We lost something when movie sequel titles stopped using numbers in favor of a colon and subtitle. (Thank you, JOHN WICK, for burning the flame for numbered movies!) Somewhere in the multiverse, Marvel's AVENGERS movies have simple titles like "The Avengers 2." In that universe, no one has to Google "what is the order of the Avengers movies" or "what's the second Avengers movie?" (It's AGE OF ULTRON, by the way.)
Here in our universe, however, the movies don't have numbers in the titles. Maybe you didn't see them when they came out, or you weren't interested at all but your kids are. Or maybe you just have a lot of other things to think about and questions like "what's the third Avengers movie?" are pretty low on your list of priorities.
We're here to help with advice on how to watch the Avengers movies in chronological order.
The Best Order to Watch Marvel's Avengers Movies
The Avengers (2012)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
and, in the future,
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (2025)
Avengers: Secret Wars (2026)
Remember when an AVENGERS movie seemed like an impossible pipe dream in the first place? If you were around in 2012 you might remember how a lot of people assumed the first AVENGERS would be a total boondoggle for Marvel. Instead, THE AVENGERS was a massive success that vindicated Marvel's approach to making superhero movies.
Is Captain America: Civil War an Avengers Movie?
No, CIVIL WAR is not an AVENGERS movie though we see why you'd ask. It's kind of an AVENGERS-lite and certainly sets up much of what happens in INFINITY WAR and ENDGAME. It also gave us Tom Holland's Spider-Man, which is a notable achievement.
If you can't remember some of the movies in this series very well, here's a quick recap of each.
The Avengers (2012)
Loki agrees to give the Tesseract, a seemingly limitless power source, to the Chitauri alien race in exchange for an army he can lead to conquer Earth. Loki steals the Tesseract from SHIELD, enslaves Hawkeye in the process, and runs off to the Chitauri. Nick Fury assembles the Avengers, with Black Widow sent to bring Bruce Banner and the Hulk into the fold.
But assembling a team isn't easy. Captain America, Iron Man, and the rest of the team don't agree about how Loki should be dealt with — and Thor makes the situation more difficult by giving into some of his family ties. After the massive SHIELD helicarrier is disabled and Loki's attack on Earth begins, the Avengers truly unite to get their job done. A massive battle takes place in New York as the Chitauri are routed, and their fleet is destroyed. Loki is taken to Asgard to await justice.
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
While raiding a Hydra facility, The Avengers meet twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff and recapture Loki's old staff, which turns out to contain a sort of artificial intelligence. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner develop that AI into Stark's planned Ultron defense system. But Ultron almost immediately becomes sentient, escapes the confines of Stark's network, attacks the Avengers, and escapes to Sokovia. There, Ultron builds a robot army.
The Avengers attack Ultron's lair, but a combination of Wanda's out-of-control powers and a rampaging Hulk turn the battle into a total disaster. Stark stops the Hulk using special armor, but their battle becomes a PR disaster. Planning to wipe out humanity, Ultron builds an all-but-indestructible body powered by a special gem — which turns out to be one of a handful of reality-warping Infinity Stones. Stress on the Avengers threatens to fracture the team even as the Maximoff twins flip allegiances to join Cap and Stark. The Avengers battle Ultron, and capture his new body, which becomes host to Vision.
As Ultron plans to destroy Sokovia's capitol by lifting the city and dropping it (a truly weird plan!) the Avengers and Vision attack. SHIELD works to evacuate the city while the heroes try to stop Ultron. Pietro Maximoff is killed and while Wanda hampers Ultron, the villain's city-smashing plan is put into action. Team members go off on their own tasks as a mid-credits scene shows the purple-skinned Titan, Thanos, planning to collect the Infinity Stones for his own purposes.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Thanos is quickly working to collect the Infinity Stones so that he can resolve problems in the universe by destroying half of everything in existence. (Another wild plan, tbh!) Following Asgard's destruction in THOR: RAGNAROK, Thanos intercepts the survivors to grab the Tesseract, aka the Space Stone. He kills Loki and Heimdall, and heads off to grab another stone.
A whole web of heroes — from Hulk to Doctor Strange to Spider-Man, Iron Man, Black Panther, and the Guardians of the Galaxy — is quickly woven together to try to stop Thanos. None of it works, and Thanos acquires the stones in quick succession. Gamora is sacrificed by Thanos, leading her fellow Guardians to strike at Thanos in anger, wrecking the plan to subdue him. Despite an attempt to destroy the last stone before Thanos can take it, the Titan is able to snatch the gem.
With his Infinity Gauntlet complete, Thanos snaps his fingers and destroys half of all life in the universe before teleporting away to live quietly on a remote planet. Many of the Avengers and Guardians are killed in the Snap while Stark and Nebula are stranded far out in space.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Captain Marvel rescues Iron Man and Nebula and reunites them with the Avengers. They plan to find Thanos and use the Stones to reverse his Snap. They discover the Titan has already destroyed them, and Thor, driven to blind fury and despair, cuts off Thanos's head.
Meanwhile, Ant-Man emerges from the Quantum Realm, where he was trapped for five years, with the knowledge that time travel is possible. The surviving Avengers are reunited and different sub-groups start bouncing through time to grab the Stones long before Thanos can get them. Black Widow sacrifices herself so Hawkeye can acquire one Stone as Nebula unwittingly alerts Thanos to their plan.
Even so, Tony Stark is able to use the Avengers' newly-built Infinity Gauntlet to reverse Thanos's Snap. At the same time, a past version of Thanos arrives in the present. A massive battle ensues as the Avengers and Thanos each seek to dominate reality. Thanos is defeated when Stark uses the Stones — at the cost of his own life — to destroy Thanos and his army. Captain America returns the Stones to their original places in time and elects to live in the past with Peggy Carter, passing the shield to Sam Wilson.
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All images courtesy of Marvel Studios.