Essential MCU Titles to Watch Before 'Avengers: Doomsday'

August 18, 2026 | 06:13 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - As December 18 creeps closer, Marvel and Disney have released a new list compiling 15 movies and series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to watch before Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters.

The list spans over 26 years of Marvel's backlog, with a couple released during the MCU's Infinity Saga and the Multiverse Saga—and two movies from before the MCU Phase One even kicked off in 2008 with Iron Man.

15 MCU Titles to Watch Before Avengers: Doomsday

Citing Forbes and the entertainment news website MovieWeb, here are 15 essential MCU titles to catch up to before the release of Avengers: Doomsday:

• X-Men (2000)
• X2: X-Men United (2003)
• Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
• The Avengers (2012)
• Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
• Avengers: Endgame (2019)
• Loki (2021)
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
• Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
• Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
• Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
• Thunderbolts* (2025)
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

Pre-MCU

The first two X-Men movies are likely included in the list since several of the original actors are returning to screen for Doomsday. These include Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier, Ian McKellen as Magneto, James Marsden as Cyclops and Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, who are all featured in X-Men (2002).

MCU Infinity Saga

After watching the two essential X-Men movies (it's really not necessary to tackle the lengthy X-Men franchise), you can finally enter the MCU. 

First on the list is the first installment of the Captain America movie, The First Avenger. The fact that Chris Evans will be back for Avengers: Doomsday to reprise his role as Steve Rogers has generated much excitement—and for some, contention—among MCU fans. It is also known from the Doomsday trailer that Rogers and his longtime beau Peggy Carter have a child together.

The two Avengers movies that closed the Infinity Saga are also firmly in the list, since they both contain key moments that set up the multiverse storyline: Steve Rogers going back in time and passing his Captain America mantle to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) dying to save the universe.

Loki

Loki is the only Disney+ series to be included in the Avengers: Doomsday pregame list, and it's not without reasons.

Without going into major spoilers for those who have missed watching the series upon release, the Tom Hiddleston-led show follows the 2012 version of Loki, who escaped captivity using the Tesseract. He is then captured by the Time Variance Authority, and his misadventures during the span of two seasons make for a great understanding of the multiverse. 

It is notable to mention that Thor (Chris Hemsworth), one of the biggest leads in Doomsday and the God of Mischief's brother, still believes Loki to be dead. 

MCU Multiverse Saga

After you're done being introduced to the concept of how the multiverse works in the MCU via Loki, it is now time to dip your toes into the saga.

Eight films are featured as essential viewing (or a rewatch, depending on how invested you are in the MCU), and it kicked off with the 2021 films Shang-Chi and Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) will make a confirmed appearance in Doomsday, unlike Spider-Man (Tom Holland), though No Way Home did feature a multiverse-heavy storyline. Other movies in the list with more multiverse stories but no confirmed appearances include Multiverse of Madness and Deadpool and Wolverine.

The other projects in the list seem to introduce characters more than they do storyline, as the Wakanda crew, the New Avengers, and Captain America all appear in the Doomsday trailers thus far.

At last, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is arguably the most important project to watch before Doomsday. This is the only introduction to the Fantastic Four in the MCU, and the end-credit scene features Doctor Doom himself.

Some Notable Absences

While the 15 MCU projects listed make for over 50 hours of content already, there are some notable absences in the list. Citing MovieWeb, X-Men: Days of Future Past acknowledges time-traveling and alternate universes in the X-Men timeline.

And, while the audience acknowledges that Robert Downey Jr. is reprising his role as Doctor Doom, the lack of Iron Man movies in the list may be a way for Marvel to avoid queries about why the Doomsday villain looks so much like Tony Stark, the beloved hero who died, permanently, at the end of Avengers: Endgame. 

Read: Marvel Drops New 'Avengers: Doomsday' Trailer at D23

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