**Disclaimer:** This is only my opinion, do not take it to heart!

I know this topic has been discussed countless times, and i have seen many people mention over 15+ projects as a "*must watch*" while others have said to not watch anything at all before Avengers: Doomsday.

A lot of people have stopped watching marvel media since Avengers: Endgame, but I hope this will allow anyone to get back in the loop in the best way possible, so yeah, tell a friend maybe, they might like it. Worth noting there are still many months ahead of us, so plenty of time each entry to watch without rush or worry!

Allow me some of your precious time as I come here to set the topic to rest and give my definitive but subjective list for what you actually need to watch after Endgame, with a focus on quality and emotional investment towards the characters.

# REASONING

You might be asking right now why there are only 4 movies and 1 TV show in the list, but think about it for a second, what characters are actually new relative to the last avengers movie? So I ended up with these:

* John Walker
* Yelena
* Red Guardian
* Shang-Chi
* Love
* Namor
* Gambit
* Joaquin Torres
* Sentry
* Reed Richards
* Sue Storm
* Johnny Storm
* Ben Grimm

And of course, Victor Von Doom himself.

From this I was able to get it down to 4 of the entries listed, as well as Thor: Love and Thunder, Deadpool and Wolverine and Captain America: Brave New World, so why did I not include them?

The roles of Love and Gambit in their respective movies are far too small to justify watching those in order to understand the two characters. I know the movie will fill in the gaps, and I'm a firm believer that Love will not play a part in the story other than what was shown in the second teaser, but don't get me wrong, I really loved Deadpool and Wolverine, but this list is the most condensed possible, and I will explain later on why it didn't make the cut. I did not watch the newest Captain America movie, so unfortunately I have no right to judge whether or not it's essential to understand not only the new falcon but the transition of Sam Wilson to his new role, specially since he hasn't formed his team yet and he took on the shield back in Endgame, so there has been a foundation for the character to become this way, but if you believe the movie should be included as a sixth entry on the list, that is completely valid! This is just my opinion based on what I know.

# LOKI

Now, why is Loki on the list then if he's not a new character? Loki died in Infinity War, and while the movie will certainly provide some context for this current iteration, it is simply too much exposition for people to understand right away. Loki is arguably the best Marvel Studios original TV show to ever release, especially with the second season, and that in itself is one of the reasons for including it here. I'm not going to go very deeply into the show, but it might have the best character development out of any character in Marvel Studios history, transforming a character we were all so familiar with, into the best version of himself, the one we all wish he would have become had he survived Infinity War. While Kang will no longer be the main villain of the saga, his presence as He Who Remains completely stole every scene he was in, even in retrospective knowing the actor will not return. Loki's role in Doomsday will definitely be important, and the show will help to elevate the upcoming movie and the emotional stakes it will bring between Thor and Loki. *I assure you brother... the sun will shine on us again.*

# SHANG-CHI

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings might seem like an odd choice. First, it's not a multiverse movie like Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, or one that plays into the multiverse aspect like The Marvels. However if we all look back to the old days of the Infinity Saga, you can see all the solo movies were actually just that, solo, and yet they perfectly fit into the saga as they introduced major characters of Infinity War and Endgame without doing too much at the same time, a big problem with multiple modern marvel projects, so as someone who sees the Infinity Saga as an almost perfect set of movies, where everything falls in place, I believe looking back at the old formula is exactly what led me to put Shang-Chi among the others, a very good standalone movie that gets you to learn and care about the newly introduced avenger, just like Iron-Man, Captain America, Thor, Ant-man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther and Captain Marvel before him.

# WAKANDA FOREVER

When we lost Chadwick Boseman, the future of black panther and the marvel cinematic universe was very uncertain and bleak, and a lot of people were conflicted on whether the character should be recast or allowed to rest, it might have been a controversial decision back then to pass on the mantle to Shuri instead, giving her one of most drastic shifts for any marvel character we have ever seen, but in retrospective, it wasn't a bad decision altogether, they decided to pay respect to the actor, allowing a different character to have their own character arc, which is valid. When people saw Infinity War, T'challa was the king of Wakanda and the black panther, while Shuri had a support role as Wakanda's princess and lead scientist. Like I said before, anything can be explained through exposition in Doomsday, but Wakanda changed so drastically that even casual viewers would feel like they missed something really important there. Shuri was a more laidback and jokey character which contrasted to T'challa's more serious nature, but now she's pretty much followed his footsteps in more ways than just a title, as she's lost her family. The movie itself is actually very good despite the new protagonist, and it introduces a whole new conflict for Wakanda in the form of Talokan and Namor, which will be key parts of Doomsday alongside Wakanda as we have seen in the fourth teaser. Shuri's lines in the teaser and the connotations behind it simply wouldn't carry the necessary emotional weight without watching this movie beforehand.

# THUNDERBOLTS

When more than a third of the cast for the next avengers movie is comprised of new characters, people may feel confused without watching multiple movies beforehand, but even if that didn't apply for Thunderbolts, I would still heavily recommend people to watch it outside of this list, being my second favorite marvel movie since Endgame outside of nostalgia fanservice. Right away, old marvel fans who are returning know Bucky too well, and will be reminded that Ant-man's second movie actually had an antagonist. This movie explores more of the winter soldier and ghost, but it also serves as a solid introduction of Yelena, Red Guardian and John Walker for those that didn't watch Black Widow or The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and further character exploration for those that did, giving both a lot to learn and enjoy out of it. This new team ends up becoming The New Avengers, which I believe is obvious as to why it would be on this list, and narratively, it has very compelling themes that makes it differ itself from movies with similar base concepts like DC's The Suicide Squad. For all that Marvel has been throwing out throughout the years, Thunderbolts is surprisingly mature as it deals with the themes of mental health, trauma, searching for purpose, and found family. A group of broken anti-heroes and former villains trying to redeem their past mistakes, end up helping each other and finding a sense of belonging as a new found family, and honestly they feel even more united than the original avengers team did, as it shows the difference between duty and found purpose. And the scene where they all hug Bob during his darkest moment was especially emotional and really hit me in the feelings, something marvel couldn't achieve on my end for anything post-endgame other than Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and Wakanda Forever. No less important, for the first time in years we get a post-credits scene that actually leads us to the next avengers movie, so that in of itself is yet another reason to have this movie as a must watch before Doomsday.

# FANTASTIC FOUR

First Steps is a movie that introduces the most important character of the next two avengers movies right after Doctor Doom, that being Reed Richards (aka Mr. Fantastic), the leader of the Fantastic Four. I believe the Latveria easter egg is meant to lead us in the right direction on what we can expect out of Dr Doom, and simply enough, he's from the same world as the rest of the F4, making his first appearance during the mid-credits scene. Build-up aside, while not a fantastic movie (*say that again?*), it's quite solid, and is one of the better marvel movies post-endgame. It mainly suffers from playing it too safe and not being longer, causing very much needed character interactions that were actually shot being cut from the final movie. Regardless, it features a very appealing retro-futuristic style based on the 1960's alongside a mix of cosmic dread, which I'm both quite fond of, and actually reminds me of the TVA (wondering if that will have any relevance later on), and the most visually stunning marvel movie I have ever seen, featuring themes of family, the fears that come with becoming a parent and the impossibly large dilemma of choosing between your own child and the salvation of humanity, so with a good story that gets you to care about its characters, it was truly an experience. Like the previous entry, this movie sets up the next avengers movie with not only its mid-credit scene, but notable dialogue about parallel universes and the son of Reed and Sue being set up as a possible MacGuffin for Doomsday due to Victor's interest in his immeasurable power. The rivalry between Reed and Doom has not been shown to us yet, however I remain hopeful that we will get context about that during Doomsday and Secret Wars, as it's truly a fundamental part of what makes the adapted storyline so iconic in the first place.

# ADDITIONAL NOTES

Most people might believe movies directly involved with the multiverse will be the most relevant to Avengers: Doomsday, however, the 4 movies on this list aren't multiverse movies, and I find it odd that characters like Spider-man, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel had their recent movies focus on the Multiverse, but they aren't confirmed to be in Doomsday, and with such a huge cast, I'm not expecting half a dozen characters being announced later on this year, although I want Strange to be in the movie due to his major involvement in the storyline from the comics.

Aside from the list, Deadpool & Wolverine and Spider-man: No Way Home are incredibly awesome multiverse related movies, but their main protagonists haven't been announced yet to appear in Doomsday, making these two movies not as relevant at least for now, and I don't believe anchor beings will be further explored. Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness is a good movie that suffers from trying to do too much, but gives a good explanation about the incursions that will be seen in Doomsday, setting-up that plot device for the next avengers movie, then The Marvels is a decent movie that features a multiversal rift to the x-men universe during its climax, which ends up being closed, setting up why the avengers and the x-men will meet up in Doomsday, although since none of its main protagonists are confirmed in Doomsday, we can't really consider it essential other than to set-up a plot device. As for Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania, I came into the theater with hope, and left disappointed, it definitely had the potential to be a really good movie and properly introduce the future main villain of the multiverse saga, but failed, and once again the marvel trailer editors have done an incredible job baiting us into overestimating a movie's quality before release.

The x-men movies came before Endgame, and we do not know anything in concrete other than what characters will feature in Doomsday, so I believe the first two x-men movies are enough to understand the basis of characters like Charles Xavier, Magneto, Cyclops, Beast, Nightcrawler and Mystique, but the choice is all yours though, watch to your heart's content!

I won't be talking about Secret Wars as that's its own multiversal can of worms and we will only truly know what to make out of it once the cast for that movie is properly announced.

I would really like to hear everyone's thoughts and opinions on this, do you agree or disagree with any of this, or is there anything you would change, or if there is anything else that makes this list appealing that I may have missed out, I'll be replying to comments on this thread during my spare time. Make sure to keep a healthy discussion!
The definitive watch list for Avengers: Doomsday (post-Endgame)