The Cosmic Order

The Dilemma:

Now that phase 4 is over, I wanted to talk about the release order of the movies and shows.

It's just a mess. One of the main strikes against this phase that has been brought up time and time again is the lack of cohesiveness between movies within the phase, and I believe the release order had a big part to play in that.

Another flaw in the release order was the length of time that passed between the death of Black Widow in Endgame and her own movie. By the time Marvel was able to give her a proper goodbye, the fans had already mourned her death and moved on. It was a movie that had a very "phase 3 feel" to it, and felt out of place being released when it did. That needs to be rectified.

Thirdly, the time between phase 3's Spider-Man: FFH and phase 4's Spider-Man: NWH just makes the timeline feel disorganized. So many stories were told between the two movies. If the third movie picks up where the second movie ended, I want to feel that sense of continuity, and, in a way that fits with the overarching MCU story.

Fourthly, we had shows and movies that we didn't exactly know where to fit in the timeline, although we had a generally good idea of where to put them. Most of us had to really just depend on the Disney+ app to tell us where many of these stories were placed chronologically, but even then when you look at them, they don't exactly do the best at making phase 4 feel cohesive.

Fifthly (and finally), there's the elephant in the room: Sony Pictures. This phase makes it so that it is no longer ok to treat the MCU as its own bubble ecosystem. As Sony currently holds the keys to the (webbed) kingdom, they have jumped on the MCU train and have made their presence felt within it. A post-credit scene in Spider-Man: NWH gives us a cameo of Tom Hardy's Venom, a Sony movie character that although related to Spider-Man, up until that point, was able to be swept under the rug. The problem is that Sony is doing a horrible job at building upon what Marvel has given to them. Morbius is a disaster of a movie, especially when it comes to its attempt at linking with Marvel's Multiversal vision for the future. How do we let some of the water in through the gates without the flood of mediocrity overtaking us? That needs to be dealt with.

The Goals:

A good movie order for this phase is going to have one primary goal in mind: cohesion. If it doesn't do that well above all, it will fail to be taken seriously as an alternative list of phase 4 movie watching. So how can this be done when 100 new storylines are being thrown at us? I believe the best way to deal with this problem is to unify the projects through their themes. There are many MCU themes that phase 4 deals with, such as:

Post-Endgame Fallout Legacy/Passing of the Torch New Heroes The Multiverse Darker tones (including horror)

Unifying the storytelling through theme ordering has a way of really cleaning up the phase 4 ordering.

The uniqueness of phase 4 in its place among all the phases should be considered as well. This phase is unique in that it is the start of a brand new saga in the MCU that also deals with fallout from previous events, so it has to feel brand new at the outset while establishing the familiar at the same time without feeling like a rehash. Having a title with clear referentials to Endgame while being itself a different kind of movie at the forefront is the best way to resolve this transition.

And finally, curation when it comes to Sony is key. Taking the best and most relevant into the watching order while ignoring the worst and unnecessary is the best way forward. This part might feel a little finicky for some, but to retain the best experience possible, this might be, to quote Dr. Strange, "the only way".

With all that being said,

The Order, starting from Endgame:

Phase 3:

Avengers: Endgame

Black Widow

Phase 4:

Eternals

Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier

Spider-Man: Far From Home

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Loki S1

What If…? S1

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Hawkeye

WandaVision

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Moon Knight

Werewolf by Night Special

She-Hulk: Attorney At Law S1

Ms. Marvel

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Thor: Love and Thunder

Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

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