Marvel Studios has shared an official watchlist of 14 films and one television series before Avengers: Doomsday opens in theaters in December 2026.
The fifth Avengers film, also known in Russia as Avengers: Doctor Doom, brings together more than 60 heroes from across the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to fight an intergalactic threat, ranging from the new Avengers to mutants from the 2000s films. According to a breakdown by Lenta.ru writer Eduard Yusupov, who noted that the plot summaries contain spoilers, completing the studio's 15-title chronological viewing guide takes 42 hours and refreshes key moments of the Multiverse Saga and the main characters' backstories.
Mutant origins in X-Men and X2
The ordered watchlist begins with X-Men (2000), directed by Bryan Singer, which runs 1 hour 44 minutes, holds ratings of 7.7 on Kinopoisk and 7.3 on IMDb, and stars Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and Halle Berry. Released before Disney bought 20th Century Fox in 2019 to bring mutants into the MCU ahead of their battle with Doctor Doom, the film introduces Jackman's Wolverine and the rivalry between metal-wielding Magneto (McKellen), who gathers a team to end mutant oppression and subjugate mortals, and telepathic professor Charles Xavier (Stewart), who runs a school for gifted teenagers.
Singer's sequel X2 (2003) runs 2 hours 14 minutes, scores 7.6 on Kinopoisk and 7.4 on IMDb, and again stars Jackman, Stewart, McKellen, and Berry. After a mutant infiltrates the White House and attacks the US president, military scientist Colonel William Stryker (Brian Cox), who once experimented on mutants, leads a registration drive while plotting to wipe out all superhumans. Confirmed returning cast members from the original X-Men trilogy for Avengers: Doomsday include Stewart as Professor X, McKellen as Magneto, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, James Marsden as Cyclops, and Kelsey Grammer as Beast.
Core Avengers from World War II to Endgame
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), directed by Joe Johnston with a 2-hour-4-minute runtime and ratings of 6.7 on Kinopoisk and 6.9 on IMDb, stars Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, and Hugo Weaving. Set in the United States during World War II, it follows frail volunteer Steve Rogers (Evans), who receives a super-soldier serum to stop a Nazi supervillain alongside debuting characters Bucky Barnes (Stan) and Peggy Carter (Atwell), both of whom will appear in Doomsday.
Joss Whedon's The Avengers (2012) runs 2 hours 23 minutes, holds 7.9 on Kinopoisk and 8.0 on IMDb, and stars Robert Downey Jr., Evans, Mark Ruffalo, and Chris Hemsworth. Whereas the fifth installment reaches a multiversal scale, the MCU's first major crossover shows S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) uniting squabbling heroes to defend New York from the Asgardian god Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who wields a mind-controlling scepter, a portal-opening artifact, and an alien army.
Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, Avengers: Infinity War (2018) runs 2 hours 29 minutes, scores 8.1 on Kinopoisk and 8.4 on IMDb, and stars Downey, Hemsworth, Ruffalo, and Evans. Culminating 10 years of storytelling, it gives the most screen time to its villain, a pattern that could repeat with Doctor Doom, as the Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) heads to Earth to collect the six Infinity Stones and reshape the universe while the Avengers remain scattered two years after breaking up.
The Russo brothers' Avengers: Endgame (2019), described as the highest-grossing film in history, runs 3 hours 1 minute with ratings of 8.0 on Kinopoisk and 8.4 on IMDb, starring Downey, Evans, Ruffalo, and Hemsworth. Five years after Thanos's Snap erased half of all life, surviving heroes reunite against one-in-14-million odds in a finale that originally served as a farewell to Tony Stark and Steve Rogers before Marvel announced Downey would play Doctor Doom and Evans would return as Rogers. In autumn 2026, Marvel released an extended theatrical cut, Avengers Endgame: Encore, adding about four minutes of footage, a slightly altered ending, and three post-credits scenes linking the film to Doomsday.
Multiverse expansion in Loki, Shang-Chi, and Spider-Man
Loki (2021-2023), the sole television series on Marvel's list, spans 10 hours across two seasons and 12 episodes directed by Kate Herron in Season 1 and Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead in Season 2, earning 7.8 on Kinopoisk and 8.2 on IMDb. Starring Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, Owen Wilson, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, it follows an alternate Loki who escapes with the Tesseract after the first Avengers, is captured by the Time Variance Authority (TVA), and helps the timeline-monitoring agency hunt a more dangerous variant of himself while becoming one of the MCU's most powerful beings.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, runs 2 hours 12 minutes, holds 7.3 on both Kinopoisk and IMDb, and stars Simu Liu, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Awkwafina, and Michelle Yeoh. Introducing the MCU's first Asian superhero before he fights alongside Sam Wilson's Avengers in Doomsday, the post-Endgame origin story follows San Francisco valet Shaun (Liu) and his close friend Katy (Awkwafina) after warriors sent by his immortal warlord father Xu Wenwu (Leung), founder of the ancient Ten Rings organization, attack them to seize a pendant left by Shaun's late mother from a mysterious village.
Jon Watts's Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) runs 2 hours 28 minutes, scores 8.0 on Kinopoisk and 8.1 on IMDb, and stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Jacob Batalon. After Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) exposes Spider-Man's identity, Peter Parker (Holland) asks Doctor Strange (Cumberbatch) for a memory-wiping spell, but Peter's interference triggers a multiversal crisis that unites Peter-1, Peter-2, and Peter-3.
Wakanda, Doctor Strange, and Deadpool
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), directed by Ryan Coogler with a 2-hour-41-minute runtime and ratings of 6.2 on Kinopoisk and 6.6 on IMDb, stars Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, and Winston Duke. Made after lead actor Chadwick Boseman died in 2020 following a severe illness, it depicts Wakanda mourning King T'Challa (Boseman), whose sister Shuri (Wright) believes the extinct heart-shaped herb could have saved him, while foreign powers seeking vibranium on the ocean floor are wiped out by mysterious blue-skinned people.
Sam Raimi's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) runs 2 hours 6 minutes, holds 6.5 on Kinopoisk and 6.9 on IMDb, and stars Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Benedict Wong. Tracking Strange and the Scarlet Witch, who according to rumors will both ally with Doom in Doomsday, the MCU's first full multiverse-travel film shows Strange and Sorcerer Supreme Wong rescuing America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), a girl hunted by demons on Earth-616 for her power to open interdimensional portals, leading to an encounter with ancient dark magic.
Shawn Levy's Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) runs 2 hours 8 minutes, scores 7.3 on Kinopoisk and 7.5 on IMDb, and stars Ryan Reynolds, Jackman, Emma Corrin, and Morena Baccarin. Six years after being rejected by the Avengers and splitting from Vanessa, used-car salesman Wade Wilson (Reynolds) is detained by the TVA and learns his reality will self-destruct without its deceased anchor being, Wolverine (Jackman), prompting Wade to recruit a reluctant alternate Wolverine.
New Avengers, Thunderbolts*, and the Fantastic Four
Captain America: Brave New World (2025), directed by Julius Onah with a 1-hour-58-minute runtime and ratings of 5.3 on Kinopoisk and 5.6 on IMDb, stars Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, and Shira Haas. After former Falcon Sam Wilson (Mackie) and partner Joaquin Torres (Ramirez) disrupt an illegal adamantium sale despite the culprit escaping, newly elected US President Thaddeus Ross (Ford) asks Wilson to revive the Avengers Initiative, a team that will later face Doom, before an assassination attempt on Ross leaves retired super-soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) as the prime suspect and prompts Wilson to investigate.
Jake Schreier's Thunderbolts* (2025) runs 2 hours 7 minutes, holds 6.8 on Kinopoisk and 7.1 on IMDb, and stars Florence Pugh, Stan, Wyatt Russell, and David Harbour. CIA mercenaries Yelena Belova (Pugh), former Captain America candidate John Walker (Russell), Ava Starr, known as Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Antonia Dreykov, known as Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), survive a trap designed to eliminate witnesses at a classified site and unite alongside Bob (Lewis Pullman), an amnesiac man without powers, forming another team set to oppose Doom.
The watchlist concludes with Matt Shakman's retro-futuristic origin story The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025), which runs 1 hour 55 minutes, scores 6.3 on Kinopoisk and 6.8 on IMDb, and introduces Doom's chief comic-book rivals on Earth-828: scientist Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), his wife Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), her brother Johnny (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). As Reed and Sue expect a child, the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) warns that planet-devourer Galactus (Ralph Ineson) will consume Earth unless they accept a costly bargain.
