Complete MCU Phases and Release Sequence
The Marvel Cinematic Universe spans 36 films across six phases, beginning with Iron Man in 2008 and concluding with Thunderbolts* in 2025. Phase One includes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The Avengers. Phase Two covers Iron Man 3, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Phase Three starts with Captain America: Civil War and ends with Spider-Man: No Way Home, including Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, which grossed over $2.79 billion worldwide according to box office tracking sources. Phase Four launched with Black Widow and includes Shang-Chi, Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Phase Five currently includes Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and The Marvels, with Deadpool and Wolverine and Captain America: Brave New World upcoming. Phase Six will conclude the saga with Avengers: Secret Wars and Avengers: Doomsday. The films are produced by Marvel Studios, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
The chronological internal timeline differs from release order. The MCU story begins with Captain America: The First Avenger, set during World War II, followed by Agent Carter and the origin of Howard Stark. The timeline jumps forward to Iron Man, set in 2010, and progresses through The Avengers, which takes place in 2012. Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron occur in 2014 and 2015 respectively. Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Black Panther follow in 2016 and 2018. Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame span a five-year gap from 2018 to 2023, with time travel sequences resetting the timeline. The chronological MCU timeline is documented in official Marvel Studios timeline resources and fan wikis that track every film, TV series, and One-Shot event in sequence.
Sony Spider-Man Universe and Non-MCU Marvel Films
Sony Pictures controls the Spider-Man film rights and has produced its own interconnected universe separate from the MCU. The Sony Spider-Man Universe includes Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and Morbius, all starring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock. These films share a multiverse connection with the MCU through Spider-Man: No Way Home, which features three Spider-Men crossing dimensions. The chronological order of Sony Spider-Man Universe films starts with Venom in 2018, followed by Venom: Let There Be Carnage in 2021, and Morbius in 2022. Sony also produces the animated Spider-Verse films, including Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and the upcoming Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. These animated films follow Miles Morales and feature multiple Spider-People from different dimensions. Sony distributes these films through Columbia Pictures, a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Other non-MCU Marvel films include the X-Men franchise, the Fantastic Four films, and the Blade series, all previously owned by 20th Century Fox before Disney acquired the studio in 2019. The X-Men chronological timeline begins with X-Men Origins: Wolverine, set in the 1800s, and includes X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Magneto, and The Wolverine. The timeline continues with X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, and