Marvel's Official List Of MCU Titles To See Before Doomsday Confirms 7 Harsh Realities
The road to Avengers: Doomsday has been charted by Marvel, but the official list of MCU projects to watch before the upcoming blockbuster unearths some harsh realities. There are only four months to go until Marvel Studios brings Robert Downey Jr. back in the new role of Doctor Doom and has him fight the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men. With time counting down until Doomsday's debut, preparations for it are becoming more important.
Plenty of fans have already embarked on Marvel movie rewatches to get ready, pulling in Fox's X-Men franchise and more non-MCU titles to see every potentially relevant title. But trying to watch dozens of films, and even more TV shows, can be difficult. And while we've offered our take on the MCU movies and shows to watch before Doomsday, Marvel Studios has provided its official rundown of the recommended "homework."
There are officially 15 MCU titles on Marvel's Doomsday watch list for Disney+. The titles are X-Men and X2 from Fox's franchise, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Loki, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Black Panther: Wakanda Foreve, Captain America: Brave New World, Deadpool & Wolverine, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
A lot of these being included make sense, but what titles weren't chosen and the rationale behind which were is notable. Marvel and Disney have confirmed a few harsh realities about the state of the MCU and the path we're on with Doomsday.
7 Only 1 MCU Disney+ TV Show Is Essential To Avengers: Doomsday
Disney+ shows became a major focus for Marvel Studios after Avengers: Endgame thanks to Disney's emphasis on their biggest brands creating original content for its streamer to attract and sustain subscribers. There have been 21 seasons of television released so far, a count that will be up to 22 by the time Doomsday gets here. Despite all the attention and resources Marvel Studios poured into these shows, only 1 of 19 MCU Disney+ shows is apparently worth watching.
Loki is the only MCU Disney+ show listed here. The WandaVision trilogy is irrelevant, as are seasons of Daredevil: Born Again. Characters like Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Echo, and Wonder Man won't matter or factor into Doomsday, it seems. It's no wonder then that Marvel Studios is scaling back on its Disney+ output. They are largely proving to be stories audiences don't need to see.
6 No Thor Movie Has Made Marvel's List
As an original Avenger, Thor walks into Doomsday as one of the characters audiences know best of all. The movie's marketing has positioned him as a main character, with some reports suggesting he's the second lead, behind only Doctor Doom. Despite the central focus he's poised to receive, his up-and-down solo movie franchise was completely ignored.
It's a surprising outcome for Thor, as even Steve Rogers got one of his movies included: Captain America: The First Avenger. With Thor set to return with his adopted daughter Love and a rebuilt Mjolnir, there are reasons to think Thor: Love and Thunder would be essential to understanding Doomsday. Clearly Marvel does not agree.
5 Ant-Man Was Supposed To Be Key To The Multiverse
The disrespect Thor's franchise got is bad, but Ant-Man's trilogy getting shut out of Marvel's list is much worse. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania gave him a greater awareness of the multiverse and introduced him to Kang the Conqueror, positioning him as one of the Multiverse Saga's most important characters.
The lack of his movies, especially Quantumania, in this list likely speaks to a reduced role for him in Doomsday. Marvel having viewers skip over the project that most emphasizes Kang's original purpose as the Multiverse Saga's big bad makes sense. However, it feels worse for Ant-Man after Quantumania's poor reception.
4 Despite The List, Several Movies Don't Feel Essential
This list also leaves lots of questions about whether certain movies included really are essential to Doomsday. Several feel like they've been included just because it is the last time specific heroes appeared. Captain America: Brave New World, for instance, might have Sam Wilson step into the Captain America mantle officially, but the specifics of its story are unlikely to actually play a factor.
Meanwhile, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness seem to have been included solely because they tie into the multiverse. Tom Holland's Spider-Man and Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange aren't confirmed to be among Avengers: Doomsday's cast list, so these are only "essential" for providing some basic setup for incursions.
3 The Multiverse Saga Didn't Lead Up To Doomsday Well
Overall, this list shows how poorly Marvel Studios built up to Doomsday. Of the 15 movies released in the Multiverse Saga, seven are missing. That means nearly half of the MCU's output in recent years has no bearing on what is about to happen. This, again, could be attributed to the changes Marvel made after Jonathan Majors' firing, but it is a harsh reality of the MCU's state nonetheless.
Look back at Phase 3, for example. The six movies released before Avengers: Infinity War and the two released between it and Endgame all helped pave the way to the Avengers' multiple battles with Thanos. Some were more important than others, but you can't say half of them didn't matter, as Marvel has done with its Multiverse Saga movies.
From “I Am Iron Man” to “I Am Inevitable” · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know the MCU? “Whatever it takes.”
🤖Phase OneRDJ & the founders, 2008
🛡The AvengersWhedon’s team, 2012
💎Infinity SagaThanos & the stones
⚡EndgameWhatever it takes, 2019
🌏MultiversePhase 4–6, 2021–
01
Iron Man (2008) is, in retrospect, the most consequential casting decision in modern blockbuster history — but at the time Marvel Studios and parent company Paramount were openly hostile to director Jon Favreau’s push for the lead actor he eventually got. Favreau later said he had to fight “tooth and nail” and the actor had to do a paid screen test, a screen-test deal almost unheard of for an A-lister. What was the executive objection to him?
✓ Correct! Robert Downey Jr. had been arrested multiple times between 1996 and 2001 on drug and weapons charges, served roughly a year in California state prison (1999–2000), and was fired from Ally McBeal in 2001 after relapsing. By 2007 he’d been clean for several years, but Marvel/Paramount considered him essentially uninsurable for a $140 million tent-pole. Favreau pushed for him over studio favourites Tom Cruise (who’d had Iron Man development at Fox years earlier) and Sam Rockwell (who’d later play Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2 as a consolation). RDJ took a reported $500,000 base salary — less than Terrence Howard, whose role he then permanently overshadowed.
✗ Wrong. The answer is his arrest history. RDJ had drug-related arrests from 1996–2001, served prison time in 1999–2000, and was fired from Ally McBeal in 2001 — which made him uninsurable in studio terms even though he’d been sober for several years by 2007. Favreau fought for him over Tom Cruise and Sam Rockwell, and RDJ took a reported $500,000 base salary — less than co-star Terrence Howard.
02
The Avengers (2012) — the film that proved the shared-universe model could work, grossed $1.52 billion, and ended Phase One with Loki, Thanos’s mid-credits reveal, and the “swarm shot” of the team rotating in Manhattan — was written and directed by a TV showrunner best known at the time for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. Name him.
✓ Correct! Joss Whedon. Marvel hired him in mid-2010 partly on the basis of his uncredited script rewrites and his comfort writing ensemble team dynamics from Buffy/Angel/Firefly. He directed The Avengers (2012) and the follow-up Age of Ultron (2015), then exited the MCU and Marvel handed the next two Avengers films to the Russo brothers. The three other directors named all really did make Phase One films: Favreau directed Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2010), Branagh directed Thor (2011), and Joe Johnston directed Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) — which is why this question separates Phase One trivia from Avengers-specific trivia.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Joss Whedon — hired largely on the strength of Buffy, Firefly, and uncredited Hollywood script work. The three wrong options are deliberately all real Phase One MCU directors: Favreau did Iron Man 1 & 2, Branagh did Thor (2011), and Joe Johnston did The First Avenger (2011). Whedon directed Avengers (2012) and Age of Ultron (2015) before exiting the MCU.
03
Marvel co-architect Stan Lee (1922–2018) appeared in every theatrical MCU film from Iron Man (2008) onward, even shooting cameos in advance to outlast him. He died on November 12, 2018. In which film does his final filmed MCU cameo appear — as the long-haired young driver of a 1970 car bearing the bumper sticker “NUFF SAID”?
✓ Correct! Avengers: Endgame (April 2019). Lee appears digitally de-aged behind the wheel of a 1970 Chevy at the New Jersey army base where Tony Stark and Steve Rogers travel back to retrieve the Tesseract; he shouts “hey man, make love, not war!” The cameo was filmed before Lee’s death and confirmed by the Russos as his final filmed MCU appearance, although the next-released film, Spider-Man: Far From Home (July 2019), became the first MCU film with no Stan Lee cameo at all. Captain Marvel (March 2019) has him reading the script for Mallrats on the L.A. train and was the first posthumously-released cameo, but Endgame was the last one he actually shot.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Avengers: Endgame — the de-aged hippie-era driver in the 1970 New Jersey time-heist scene. Captain Marvel (March 2019) was the first cameo to release posthumously, but Endgame (April 2019) was the last one Lee actually filmed. Spider-Man: Far From Home (July 2019) became the first MCU film with no Stan Lee cameo at all.
04
Across Phase One through Three, each Infinity Stone is hidden inside a distinctive container before being claimed for Thanos’s Gauntlet. The blue Space Stone is housed inside a glowing cube that originates with the Asgardians, is recovered by Howard Stark from the wreckage of the Red Skull’s plane, is taken to Asgard by Loki in 2012, and is finally retrieved by Hulk on Sakaar before falling to Thanos. What is that container called?
✓ Correct! The Tesseract — the blue cube that houses the Space Stone — first appears in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), powers the portal Loki opens over Manhattan in The Avengers (2012), and is destroyed by Thanos in Infinity War (2018) when he crushes it to claim the stone inside. The wrong options are all real Infinity Stone containers from the MCU: the Aether (red liquid form) houses the Reality Stone in Thor: The Dark World, the Orb houses the Power Stone in Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Eye of Agamotto houses the Time Stone in Doctor Strange. So all four answers refer to genuine stone containers — only the Tesseract holds Space.
✗ Wrong. The answer is the Tesseract. The trap is that all four options are real Infinity Stone containers: the Aether holds Reality (Thor: The Dark World), the Orb holds Power (Guardians of the Galaxy), and the Eye of Agamotto holds Time (Doctor Strange). Space — the blue stone shown in Cap’s 1942 plane wreckage and Loki’s 2012 invasion — is the Tesseract.
05
In Avengers: Infinity War (2018), the Soul Stone is hidden on Vormir and guarded by a Stonekeeper — revealed to be a cursed Red Skull. To claim it, the seeker must sacrifice the person they love most by throwing them from a cliff. Thanos arrives on Vormir with one adopted daughter, weeps, and pushes her over the edge. Which character does Thanos sacrifice to obtain the Soul Stone?
✓ Correct! Gamora (Zoe Saldaña). Thanos forces her to lead him to Vormir because Nebula has earlier revealed under torture that Gamora knew the Soul Stone’s location all along. The scene is the emotional pivot of Infinity War: it confirms that Thanos really does love Gamora, which means the sacrifice qualifies. In Endgame (2019), a 2014 version of Gamora returns through time travel with her father — meaning Gamora-of-Infinity-War remains dead at the end of the saga, while a different Gamora wanders the cosmos in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Nebula is alive throughout Infinity War; Mantis survives Vormir entirely; Proxima Midnight is one of Thanos’s Black Order children, killed in the Battle of Wakanda.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Gamora. Nebula is alive throughout Infinity War (she’s the one whose torture reveals Gamora knew where the stone was hidden). Mantis isn’t on Vormir. Proxima Midnight is Thanos’s adopted daughter via the Black Order, not via Zen-Whoberi, and is killed during the Battle of Wakanda by Scarlet Witch. Thanos sacrifices Gamora — the only adopted daughter he genuinely loves.
06
In Avengers: Endgame (2019), Steve Rogers travels back in time to return the Infinity Stones, then chooses to remain in the past and live out a life with Peggy Carter. He returns to the present as an old man, sits on a bench by the lake at the Avengers compound, and hands his vibranium shield to a younger Avenger as the symbolic transfer of the Captain America identity. To whom does Steve give the shield?
✓ Correct! Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) — the Falcon. The choice deliberately bypasses Bucky, the original comics successor, because the Russos and screenwriters Markus & McFeely wanted the moment to read as a deliberate, racially-charged passing of an American icon rather than the obvious comics-canon handoff. The thread is then picked up directly in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Disney+, 2021), in which Sam initially gives the shield to the Smithsonian, sees the government install John Walker as a replacement Cap, and ultimately takes the mantle himself — setting up Captain America: Brave New World (2025) with Mackie as the franchise’s new lead.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Sam Wilson, the Falcon. In the comics Bucky is the classic Cap successor, but the Russos and screenwriters Markus and McFeely deliberately picked Sam instead — a choice the entire Falcon and the Winter Soldier series (Disney+, 2021) then unpacks before Mackie carries it into Captain America: Brave New World (2025).
07
After Endgame, Marvel Studios’ Phase Four launched the MCU on Disney+ with a sitcom-pastiche limited series in which Wanda Maximoff and a resurrected Vision live inside a reality-warping suburban hex. Each episode parodied a different era of US TV sitcom — The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, Family Ties, Modern Family. The show premiered January 15, 2021 and ran nine episodes. Which series was it — the first MCU project on Disney+?
✓ Correct! WandaVision (January 15 – March 5, 2021), created by Jac Schaeffer and directed by Matt Shakman. It launched Phase Four, earned 23 Emmy nominations, and effectively rebooted Wanda Maximoff as the Scarlet Witch ahead of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). The Falcon and the Winter Soldier followed it in March 2021 — not first — and Loki landed in June 2021. Hawkeye is the 2021 Christmas series with Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld. The original launch order was WandaVision → FATWS → Loki → What If...? → Hawkeye, and WandaVision’s sitcom format remains the boldest swing of the Disney+ era.
✗ Wrong. The answer is WandaVision (January 15, 2021), the first MCU show on Disney+ and the launchpad for Phase Four. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier came in March 2021, Loki in June 2021, and Hawkeye in late 2021. The sitcom-pastiche structure — Dick Van Dyke through Modern Family — is unique to WandaVision.
08
At the closing panel of San Diego Comic-Con on July 27, 2024, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige brought the Russo brothers back on stage to announce a new title for the next Avengers film — previously labelled “The Kang Dynasty” before Jonathan Majors’s December 2023 conviction forced a pivot — and then unmasked a cast of actors wearing green hoods. The final hood came off Robert Downey Jr. RDJ is returning to the MCU, but not as Tony Stark. As whom?
✓ Correct! Doctor Doom — Victor von Doom, the Latverian dictator and Reed Richards’s lifelong nemesis, generally considered Marvel’s greatest comics villain. The next Avengers film, originally announced as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, was retitled Avengers: Doomsday after Jonathan Majors was dropped as Kang following his December 2023 assault conviction. Doomsday is scheduled for May 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars to follow in May 2027 — both directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, returning to the MCU after Endgame. The in-universe explanation for RDJ playing Doom rather than Stark hinges on the multiverse: Doom is being positioned as a variant of Stark from another timeline.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Doctor Doom. The film was retitled from Avengers: The Kang Dynasty to Avengers: Doomsday (May 2026) after Jonathan Majors was dropped, and the Russos returned to direct. RDJ’s casting as Doom — rather than as Tony Stark — is being explained in-universe via the multiverse: Doom as a Stark variant from another timeline.
The Stones Are Cast · Final Scorecard Your Avengers Standing
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/ 8
A worthy Avenger — or dusted in the snap?
This feels especially notable with movies like The Marvels. The film's ending transported Monica Rambeau to an alternate universe where she met a variant of her mother as a mutant working alongside X-Men member Beast. There was no other way to interpret the scene than a tease for the upcoming Avengers movies and dealing with incursions. It being left off the list in particular shows Marvel's poor planning.
2 Captain Marvel, The Guardians, Eternals, & More Have Uncertain Outlooks
In a similar vein, Marvel's list has made it clear that several characters have no immediate future in the MCU. Neither of Captain Marvel's movies was included, and none of the Guardians of the Galaxy's films were either. Eternals got left off, too. Add in all the characters from the Disney+ shows, and there is a litany of MCU characters who apparently have no place in what the MCU is currently doing.
There is always a chance that some of these characters could still pop up in Doomsday, and Marvel isn't listing their appearances to preserve the surprise. But even in that instance, the idea that Captain Marvel, the Guardians, and others have roles that don't require audiences having seen their films before speaks volumes about how actively involved they are.
1 Phases 2 & 3 Are (Mostly) Inconsequential To The MCU Now
It is also notable that the MCU has made so many of its earlier movies and Phases not matter for the present. On one hand, it makes sense considering we're 38 movies deep into this shared universe. A lot of older characters have left the franchise and new heroes have stepped up. But while each Phase in the Multiverse Saga is represented in the list, Phase 2 is the only one with zero titles.
That makes Avengers: Age of Ultron the only Avengers film missing. Sequels for Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor are overlooked, as are franchise starters for Ant-Man and the Guardians of the Galaxy. It's a notable oversight for Phase 2 considering even Phase 1 got two movies.
Perhaps even more shocking, though, is Infinity War and Endgame being the only Phase 3 representation. The Russos have talked about Doomsday building off Captain America: Civil War, so its absence is surprising. Considering the multiverse setup involved, Doctor Strange not making the cut is notable too. Overall, it shows that the MCU's rich history really isn't that consequential for Avengers: Doomsday.