Marvel Phase 4 Watch Order

By Elif Aras · Updated October 21, 2026

It is the first phase where TV shows matter as much as movies. That mix is exactly why the order trips people up.

MCU Phase 4 watch order at a glance

Here are all 18 titles in story order, with the format and a quick priority note. Essential means later films lean on it; optional means you can come back to it whenever you like.

How the Phase 4 timeline is built

Most of Phase 4 happens after Avengers: Endgame, but the first two entries rewind. I Am Groot follows a tiny Groot during the early Guardians days, and Black Widow is set just after Captain America: Civil War, while Natasha is on the run. Neither needs Endgame to make sense, which is why they lead the list.

Loki and What If...? come next. Both live partly outside normal time, so their placement is more of a convention than a rule. From WandaVision onward, things become linear: the shows and films move forward from the aftermath of the Blip, ending with Wakanda Forever and a short Christmas special.

Story order versus release order

In release order, Phase 4 opens with WandaVision, then The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki and Black Widow. The differences are small after that. Story order mostly pulls the two prequel-style titles to the front and keeps the post-Blip stories in sequence.

Either way works for a first watch. Story order is easier to follow if you want cause and effect, while release order recreates the week-to-week rollout. The MCU chronological order shows how this phase slots in alongside everything before and after it.

Who should watch Phase 4 this way

This order is meant for viewers who finished the Infinity Saga and wonder what to do next. If you have not seen Endgame, stop here. Nearly every Phase 4 story begins from its consequences, and some, like WandaVision, would lose much of their emotional weight.

It also suits anyone who watched the movies but skipped the series. Phase 4 is where that habit starts to cost you, because characters and villains introduced on Disney+ walk straight into the films.

Short route versus full route

The full route is all 18 titles. It is a lot, and a few of them, such as Werewolf by Night or the Holiday Special, are fun detours with little effect on the bigger picture.

A shorter route still holds together if you keep these:

• WandaVision, which sets up Multiverse of Madness
• Loki, the clearest introduction to the multiverse idea
• The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, for Sam Wilson's new role
• Spider-Man: No Way Home, the biggest crossover of the phase
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Wakanda Forever

Add Hawkeye if you want Kate Bishop and Maya Lopez, who both return later.

Pairs that work back to back

Some Phase 4 titles read best as a double bill, because one picks up where the other leaves off:

• WandaVision, then Multiverse of Madness, for Wanda's full arc
• Loki, then What If...?, for the basics of branching timelines
• Shang-Chi, then Eternals, two films that widen the world beyond the Avengers
• Hawkeye, then No Way Home, two New York stories set around the winter holidays

None of these pairs is mandatory, but they make the phase feel less scattered.

Time commitment

Phase 4 is heavier than it looks. The movies are the usual two hours or so, but each series is a short season that adds up to several hours. Count on roughly twice the viewing time of a movie-only phase. Watching one episode or one film per evening, you are looking at a few weeks rather than a few weekends.

If series feel daunting, our Marvel TV shows in order guide lets you see every show in one place and decide which ones fit your schedule.

Mistakes that cause confusion

Watching Multiverse of Madness before WandaVision. The film assumes you know what happened to Wanda in the series. Without it, her choices feel abrupt.

Treating No Way Home as a standalone. It works much better after Homecoming and Far From Home, and even more so if you know the earlier Spider-Man films from outside the MCU.

Expecting one big villain. Phase 4 has no Thanos figure. It is a set of separate stories that slowly point toward the multiverse. Go in expecting a sampler, not a single arc, and the phase is far more enjoyable.

Skipping What If...? entirely. It is animated and mostly optional, but it is a quick way to understand how alternate universes work in the MCU.

What Phase 4 sets up next

Several threads carry straight into Phase 5. Ms. Marvel leads into The Marvels, Hawkeye introduces the Maya Lopez story that continues in Echo, and Loki's multiverse ideas shape much of what follows. If one Phase 4 series is worth finishing before you move on, make it Loki.