Cover Everyone from ‘Loki’ to ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ is converging on ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ (Photo: IMDB)
Everyone from ‘Loki’ to ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ is converging on ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ (Photo: IMDB)
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No time for a 30-film marathon? These essential MCU titles will get you ready for ‘Avengers: Doomsday’
Avengers: Doomsday arrives in December 2026, carrying 25 years of Marvel history converging on a single story. Three realities—the main Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the retro-futuristic Earth-828 of the Fantastic Four and a legacy X-Men universe—are on a collision course, engineered by Victor von Doom (Robert Downey Jr), the multiverse’s newest and most dangerous architect. With so much history in play, knowing where to start can feel almost as daunting as watching it all. These seven films contain the essential threads—how the multiverse works, where its fractures began and why Doom may be its most consequential threat yet.
In case you missed it: Follow Tom Holland’s Peter Parker from ‘Captain America: Civil War’ to ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’
‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019): the Iron Man sacrifice and Steve Rogers exit
Above ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019) closed one chapter and quietly opened the door to Doctor Doom
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, this is where the franchise’s emotional debt gets written—and where some of its most resonant ironies are born. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) sacrifices himself to defeat Thanos, while Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) chooses to live out a full life in the past before returning as an old man. Why it matters now: Downey Jr is back in Doomsday wearing Victor von Doom’s face, and the unease of watching Stark’s features resurface as a multiversal threat only lands if this ending is fresh in your mind. Rogers’s quiet exit also lays the groundwork for his surprise return.
With Avengers: Endgame returning to cinemas on September 25, 2026, with new footage presented in Disney’s Infinity Vision format, there may be no better time to revisit the film that closed Marvel’s first great chapter.
‘Loki’ season one (2021): the creation of the multiverse and the Time Variance Authority
Above ‘Loki’ season one rewired the MCU's rules and built the multiverse we live in
Created in part by Michael Waldron, who co‑writes Avengers: Doomsday, this series is less a superhero show than a bureaucratic thriller about the cost of order. Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) discover the Time Variance Authority has been lying about a sacred timeline to keep infinite realities from ever branching. Once that lie collapses, so does the illusion of a single MCU. Every multiversal plot since, incursions included, traces back to the fracture this season creates.
‘Loki’ season two (2023): Loki’s ascension as the god of stories at the nexus
Above ‘Loki’ season two ended with a god quietly holding the multiverse together
Loki season two trades spectacle for something stranger and more melancholic: a finale where the fix isn’t a battle but a sacrifice. Loki takes his place at the centre of the multiverse’s nexus, holding countless timelines apart by sheer will, alone, for as long as it takes. Avengers: Doomsday reportedly revisits this exact nexus and Loki’s throne, so understanding what he gave up and how precariously he’s propping the multiverse up reframes just how fragile everything is walking into the new film.
‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ (2022): the threat and mechanics of incursions
Above ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ defined the incursions driving Doomsday
Sam Raimi gives the MCU’s multiverse a distinctly darker edge by introducing the concept of incursions—catastrophic collisions in which contact between universes can lead to their destruction. Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) move between collapsing realities while Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) is consumed by the Darkhold’s corruption, offering two different warnings about the dangers of unchecked power.
For Avengers: Doomsday, the film provides an important piece of multiversal vocabulary: when separate realities begin to collide, the consequences are not merely cosmic—they can be existential.
Don’t miss: Who is Sadie Sink? Inside the career of the ‘Spider-Man: A Brand New Day’ actress
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ (2024): the integration of legacy universes into the MCU
Above ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ proved legacy X‑Men could survive inside the MCU
Shawn Levy’s film plays like a victory lap and a proof of concept in equal measure. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) tear through the multiverse via the TVA, dragging Fox’s original X‑Men era, jokes, grudges and all, into MCU canon without breaking it. Channing Tatum’s Gambit survives the carnage and is expected to resurface in Avengers: Doomsday, making this the clearest evidence yet that legacy mutants can physically and narratively cross over intact.
‘Thunderbolts*’ (2025): the formation of Earth‑616’s New Avengers roster
Above ‘Thunderbolts*’ (2025) quietly built the team standing between Earth‑616 and Doom
Set 14 months before Avengers: Doomsday, this is the rare Marvel film more interested in its characters’ damage than their powers. Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) lead a roster of misfits and washouts, including US Agent (Wyatt Russell), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John‑Kamen) and the unsettling new Sentry (Lewis Pullman), into an unlikely team. By the end, they’re rebranded the New Avengers, becoming Earth‑616’s frontline defence before Doctor Doom ever appears.
‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ (2025): Earth‑828 and Doctor Doom’s multiversal arrival
Above 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' (2025) ends exactly where 'Avengers: Doomsday' begins
The Fantastic Four: First Steps may be the most essential entry on this list, and not by a small margin. Set on a stylish, retro‑futuristic Earth‑828, it introduces Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss‑Bachrach) as a family first, heroes second. Its post‑credits scene is the actual prologue to Doomsday: Victor von Doom exploits Richards’s desperation after Galactus’s attack, offering help that is never quite what it seems, to lure the Fantastic Four across universal boundaries into Earth‑616.
As the final stop on this watchlist, First Steps brings the multiverse, the Fantastic Four and Doom into the same story—leaving the pieces in place for Doomsday.
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After more than a decade in lifestyle media, Clifford has mastered the art of writing seriously about things that are fun—and writing fun things about people who take themselves very seriously. At Tatler Asia, he helped steer its flagship lists, Tatler’s Most Influential and Asia’s Most Stylish. And today, he leads T-Labs, Tatler Asia’s content innovation hub, where he continues the noble pursuit of lifestyle storytelling, spinning stories on wealth, entertainment, necessary style, Hallyu, Hollywood, beauty and more for audiences across Asia.
