The COVID-19 pandemic has the world sitting at home, social distancing and quarantining themselves from work, school, and pretty much life. So, being stuck at home all day gives people a lot of time on their hands to go back and rewatch their favorite films. But, what if you’ve already done the Marvel Cinematic Universe marathon? Maybe you’ve watched it in release date order and chronological order. What now? Well, thanks to a fan, here are six alternate viewing orders to spice up your MCU experience!
The Side-Character Cut: This features all of the Earthbound movies where one of the six original Avengers isn’t playing a lead role, which lets you experience the MCU from the outside in, with the adventures of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes only mentioned in passing or via a brief cameo appearance. – Films in order: Captain Marvel, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Black Panther, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Spider-Man: Far From Home
The Iron Man Cut: This is fairly self-explanatory, and focuses on every movie where Tony Stark plays a major role, allowing you to experience how the character’s journey is the through-line for all of the Avengers films, as well as following the evolution of his character from self-obsessed billionaire playboy to a husband and father willing to sacrifice his own life for the greater good. – Films in order: Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame. (Optional: Spider-Man: Far From Home)
The Captain America Cut: The flip-side to Iron Man’s journey, this one traces Steve Rogers’ arc from disheveled Brooklyn kid to the inspirational leader of the Avengers, via his stint as a war hero and decades spent frozen on ice, as he adapts to a world that rapidly evolved without him and how his old-fashioned beliefs struggle to fit into a society dominated by espionage, mis-truths and all-powerful villains. – Films in order: Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame
The Infinity Stone Cut: This one is made up of all the movies where the shiny trinkets play a pivotal role in the story, and how they ultimately become known to the various superheroes of the universe, as well as the focus of Thanos’ quest for total domination. A lot of MCU installments don’t feature the Stones at all, with this cut trimming the fat and explaining why the intergalactic MacGuffins are so important to the franchise. – Films in order: Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain Marvel, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Doctor Strange, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame
The Arc Reactor Cut: This plays with the timeline by putting the first three Avengers movies at the beginning, before moving onto the origin stories for all of the MCU’s major heroes and finishing up with Avengers: Endgame. A pretty unique way of getting through the series, but moving from Earth’s Mightiest Heroes losing their greatest battle straight into the movies that showed how they became who they are adds an extra emotional punch, culminating with them taking the fight to Thanos for their greatest victory. – Films in order: The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, (Optional: Captain America: Civil War), Avengers: Infinity War, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame
The Cosmic Marvel Cut: This ignores everything that happens on Earth, focusing solely on the stories that take place across the galaxy, turning the MCU into a sci-fi space opera that only features our planet as a background location or something mentioned briefly in passing. – Films in order: Captain Marvel, Thor, Thor: The Dark World, Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame
These six options from The Direct give a whole new spin on how to watch the MCU, and with all the time we now have at home, it seems like a great to time to try these out.
Which one of these are you trying out first? Let us know in the comments below!