After Marvel dropped its latest MCU updates at the D23 Expo 2026, which included new information about the 2028 X-Men film, a “Countdown to Doomsday” playlist appeared on Disney+, featuring 15 Marvel Comics movies. It’s a smart move; with 39 movies and 25 series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date, you can get lost trying to watch and rewatch their content to seemingly be “caught up.” With this watch list, Marvel’s turning December’s Avengers: Doomsday an open-note test; if you want to know what you should be prepared for, it’s probably somewhere in the text.
And what’s in these films? Three massive Avengers team-ups, the origins of the X-Men, some origin stories, and a heavy dose of Multiversal Madness. Not saying you shouldn’t watch more from the MCU if you want to be even more prepared for Doomsday, but we’ve taken a look at Marvel’s Doomsday countdown and explained why each of these films is there.
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X-Men (2000)
Director: Bryan Singer
Starring: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Bruce Davison, Rebecca Romijn, Ray Park, Anna Paquin
Release date: July 14, 2000
Why?: We know that Fox’s X-Men universe is part of Doomsday, and this is where it begins. You’ll at least see where that world’s Professor X, Magneto, Cyclops, and Mystique come from, with a healthy dose of the world’s anti-mutant sentiments.
X-2 (2003)
Director: Bryan Singer
Starring: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Bruce Davison, Anna Paquin
Release date: May 2, 2003
Why?: Arguably the best of that X-Men lot, plus this is where you’ll get the better depictions of Beast, Mystique, and Nightcrawler. ANd because you should watch this, you might as well watch the 2000 film.
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Director: Joe Johnston
Starring: Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Toby Jones, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, Stanley Tucci
Release date: July 22, 2011
Why?: Being the, um, first Avenger, this is the best place to get Steve Rogers’s origin story, which should lend to the shots of him with a baby in the trailer. Maybe consider the life Steve couldn’t have because he became Captain America (and was literally frozen in time for decades).
The Avengers (2012)
Director: Joss Whedon
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson
Release date: May 4, 2012
Why?: The first Avengers film is required; not all of their team-ups are (Ultron is more of an Infinity Saga film), but seeing the reasoning and organization of the Avengers is vital for this moment, especially considering that there are no solo Iron Man films in this watch. This will help flesh out Tony Stark’s story.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Directors: The Russo Brothers
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldaña, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt
Release date: April 27, 2018
Why?: One of the most important (and best) films in the MCU, this shows what happens when the Avengers assemble and, well, fail. Not saying we have any inside baseball, but Doomsday is where the MCU will leave off until 2027’s Secret Wars. There’s no telling how Doomsday will end and, in turn, leave fans feeling for a year.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Directors: The Russo Brothers
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Benedict Wong, Jon Favreau, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Brolin
Release date: April 26, 2019
Why?: It could very well be like that time between Infinity War and Endgame, where (some) folks were unsure about the future of their MCU favs. Endgame finds the squad coming together and, truthfully, the Multiverse shenanigans intensify here, from the Time Variant Loki being introduced to the retrievals (and returns) of those Infinity Stones to Blip the “new” Thanos out of the picture.
Loki (2021-2022)
Director: various
Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Tara Strong, Owen Wilson, Sophia Di Martino, Sasha Lane, Jack Veal, DeObia Oparei, Richard E. Grant, Jonathan Majors, Rafael Casal, Kate Dickie, Liz Carr, Neil Ellice, Ke Huy Quan, Richard Dixon
Release date: June 9, 2021
Why?: Speaking of the alternate Loki, the two-season Disney+ series is a) very good and b) exactly what you need to figure out where Loki fits in everything pre-Doomsday as the proverbial keeper of the Sacred Timeline.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
Starring: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng'er Zhang, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu, Benedict Wong, Yuen Wah, Michelle Yeoh, Ben Kingsley, Tony Leung
Release date: September 3, 2021
Why?: As seen in the official Doomsday trailer, Shang-Chi and Gambit mix it up. Running Shang-Chi’s solo film is really all you need to be introduced to him and his mysterious Ten Rings. It’s also chock-full of solid action thanks to Destin Daniel Cretton, who helped breathe life into Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Director: Jon Watts
Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Jamie Foxx, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Benedict Wong, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei, Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire
Release date: December 17, 2021
Why?: Spider-Man and Doctor Strange messed up the Multiverse so badly trying to help Peter, MJ, and Ned get into college (seriously) that two alternate Spider-Men—and their rogue galleries!—made it to Earth-616, causing all sorts of mayhem. It’s one of the better examples of Multiverse shenanigans with deadly consequences.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Director: Sam Raimi
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Michael Stuhlbarg, Rachel McAdams
Release date: May 6, 2022
Why?: Building on the events of WandaVision, the Scarlet Witch is hellbent on finding a timeline where she can reunite with her children, ripping through the Multiverse as a result. It’s also the film where we first see Reed Richards and learn about the Incursions, which will play a huge part in Doomsday. It’s also the last time we saw Strange in the MCU, as he is whisked away to handle some business.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
Director: Ryan Coogler
Starring: Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Florence Kasumba, Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Mabel Cadena, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Martin Freeman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Angela Bassett
Release date: November 11, 2022
Why?: The Doomsday trailers highlight many figures from this film, from Shuri becoming the Black Panther to Namor and the Atlanteans; we don’t know how they factor into this story specifically, but we see them interacting with the Fantastic Four and the rest of the crew in different moments.
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Director: Shawn Levy
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Aaron Stanford, Matthew Macfadyen
Release date: July 26, 2024
Why?: This may or may not be more important than we realize. Deadpool finds out that his universe had to be vanquished due to there no longer being a Wolverine, and ends up futzing around in time (thanks to Cable), landing in the clutches of the TVA (sans Loki). The film recruits a litany of Deadpools, brings back Blade, introduces Gambit, has an alternate Johnny Storm—there’s a lot of, um, Multiversal madness afoot in this film.
Deadpool may need to show up in Doomsday just to account for all of that timeline trickery!
Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
Director: Julius Onah
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbly, Xosha Roquemore, Giancarlo Esposito, Liv Tyler, Tim Blake Nelson, Harrison Ford
Release date: February 14, 2025
Why?: While not as Multiversal, this felt like one of the more mainline Marvel movies, establishing the current Captain America and where Bucky Barnes is mentally. There is a massive hunk of adamantium introduced—which many know is what’s bonded to Wolverine’s bones to create those iconic claws of his. There may be more groundwork laid here than we realize, but it’s hidden behind a massive Red Hulk.
Thunderbolts* (2025)
Director: Jake Schreier
Starring: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, Wendell Pierce, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Release date: May 2, 2025
Why?: This gives you a solid glimpse at the New Avengers (that’s what the asterisk in the title is for) that you see in the Doomsday trailer. It’s good to point that Marvel didn’t tell you to watch the Black Widow film or the Captain America and Winter Soldier Disney+ series; you don’t really need them, but if you wanted more insight on what Yelena and/or Bucky were doing before this film, those would be deeper dives.
Anyway, this shows you how the New Avengers formed.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
Director: Matt Shakman
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner, Sarah Niles, Mark Gatiss, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, Ralph Ineson
Release date: July 25, 2025
Why?: And this film introduces you to the Fantastic Four, while giving you a glimpse of Doctor Doom (if you stick around during the credits). You also get to see how Reed Richards and company thwarted Galactus, as well as get an introduction to the world Doctor Doom is apparently from.
That’s actually not a bad rewatch, considering the number of MCU films and shows you’d have to watch to do a true MCU rewatch. Assemble your squad and rewatch accordingly. The Doomsday clock’s ticking!
