It goes without saying that Avengers: Endgame has so much hype behind it that it can be hard to sum up all the different reasons it appeals to moviegoers. But if we were to single out one simple bullet point, it’s that the followup to Infinity War is essentially the culmination of an eleven-year journey that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Boy, 2008’s Iron Man really does feel like it was released an eternity ago.
In preparation for opening weekend, I’m sure that more than a few True Believers will marathon each and every film making up the MCU. But for some of us, time management may be an issue, or we have to consider that not everybody has collected all of those blockbusters.
Fortunately, Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo did his best to pare it down to the essentials, revealing the most important MCU movies to watch beforehand.
“[Captain America:] Civil War and [Avengers:] Infinity War without question because the events of Civil War directly affected Infinity War, and we would argue that the reason they lost to Thanos is because of Civil War. Clearly, that carries over to Endgame. If you’re going to add one more in there, I’d probably say [Captain America: The] Winter Soldier, only in that those are the four movies we directed, and they’re all thematically connected to one another.”
Though I’d say Russo is certainly right about watching or re-watching each of those, I think it wouldn’t hurt to also add The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron to the list. After all, why not relive Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ first two adventures on the big screen? Furthermore, you may want to also consider Captain Marvel so you know what to expect from her once she meets Captain America, Black Widow and the rest of the crew.
No matter what you choose to watch at home for the time being though, know that Avengers: Endgame arrives in theaters on April 26th. Although, I may be preaching to the choir because there’s a good chance you’ve already purchased tickets.