Marvel Confirms The 5 Most Essential MCU Movies To Watch Before Avengers: Doomsday

Published Sep 10, 2026, 4:30 PM EDT

Cooper Hood is the Associate Editor for all new movie releases, in theaters and on streaming. In addition to writing articles about these titles and upcoming releases, he also oversees content planning for each, ensuring that ScreenRant continues to cover major releases for months after their release.

He has written various reviews for ScreenRant that appear on Rotten Tomatoes, coordinated Oscars and San Diego Comic-Con coverage, appeared on CNN to talk about Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, and done select interviews with talent over the years.

The lead-up to Avengers: Doomsday has brought plenty of questions, but one of the biggest is which Marvel Cinematic Universe movies people need to watch to fully understand the movie. Marvel Studios has made 38 movies so far, but the multiverse aspect of the new event film opens up a wider lens of projects, like Fox's X-Men franchise.

ScreenRant has shared its own list of Marvel movies and shows we think would be good to have seen before December 18. Disney+ has offered another list of 15 Marvel titles to watch before Doomsday. The latter appeared to be Marvel's definitive viewing guide to prepare for the next MCU movie, but another, leaner list of essential projects has come.

Part of Marvel's strategy for promoting Avengers: Doomsday was launching an official countdown podcast where Ms. Marvel actress Iman Vellani and co-host Frank Alvarez rewatched and discussed MCU movies leading up to the Phase 6 release. The podcast's purpose was described as to "look back at a key film from the MCU" and "revisiting all the major moments leading up to Doomsday."

The only movies that the podcast covers are The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. That makes these five movies the ones Marvel believes are the most essential to revisit ahead of Doomsday. Otherwise, there would be more episodes discussing other films.

Why Only The Avengers Movies & Civil War Are Most Important For Doomsday

Credit: MovieStillsDB

On one hand, it makes some sense for Marvel to frame these five MCU movies as the only ones that really matter when it comes to getting ready for Doomsday. The podcast list stays completely focused on the Avengers as a team, rather than individual arcs and adventures. Civil War gets lumped in with the other four official Avengers movies because it is basically Avengers 2.5, something the podcast even calls out.

The team dynamic and history of the Avengers as a unit is what matters most for Doomsday. Even if the actual Avengers members will be quite different this time around, there are still plenty of returning characters. Steve Rogers and Thor are the most obvious examples, but heroes like Ant-Man, Sam Wilson, Shuri, and Bucky Barnes also have key roles to play in at least one of these films before returning in Doomsday.

Specific story threads from these movies will even continue, especially when it comes to Endgame. The Russos have emphasized how much Doomsday's events are the result of what transpired at the end of Phase 3. Marvel's new version, Avengers Endgame: Encore, hitting theaters on September 25, will make the connections between the two films clearer.

Marvel has now limited the homework for audiences. Practically anyone interested in Doomsday has already seen these five movies before, once or multiple times. They can rewatch them all to refamiliarize themselves with the evolution of the Avengers team, but most won't have to worry about catching up on these films.

Marvel's Countdown To Avengers: Doomsday Movies Is Incomplete

The emphasis on the Avengers' adventures is understandable, but it's not accurate for Marvel to say that these five movies are the only ones worth including in a Doomsday countdown. There are plenty of eyebrow-raising omissions, especially since it means that not a single movie from the Multiverse Saga is included. This includes Thunderbolts*, which introduced the New Avengers, and Captain America: Brave New World, which leads to Sam deciding it is time to assemble Earth's mightiest heroes once more.

Neither of those is the most glaring missing title, which is The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The movie that began Phase 6 marks the only appearance of Doctor Doom before Doomsday. It will clearly be an important piece of the wider story that the MCU is telling here, both in terms of establishing Doom's history and the substantial roles that Reed Richards and Sue Storm will play in what's coming.

Arguments can be made for other films, like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. To suggest that none of these movies are vital enough to rewatch and dedicate a podcast episode to discussing what they mean to Avengers: Doomsday shows just how fast and loosely Marvel is operating at the moment.

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  Victor von Doom

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  Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic

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  Thor

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  Vanessa Kirby

  Sue Storm / Invisible Woman