10 Marvel Movies You Need To Rewatch Before Avengers: Doomsday
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Marvel fans could theoretically spend months rewatching everything before Avengers: Doomsday. The MCU alone now stretches across dozens of movies and shows, while the upcoming crossover is reaching beyond that continuity to bring the Fantastic Four and familiar X-Men into the fight. Thankfully, preparing for Marvel's next enormous team-up does not require starting again with 2008's Iron Man.
Doomsday arrives with plenty of history behind it. Robert Downey Jr. is returning to Marvel as Doctor Doom after spending more than a decade playing Tony Stark, while Chris Evans is back as Steve Rogers. The confirmed Avengers: Doomsday cast also includes heroes from Thunderbolts, Black Panther, Shang-Chi, the Fantastic Four, and the original X-Men movies.
That makes some previous Marvel movies considerably more useful than others. The essential rewatches are the ones that explain where these characters currently stand, how Marvel's increasingly complicated multiverse works, and why universes colliding could become an even bigger problem than Thanos.
With Endgame already belonging among the highest-grossing superhero movies ever made, Marvel has an enormous standard to meet. These 10 movies provide the clearest road from that finale to Doomsday.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
No Doomsday rewatch can really begin anywhere else. Avengers: Endgame closed the MCU's first major era, killed Tony Stark, sent Steve Rogers into the past to reunite with Peggy Carter, and left the surviving Avengers scattered in very different directions.
Those endings matter even more now. Robert Downey Jr. returning as Doctor Doom makes Tony's absence impossible to ignore, while Steve Rogers is somehow back in play after apparently completing his story. Endgame also remains the last time audiences saw the Avengers operate on this scale. Before meeting whatever version of Earth's Mightiest Heroes exists in Doomsday, it helps to remember where the old team left things.
Thor: Love And Thunder (2022)
Thor: Love and Thunder becomes considerably more relevant now that Thor is one of the most prominent returning Avengers in Doomsday. Chris Hemsworth's hero ends the movie in a completely different position from the wandering warrior audiences knew during the Infinity Saga.
Thor is now raising Love, the resurrected daughter of Gorr, and that responsibility changes what he has to lose. The Doomsday marketing has leaned directly into Thor as a father preparing for another potentially catastrophic fight. Whatever anyone thinks of Love and Thunder as a movie, skipping it means missing the emotional setup for the Thor who walks into Doomsday.
Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
Steve Rogers may be returning, but he is no longer the MCU's official Captain America. That distinction belongs to Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson, and Captain America: Brave New World establishes what kind of hero he intends to be without the super-soldier serum that gave Steve such an enormous physical advantage.
That becomes especially important in a movie crowded with gods, mutants, super-soldiers, and a Doctor Doom powerful enough to threaten multiple universes. Sam has to command attention through judgment and leadership rather than brute force. With the MCU continuing to produce some of the biggest superhero movies of the decade, Brave New World is the movie that establishes who currently carries one of Marvel's most important titles.
Thunderbolts* (2025)
The ending of Thunderbolts gives its dysfunctional collection of antiheroes a surprisingly grand new label: the New Avengers. Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, U.S. Agent, and Bob are consequently walking into Doomsday with a team name that comes with some fairly intimidating history.
Rewatching Thunderbolts is particularly important for Bob. Lewis Pullman's character possesses the overwhelming power of Sentry alongside the terrifying threat represented by the Void, making him one of the biggest potential wild cards in the coming battle. The movie also establishes the messy chemistry between characters who now have to function beside considerably more established Marvel heroes.
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings (2021)
It has been a long time since Simu Liu's Shang-Chi made his MCU debut, which alone makes Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings worth revisiting. The movie establishes one of Marvel's strongest fighters while leaving an even bigger mystery hanging around his wrists.
The Ten Rings send out a mysterious signal during the post-credits scene, and Marvel has had years to decide exactly where that thread leads. Shang-Chi is returning for Doomsday, where he will finally interact with a much larger collection of MCU heroes. After such a long absence, remembering exactly what he can do—and what remains unexplained about the Rings—feels particularly useful.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
Wakanda is sending several major players into Doomsday. Letitia Wright returns as Shuri, Winston Duke is back as M'Baku, and Tenoch Huerta Mejía reprises his role as Namor, making Black Panther: Wakanda Forever much more than optional background viewing.
The movie establishes Shuri as the new Black Panther while introducing Talokan and the complicated relationship between Wakanda and Namor's underwater kingdom. They end the movie as uneasy allies rather than uncomplicated friends, which creates interesting possibilities when a multiversal crisis forces them onto a much larger battlefield. It is also the only movie viewers need to understand three confirmed Doomsday players at once.
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022)
Doctor Strange is not the reason this movie belongs on the list. The incursions are. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness establishes what can happen when different realities interfere with one another for too long: universes can collide, with catastrophic consequences for one or both.
That concept suddenly looks rather important when Doomsday involves multiple realities heading toward the same crisis. Multiverse of Madness also takes viewers to Earth-838 and demonstrates just how radically Marvel characters can differ between universes. Anyone needing a refresher on how incursions could affect other Marvel realities should start here.
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Deadpool & Wolverine did more than finally bring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman together. It openly connected the MCU to characters and history from the former Fox Marvel universe, turning decades of separate superhero movies into material Marvel Studios could suddenly use.
That bridge matters enormously now that Doomsday is bringing several original X-Men actors back. Channing Tatum's Gambit also debuted here before joining the Doomsday ensemble, while the TVA demonstrates what happens when entire timelines become unstable or expendable. Even the movie's X-Men callbacks become more relevant when Marvel is preparing to put those worlds into direct contact.
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X2: X-Men United (2003)
Anyone who entered Marvel through the MCU may need a refresher on exactly which X-Men are returning. X2: X-Men United is probably the most efficient choice. Patrick Stewart's Professor X, Ian McKellen's Magneto, James Marsden's Cyclops, Rebecca Romijn's Mystique, and Alan Cumming's Nightcrawler all appear in the 2003 sequel.
More importantly, X2 captures the relationships that made this version of the X-Men work. Xavier and Magneto disagree fundamentally while sharing decades of history, Cyclops remains central to the team, and Nightcrawler makes one of the franchise's most memorable entrances. Kevin Feige has said Deadpool & Wolverine merely "scratched the surface" of revisiting these characters. Doomsday is going much further.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
If there is only time to rewatch one movie immediately before Avengers: Doomsday, make it The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby's Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn's Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach's Ben Grimm all return in Doomsday, bringing their retro-futuristic Earth-828 into a much larger Marvel conflict.
The Fantastic Four also have the deepest historical connection to Doctor Doom, even if First Steps spends its main story establishing the team before Marvel fully unleashes Victor von Doom. Kevin Feige has explicitly described the movie as leading into Doomsday, where the Baxter Building will suddenly be considerably more crowded. The MCU spent years without Marvel's First Family. Watching First Steps again makes it clear just how central they are about to become.
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