Marvel Studios Phase 4 is a part of Marvel’s 4th chapter of its superhero movies. Starting with chapter 1, which was created in the year 2008, the rest of the 2 chapters went on until 2019. Marvel Studios Phase 4 was first released on 15th January 2021, with the film “Wanda Vision”. As per the Marvel studios, the series will go until 2022. The thing that is remarkable about the series is that it is the first phase that is actually aired as a form of TV series (roughly 10 episodes per series). In addition, Marvel also preparing for developing different event series for online streaming services like Disney Plus.
The main adjective of Phase 4 is seen as bringing a whole bunch of new characters to the Marvel Universe. Now for those of you who are just starting with the 4th phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and do not have enough idea about which movie to start with first or which order to watch the whole chapter; do not worry, I’ve got your back. Through this article, I am going to go in-depth about all the Phases of the Marvel Universe and guide you through the right order to watch Phase 4. So, stick till the end.
All Phases with context
The whole Marvel Universe consists of 4 chapters: Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Started in the year 2008 currently, the 4th Phase is going, and Phase 5 is to come. Here is a brief explanation of all the phases.
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Phase 1
Phase 1 of the Marvel movies consists of in total of 6 movies. It went from 2008 to 2012. Here are all the films: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The Avengers. The 1st phase is all about the beginning of the Marvel Superhero Universe. In short, the first phase describes how all the superheroes were born and how they eventually built The Avengers.
Phase 2
Like Phase 1, Phase 2 also consists of 6 films. This chapter went from the year 2013 to 2015. This part is more like a growing phase of all the superhero characters with some much stronger challenges like Ultron. This Phase also introduced us to a couple of new characters like Ant-Man, and all the members of “Guardians of the Galaxy”. The whole chapter contains these movies: Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Ant-Man.
Phase 3
Until Phase 4 came, Phase 3 was considered the end of all the phases. This part started in the year 2016 and went on till 2019, starting with “Captain America: Civil War”. Not like the other 2 Phases, this one includes all the best Marvel movies with a whopping number of 11 movies. Like Phase 2, this Phase also welcomed some new faces. Favorite comic superheroes like Spiderman, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel were introduced in this part. As stated earlier, first, this was made as the end of all phases, and because of that, in this Phase, superheroes faced the strongest villain in the Marvel Universe, Thanos. Here are all the films of this Phase: Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Phase 4
After all the 3 chapters were over, Phase 4 came with a new generation of superheroes with some previous ones. This part consists of a total of 15 movies plus TV series. Phase 4 started in 2021 and will continue till 2022. The concept of a multiverse is first introduced in this chapter. New heroes that are introduced in this Phase 4 are I will talk more about the movies with their order in the next paragraph.
Correct order to watch Marvel Phase 4
Here is the name of all the movies in Phase 4 with their order.
- WandaVision
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
- Black Widow
- Loki
- What If…?
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- Eternals
- Hawkeye
- Spider-Man: No Way Home
- Moon Knight
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- Ms. Marvel
- Thor: Love and Thunder
- She-Hulk: Attorney At Law
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Problems with the Phase 4
While the previous three phases chugged along swimmingly but a closer look at the Marvel Studios Phase 4 discloses some noticeable problems. See, all the previous three phases are interlinked with each other with a beginning, a middle to an ending. But the problem with Phase 4 is that because of the interlink with both series and films, it is overly complicated and needs literally a little bit of homework for the audience (the main reason can be a load of new information). This phase also has a major structural issue with the storytelling. But as the chapter is totally focused on building all the new characters (which is obviously necessary to make sense in future movies), we might be ready for another blockbuster like “Avengers: Endgame” in the form of “Secret Wars”.
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