Much like Infinity War and Endgame, Avengers: Doomsday is going to be the culmination of a lot of television and film. The build-up has not been quite as clean as Phases 1, 2, and the beginning of 3 for Marvel, but there are still things that you just have to have seen if you’re to fully understand and appreciate the next Avengers outing.
Thankfully, you don’t have to watch all the near-40 movies and 20+ seasons of television that the MCU has put out so far. Marvel has provided a list of all the projects you need to watch, and there are only (although it’s still over 40 hours of content) 15.
What to Watch Before Seeing Avengers: Doomsday
If you’re someone like me who has mostly kept up with the MCU post-Endgame, then you may be worried you missed something in the glut of Phases 5 and 6 that might be important. I have seen all the movies and some of the shows, so did I possibly miss out?
The good news is that you don’t have to go back and watch critically panned shows like Echo or Secret Invasion. There are, however, some shows you’ll need to catch up on if you missed them, and of course, plenty of movies that will loom large for Avengers: Doomsday.
According to Marvel, these 15 projects are important for Doomsday:
- X-Men
- X2
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- The Avengers
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Avengers: Endgame
- Loki Season 1
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- Spider-Man: No Way Home
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
- Loki Season 2
- Captain America: Brave New World
- Deadpool & Wolverine
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- Thunderbolts
- Fantastic Four: First Steps
Some of these are obvious. We know the Fantastic Four are in the movie, so watching First Steps is absolutely mandatory viewing. We know the Fox X-Men are involved, but including both X-Men and X2 is interesting. Captain America (Steve Rogers) returns, which is why his origin matters.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings plays because the titular character is finally back in the MCU. Namor and the Black Panther crew are back, so Wakanda Forever would be a good refresher. Sam Wilson’s Captain America is, too, and The Leader warns of a vague, ominous threat about other worlds in the post-credit scene of Brave New World. He might’ve been alluding to the events of Avengers: Doomsday.
The Thunderbolts/New Avengers crew is obviously crucial, so seeing their movie is as well. The rest of these stories paint a picture of what to expect and do a good job explaining one of Doctor Doom’s iconic lines from the trailer: “All of you have lived stolen lies,” Robert Downey Jr.’s Doom says.
That is where Infinity War and Endgame factor in. In that, the heroes are defeated by Thanos, but they use time shenanigans to reverse the effect and save half of the heroes. They essentially stole their lives that were supposed to end. Loki, in both seasons, does a good job exploring what that all means and why some of it was fine, but that’s from the perspective of He Who Remains. The “sacred timeline” could be completely made up. Loki obviously returns, too.
In Deadpool & Wolverine, Deadpool drags an alternate-universe Wolverine to his universe to save it, which means stealing the lives of himself and everyone else. What’s interesting is that X-Men: Days of Future Past is not included, since they stole their lives by going back and preventing the Sentinels (which Doom controls now) from being made.
Obviously, the multiverse is crucial here, which is why Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is important. But in the post-credits scene, Clea informs Doctor Strange that he caused an incursion, which that universe’s Reed Richards warned him about. Avengers: Doomsday feels predicated on incursions by the current or previous Marvel universes.
Spider-Man: No Way Home also played with the multiverse, bringing in alternate Spider-Men and their enemies. By sending them back cured and saving them, Peter Parker stole the lives of Otto Octavius, Norman Osborn, Curt Connors, and the rest. That may also be important if a certain Spider-Man’s universe is part of the incursion, as rumors and leaks have suggested.
Finally, the inclusion of The Avengers is interesting, too. Obviously, it’s the first team-up, but it’s not as relevant now as it used to be. And only Thor remains, with Steve Rogers somehow returning. So why include it? It could be that there’s more to RDJ’s Doctor Doom than meets the eye, and perhaps Iron Man is important here.
Regardless, this list tells you what to watch, and while it’s lengthy, it’s not overbearing. It also gives a hint at what the upcoming MCU film might bring to the table, and it’s certainly an intriguing film.
