Every Movie You Need to Watch Before 'Avengers: Doomsday'

Let’s go back to that last team-up for all the Avengers, new and old. Watching Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame back-to-back is one of the all-time great double bills in cinema. 

Rewatching it will not only refresh your memory as to the sheer strength in numbers the super team possesses, but it’s also just a great way to remind yourself how amazing the MCU can be at its peak as it embraces the scale and stakes of potentially universe-ending threats. Far too often, comic book movies wrap things up in a neat, happy ending; Avengers: Infinity War didn’t do that, and Avengers: Endgame certainly didn’t, given the sacrifices made by the heroes by the end.

Plus, with Robert Downey Jr. back in the MCU, albeit as a very different character in Doomsday, it’s worth a look to see how his time as Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, came to a close back in 2019. Of all the older films in this list, these two are by far the most important and enjoyable.

Chris Hemsworth is still going strong as our favourite Asgardian, and with four solo movies to his name, Thor is arguably the most prolific of the original Avengers team. His most recent MCU outing on the big screen, in Thor: Love and Thunder, saw the God of Thunder team up with his ex-girlfriend, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), to take on Gorr the God Butcher. By the end, he had a new, far younger teammate by his side—who, if the trailers are anything to go by, may play a role in the upcoming film.

If we’re being honest, Thor: Love and Thunder is down near the bottom of our MCU ranking. This movie falls considerably short in replicating the comedic tone Taika Waititi imbued in Thor: Ragnarok; the visuals are rough in places, and the narrative is incredibly messy. Thankfully, Christian Bale’s incredible performance as Gorr is one of the finest villainous turns in the MCU to date, so it’s not all bad. While it has its ups and downs, Love and Thunder is still essential viewing if you want to know what the mighty Mjolnir-wielder is up to ahead of his return.

With Steve Rogers now back in the fold (according to the teasers), it’s unclear whether or not Sam Wilson will get to fully take on the mantle of Captain America in Doomsday—especially given that the former Falcon hasn't had an easy time of it in the early days of his tenure in the stars and stripes.

In Captain America: Brave New World, he not only ramped up his reputation as the new Cap by taking on President Ross’ Red Hulk, the movie also laid the foundations for a new Avengers team that he’s putting together ahead of Avengers: Doomsday. Make no mistake, Sam will be a leading figure by the time Doom arrives next year, but how that will look is still uncertain.

Unfortunately, Brave New World was another disappointing effort from the MCU. Much like Thor: Love and Thunder, this movie feels like it was rushed, chopped and changed behind the scenes, resulting in an odd aesthetic and some confusing character choices. But, despite all its flaws, you simply cannot ignore Harrison Ford ‘Hulking out’ as one of the most fun and satisfying moments in the MCU; seriously, getting him on board was a masterstroke!

Before the release of this film, we all imagined the likes of Red Guardian, Ghost, and US Agent would be very expendable. Yet, they’ll all be joining Yelena (Florence Pugh) for Avengers: Doomsday, meaning the team in Thunderbolts* have become far more important than we (or indeed, they) ever expected.

Before it came out, many had written the film off as something of a pointless venture that would barely make an impact on the main MCU timeline, giving attention to characters who perhaps didn’t deserve more screentime. However, Thunderbolts* delivers surprisingly genuine emotional weight and cataclysmic stakes, while also managing to have fun at the same time.

Not only do you need to know what’s going on with Sentry (Lewis Pullman) ahead of the next Avengers movie, but judging by the post-credit scene in Thunderbolts*, this band of misfits might just be the first team that Earth turns to when the next big threat bears down on the planet.

Even more crucial than the Thunderbolts will be the likes of Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), who, alongside Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), comprise the cast for The Fantastic 4: First Steps. And, as any comic book aficionado will tell you, you can’t have Doctor Doom without Marvel’s first family.

Thankfully, like Thunderbolts*, this is a top-tier effort from Marvel. Getting the Fantastic Four right on-screen has arguably not been fully done before, and this version is a perfect introduction. There’s no time wasted on origins; the characters are given flaws and put in intriguing moral dilemmas, and there’s a genuine sense that they could lose it all when Galactus makes his move. How refreshing it is to see Marvel making movies that look good again, along with fully fleshed-out characters that we care about instantly.  

This is also the most important of the new wave of MCU movies to tick off your list ahead of the release of Avengers: Doomsday, especially on the back of the post-credit scene in The Fantastic 4: First Steps.

By the time Avengers: Doomsday comes around, it will have been 20 years since many of the players from the original X-Men trilogy were last seen on screen. Some, like Patrick Stewart’s Professor Xavier, have popped up more recently, but with the likes of Mystique (Rebecca Romijn), Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), and Cyclops (James Marsden, who appears in the teaser) all set to reprise their roles for the new Avengers movie, you’d better refresh your memory on how things went down all those years ago – especially X-Men, X2, and X-Men: The Last Stand, and given the ovbious friendliness between Xavier and Magneto in the teaser, perhaps X-Men: Days of Future Past as well.

While the first two entries listed are absolutely brilliant, especially in terms of the action sequences and visual elements for the time they were released, the trilogy-closer is a bit of a rough ride. In simple terms, X-Men: The Last Stand rushes its plot, and there’s simply too much going on and not enough control of its various storylines. Still, with that top-tier cast of Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and Hugh Jackman, it’s hard not to revel in the chaos.

Speaking of random mutants, you’ll have to watch The Marvels, too, ahead of Avengers: Doomsday. That’s not a chore by any means, though, as the team-up of Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Ms Marvel (Iman Vellani), and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) is actually a lot of fun. 

It’s really nice to see a filmmaker (28 Years Later: The Bone Temple director Nia DaCosta helmed this one) being given the freedom to play around with tone and style – The Marvels even has a musical number in the middle of it; a rare treat in a comic book movie! My teenage daughter may not have appreciated the cheesiness of that particular scene, but while it might not hit the spot for all viewers, it’s exactly the kind of bold swing we should be celebrating and seeing more often in these movies.

While it’s a largely self-contained story, we know the young Ms Marvel will be back for Avengers Doomsday at the very least, as will Kelsey Grammer’s X-Men character, Beast, who pops up in the end-credits scene here. His presence in an alternative timeline alongside Rambeau, who is very much lost in space, could well be the key to bringing the various universes together in Avengers: Doomsday. We can’t wait to see Earth-616 and the X-Men collide!

With Chadwick Boseman sadly gone, it’s now up to Letitia Wright’s Shuri to don the Black Panther costume in the fight against Doctor Doom. She will be joined by Tenoch Huerta, who plays Namor in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. That movie's production clearly suffered from losing Boseman, which is understandable. Passing on the mantle to Shuri, at least this soon, was obviously not the plan, and it does take some adjustment for audiences to connect with his replacement. But once the dust settles and she locks into the heroic role, the film ultimately becomes a very emotional and important entry in the MCU.

Namor, meanwhile, imbued Black Panther: Wakanda Forever with a real sense of moral conflict while also showing glimpses of his incredible power. When the first Black Panther movie showed us Wakanda, it was a mind-blowing expansion of the MCU’s world. Exploring Namor’s spectacular home of Talokan made its sequel feel just as fresh and innovative.

Comic book fans will know just how powerful Namor is. He’s a key player in the Secret Wars arc, too, so don’t be surprised to see him have a big role to play in Avengers: Doomsday if Marvel is gearing up for a similar trajectory to the one he takes in the source material—and if his appearance in the teaser is anything to go by, his role could be quite central to the narrative arc of both Doomsday and Secret Wars.

In many ways, we wouldn’t blame you for almost forgetting about Shang-Chi (Simu Liu). His solo movie came out in 2021, and we’ve not seen or heard him even mentioned in the MCU since then. 

It’s a shame, as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings features some of the best fight choreography in the MCU. If you like the gritty, kinetic combat scenes in shows like Daredevil, you’ll love seeing Shang-Chi kick ass in this film. It’s not all fist fights and machismo, though; Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has levity thanks to Awkwafina’s Katy, and the legendary Tony Leung brings all his gravitas to deliver one of the most enigmatic and intriguing villains in the MCU.

We know Liu will be back for Avengers: Doomsday, and we suspect the titular artefacts that give the hero his powers could end up being very useful in stepping up the Avengers’ power levels when they face the might of Doctor Doom.

One of the main surviving members of the fight against Thanos, and arguably the most powerful Avenger still left on Earth in the lead-up to Avengers: Doomsday, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) will have a massive role to play in the movie, one way or another.

In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the eponymous sorcerer is tasked with protecting America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) from Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen). In the process, Strange also practically breaks the multiverse, and the incursions mentioned in the movie may be the open door that Doom needs to bring havoc to Earth-616. 

Revisiting this one should be a lot of fun. Sam Raimi has one of the most unique and distinctive approaches in directing superhero movies; here, he brings his delicious penchant for horror and use of clever cameos to help this Doctor Strange sequel stand out from the crowd. You’ll not find another film in the MCU that’s as scary as this (thanks to Wanda Maximoff’s demonic turn) or packed with as much visual flair as this (shoutout to that iconic Wong transition). You can tell that Raimi wasn’t going to be merely a director-for-hire on this project; he made it his own, and the film reaps the rewards of that bold vision.