This Marvel fan project will change the way you watch the MCU
If you’ve check out our guide to watching the Marvel movies in order, you’ll know there are two main ways to enjoy the 23 films: following the timeline of events as they occurred, or just watching the films as they released.
Now, though, a Marvel fan has gone one step further, constructing a viewing order that breaks the entire MCU enterprise down chronologically, scene-by-scene, into 118 different steps – with timestamps.
It begins with the prologue of Thor: The Dark World, before jumping to the flashback sequence in Thor: Ragnarok for 41 seconds. Then you need to put the original Thor on for just over four minutes for another flashback scene. And it keeps escalating from there, really. Most people wouldn’t watch the movies this way, but the undertaking is fascinating. And maybe someone will be tempted to turn it into a bootleg edit down the line for people who are really pedantic about continuity.
Here’s the thread, which explains the whole thing. Warning: it may make you tired to read it.
Luckily, once you reach the latest film, Spider-Man: Far From Home, you can pretty much watch that without any issues.
“Admittedly a LOT of this is just my own personal headcanon conjecture, but I’ve double- and triple-checked my work here and to my knowledge, none of this is contradictory,” says creator Tony Goldmark, who hosts the podcast Escape From Vault Disney. He cautions this is for superfans only, and there are some complicated rules for how the Avengers: Endgame time travel sequences play out.
If you fancy doing this, Disney Plus is your friend, since it has most of the Marvel movies available to stream (though not the Spider-Man films or The Incredible Hulk), and you’ll be able to reach the timestamps with less fuss than you would by watching the movies on DVD.
What happens when Black Widow gets here, though?
Assuming that the upcoming Black Widow occurs after Captain America: Civil War but will likely feature flashbacks to Natasha’s origins in the Red Room (seen in Age of Ultron), this list will have to change again. Still, since that movie’s release date got bumped back to November, it’s pretty set for the time being.
And don’t get us started on how the upcoming TV shows The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision and Loki might shake things up.