but it's a great one-off special presentation.
**The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special** - It's a fun watch and sets things up well for Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3.
**Secret Invasion** - Might be important at some point in the future. But for the most part it just answers some lingering questions from earlier MCU projects and sets the tone for The Marvels and Captain America: Brave New World (more so the latter).
**Echo** - Semi-important for the events of Daredevil Born Again, but otherwise skippable.
**X-Men '97** - Extremely unlikely to be important to the MCU, but it's a great show if you watched the original.
**Agatha All Along** - Potentially important for future projects (likely shows rather than movies), but not currently relevant to anything after its events. It does explain what happened to a couple of characters after WandaVision though.
**Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man** - Arguably answers a couple of questions about Peter, his origins, Uncle Ben, and how he was able to operate as Spider-Man during the early days of the Sokovia Accords, and it might be important for Doomsday or Secret Wars, but as of right now completely skippable. (Though it's quite good when you get a few episodes in.)
**Daredevil Born Again** - Not currently necessary for anything, and its events aren't mentioned in the two movies that take place after it in the timeline, so currently skippable.
**Eyes of Wakanda** - Gives more explanation to the concept of the War Dogs, but if you don't care about that, you can skip.
**Ironheart** - Doesn't currently tie into anything, but it does progress a certain character's journey and ends in a place that will likely be followed up on at some point in the future.
Also if you haven't watched any of the One-Shots, this would be my recommendation for them:
**The Consultant** - Gives greater context to the final scene of The Incredible Hulk. Watch if you want a better understanding of that scene and more time with Coulson. I'd say this is the second most important One-Shot. Skippable, but does some good.
**A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer** - It's just an action scene for Coulson. Easily the most skippable of the One-Shots unless you just really like Coulson.
**Agent Carter One-Shot** - Watch if you liked Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger and want to see more of her, and if you don't plan on watching the Agent Carter show. The Agent Carter show references this One-Shot, but seems to contradict it at the same time, so if you're going to choose one or the other, I'd go with the show. Skippable.
**Item 47** - Gives you a little more time with Agent Sitwell to make the Winter Soldier twist even better (though you already get some extra Sitwell time in The Consultant too) and introduces a character who will later appear in Agents of SHIELD (though you don't need to watch this to understand his character if you decide to watch AoS), but otherwise it's just okay. Easily skippable.
**All Hail the King** - The most important One-Shot as it explains what happens to the fake Mandarin after the events of Iron Man 3, so you'll have better context for that character when he reappears.
If you decide which ones of these you want to watch, you can let me know and I'll make up a watch order for you that you can follow.
I was almost done with Agent Carter season 1, kind of lost interest.
Punisher is finished.
All the movies are done before The Multiverse Saga starts. Watching the One-Shots in order that Disney tells me. Finished X-men'97. It was amazing.
I guess anything that has a slight impact I especially for The Multiverse Saga, I would like to try to finish them up.
Sure thing! If you got most of the way through AC and then dropped it, I think you're probably good.
If you want to watch anything that might have a slight impact on the Multiverse Saga and you haven't gotten to GotG2 in your rewatch yet, I would recommend the following. This is roughly in release order except where it narratively makes more sense to watch them in a different order (note that "PCS" means post-credit scene; I'm just pointing out which episodes of the Disney+ shows have post-credit scenes so you don't have to look for them; there are a couple of other post-credit scenes that I didn't mention, but those are just announcements for upcoming seasons or clips taken from future projects):
* Agents of SHIELD S1 - Like I said earlier, it takes a while for this to get consistently good. I think the show becomes consistently good at episode 13 and consistently great at episode 16, but those first 12 episodes aren't all bad; they range from bad to pretty great (though they're all pretty good on rewatch when you understand what they're building to). So try to push through if you're not feeling it right away.
* Agents of SHIELD S2
* Daredevil S1
* Jessica Jones S1 - Can skip or just watch YouTube recap if preferred
* Agents of SHIELD S3
* Daredevil S2
* Luke Cage S1 - Can skip or just watch YouTube recap if preferred
* Agents of SHIELD S4
* Iron Fist S1 - Can skip or just watch YouTube recap if preferred
* The Defenders
* Inhumans - Only watch the premiere or finale
* Agents of SHIELD S5 - Doesn't tie into Multiverse Saga anymore, so you could skip this, but provides a conclusion to the show if you're still interested
* Daredevil S3
* Agents of SHIELD S6 - If you gave up after S4 or you liked how S5 ended the series, you can skip S6 and S7 (though I preferred S7's conclusion to the series, personally, and S6 and S7 still have some great episodes in them).
* Agents of SHIELD S7 - See above S6 note.
* Spider-Man: Far From Home
* WandaVision (1x7, 1x8, and 1x9 PCS)
* The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (1x5 and 1x6 PCS)
* Loki S1 (1x4 PCS)
* Black Widow
* Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
* Eternals
* Hawkeye S1 (1x6 PCS)
* Spider-Man: No Way Home
* Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
* Ms. Marvel S1 (1x1 PCS)
* Thor: Love & Thunder
* Werewolf By Night - Again, doesn't tie-in as far as we know, but worth watching despite that.
* She-Hulk: Attorney at Law S1 (1x1, 1x2, 1x3, 1x4, and 1x9 PCS)
* Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
* Ironheart S1 (1x6 PCS) - Skippable right now if you only want shows that connect back to the movies in some way.
* The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (PCS)
* Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
* Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
* Secret Invasion S1
* Loki S2 (2x1 PCS)
* The Marvels
* Echo S1 (1x5 PCS) - Skippable right now if you only want shows that connect back to the movies in some way.
* Deadpool & Wolverine
* Agatha All Along S1 - Skippable right now if you only want shows that connect back to the movies in some way.
* Captain America: Brave New World
* Daredevil Born Again S1 (1x9 PCS) - Skippable right now if you only want shows that connect back to the movies in some way.
* Thunderbolts*
* The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Let me know if you have any questions!
EDIT: Oh, and there's also several non-MCU Marvel movies that get referenced. Want me to incorporate them too?
EDIT2: I initially missed that you said you finished all of the Infinity Saga movies. So removing those from the order.
Here's an updated list including the non-MCU Marvel movies that affect the MCU movies or are referenced by them in some way or another. Also, because the Loki show involves the multiverse, and you need to have seen at least one of these movies before WandaVision (I won't say which one for spoiler purposes) for the reference to hit, I've actually moved my original placement of Loki to take that into account:
* Agents of SHIELD S1 - Like I said earlier, it takes a while for this to get consistently good. I think the show becomes consistently good at episode 13 and consistently great at episode 16, but those first 12 episodes aren't all bad; they range from bad to pretty great (though they're all pretty good on rewatch when you understand what they're building to). So try to push through if you're not feeling it right away.
* Agents of SHIELD S2
* Daredevil S1
* Jessica Jones S1 - Can skip or just watch YouTube recap if preferred
* Agents of SHIELD S3
* Daredevil S2
* Luke Cage S1 - Can skip or just watch YouTube recap if preferred
* Agents of SHIELD S4
* Iron Fist S1 - Can skip or just watch YouTube recap if preferred
* The Defenders
* Inhumans - Only watch the premiere or finale
* Agents of SHIELD S5 - Doesn't tie into Multiverse Saga anymore, so you could skip this, but provides a conclusion to the show if you're still interested
* Daredevil S3
* Agents of SHIELD S6 - If you gave up after S4 or you liked how S5 ended the series, you can skip S6 and S7 (though I preferred S7's conclusion to the series, personally, and S6 and S7 still have some great episodes in them).
* Agents of SHIELD S7 - See above S6 note.
* Loki S1 (1x4 PCS)
* Blade
* Blade II (optional)
* Blade: Trinity (optional)
* Daredevil (movie)
* Elektra (optional; probably the only sequel that I slightly recommend more than just an "optional if you feel like it and have time", but quality-wise it's still not great enough to just barely eke out above "optional")
* The Punisher (movie; optional)
* Fantastic Four
* Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (optional)
* Punisher: War Zone (optional)
* X-Men
* X2: X-Men United
* X-Men: The Last Stand
* X-Men Origins: Wolverine - could probably get by with watching a recap or something; it's the butt of many jokes in the Deadpool movies and so important for that reason, but otherwise skippable
* X-Men: First Class
* The Wolverine - really only need the post-credit scene to set things up for the next movie
* X-Men: Days of Future Past
* X-Men: Apocalypse (optional, but I think this makes as good a conclusion to this X-Men saga as we're going to get)
* Dark Phoenix (optional; could view it as a conclusion to this X-Men saga, but I personally thought it did a worse job than Apocalypse in every way)
* Deadpool
* Logan
* Deadpool 2 - Make sure you watch Logan before Deadpool 2 to avoid spoilers
* Venom - This movie doesn't affect the MCU at all, but its sequel does, so including this for completeness, but if you think you can just jump straight into the sequel to get the reference (honestly, the sequel's post-credit scene is all you need for the reference unless you want to watch the full movie for the full context), then you could potentially skip this one.
* Spider-Man: Far From Home
* WandaVision (1x7, 1x8, and 1x9 PCS)
* The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (1x5 and 1x6 PCS)
* Black Widow
* Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
* Eternals
* Hawkeye S1 (1x6 PCS)
* Venom: Let There Be Carnage
* Spider-Man: No Way Home
* Morbius (post-credit scene only; watching the full movie won't give you any more context, and this post-credit scene makes no sense given what we know, so you can skip it altogether if you want)
* Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
* Ms. Marvel S1 (1x1 PCS)
* Thor: Love & Thunder
* Werewolf By Night - Again, doesn't tie-in as far as we know, but worth watching despite that.
* She-Hulk: Attorney at Law S1 (1x1, 1x2, 1x3, 1x4, and 1x9 PCS)
* Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
* Ironheart S1 (1x6 PCS) - Skippable right now if you only want shows that connect back to the movies in some way.
* The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (PCS)
* Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
* Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
* Secret Invasion S1
* Loki S2 (2x1 PCS)
* The Marvels
* Echo S1 (1x5 PCS) - Skippable right now if you only want shows that connect back to the movies in some way.
* Deadpool & Wolverine
* Agatha All Along S1 - Skippable right now if you only want shows that connect back to the movies in some way.
* Captain America: Brave New World
* Daredevil Born Again S1 (1x9 PCS) - Skippable right now if you only want shows that connect back to the movies in some way.
* Thunderbolts*
* The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Most of the movies above that I labeled as (optional) are that way because they're direct sequels in the same continuity as a movie that impacts the main MCU in some way even though they themselves don't necessarily impact the MCU. Elektra is the one movie I labeled as optional that kind of does impact the MCU, but honestly you get almost all of the impact out of just watching the original Daredevil movie. Watching Elektra fleshes out the impact slightly more, but only just. And the two Punisher movies that I labeled as optional are because they're kind of referenced, but not in any plot-significant way, so you could skip them without missing anything as long as you know those movies exist.
Of course if you've already seen any of those movies that I've marked as optional, then that takes care of those potential issues.
The long answer is: The movies are written so that you can understand them without seeing the shows. Most of the shows are not even referenced beyond unimportant easter-egg-level details. The few with larger references in the films *so far* are Daredevil (39 episodes), WandaVision (9 episodes), Falcon & Winter Soldier (6 episodes), Loki (12 episodes), and Ms. Marvel (6 episodes), but the movies that refer to them still include enough exposition that you can understand the movies' stories if you haven't seen the shows.