How long does it take to watch all of the Marvel movies? A good, long while. As of Eternals, it takes 3461 minutes, which is 57.68 hours and just about two and a half days. Adding in the Disney+ series brings the total to 4723 minutes, or 78.7 hours. That’s over three days and a big commitment for the busy Marvel fan.
Still, a franchise this big is begging to be marathoned, so to cut down on time and also have some extra fun with the movies, we present: Alternative Marvelthons for every kind of MCU fan. (To see the Marvel marathons in list form, scroll to the bottom.)
1. The Assemble Edit
Credit: Marvel
There was an idea. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more…and Nick Fury made that idea come to life. The Assemble Edit is a short Marvelthon that collects all the movies that led up to the initial formation of the Avengers with direct recruitment.
Start off with Captain Marvel, which shows Fury getting the idea for the Avengers Initiative in the first place. Then, there’s Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Avengers (even though Captain America is “The First Avenger,” Nick doesn’t actually recruit him until 2012). Natasha and Clint already worked for Fury by the time the Avengers assembled, and Thor…just kind of showed up and started avenging stuff on his own time.
Avengers: Age of Ultron introduces Vision and Wanda to the team. Even though Nick doesn’t formally recruit them, both characters have a significant “welcome to the team” moment that happens on-screen. Finally, there’s the mini-arc of Iron Man “recruiting” Peter Parker in a swing-and-a-miss at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming and for real in Avengers: Infinity War.
Length of Marvelthon: 794 minutes, or 13.2 hours
2. Follow The Tesseract
Credit: Marvel
Out of all the Infinity Stones, the space stone hidden inside the Tesseract has got to be the one that’s had the most screen time (well, there’s the Mind Stone, but only because it’s a part of Vision). First introduced as the mysterious cube-shaped macguffin in Captain America: The First Avenger, the history of the Tesseract’s movements is also the history of the MCU.
The Tesseract cube has been hidden in Norway (Captain America: The First Avenger), inside a lunchbox and a Flerken (Captain Marvel), stolen from S.H.I.E.L.D. (The Avengers), taken back to Asgard (Thor: The Dark World), saved from the wreckage of Asgard (Thor: Ragnarok)…and then smushed to become a boring ole infinity stone (Avengers: Infinity War) and only seen back in cube form in the time-travel flashbacks (Avengers: Endgame) that bring us full circle to the variant Loki’s timeline and duplicate tesseract in Loki.
Length of Marvelthon: 978 minutes, or 16.3 hours
3. The Widow’s Journey
Credit: Marvel
Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow has the lucky distinction of being the only original Avenger to get a solo movie that’s both out of chronological order with the rest of the MCU and was released after her character already died. To get Natasha’s whole story, go back to her undercover introduction in Iron Man 2, then watch her kick butt with a marginally better wig situation in Avengers. Nat was an integral part of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and continued being a loyal Avenger in Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War.
Black Widow takes place right after Civil War, when Natasha is on the run and has some unfinished business to attend to in Russia. It also answers a few looming questions about where Team Cap got their super-plane and who got everyone out of the Raft. Now that your curiosity is satisfied, wrap it up as many of these marathons do with Avengers: Infinity War and Natasha’s “last” MCU movie, Avengers: Endgame.
Length of Marvelthon: 1172 minutes, or 19.5 hours
4. Give That Back (The Vibranium Edit)
Credit: Marvel
Listen, we all love the cool stuff Captain America can do with his shield, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s made from stolen vibranium. Who stole the vibranium from Wakanda for his shield? Unclear. All we know is that people have been trying to get their hands on vibranium for centuries and the Wakandans are not happy about it.
We don’t want to recap the entire Captain America story for this one, so the theme of Give That Back will be the first time any character gets their hands on stolen vibranium in the series. If you’re of age, turn this one into a drinking game. Every time you spot stolen vibranium shout “give that back!” and take a sip.
For example, Cap’s shield will count for Captain America: The First Avenger since it’s the first chronological example of stolen vibranium in the MCU. The shield later crops up with Tony Stark in Iron Man 2, which was released before The First Avenger but takes place many years after. Cap has the shield back for a while after that, but Avengers: Age of Ultron features a new, even bigger chunk of stolen vibranium when Ulysses Klaue and Ultron team up to create Ultron’s ultimate vibranium body. So yes, we are counting Vision as a “living” stolen piece of Wakandan property. More about that later.
After Age of Ultron, skedaddle on over to Wakanda proper for Black Panther, which features a lot of stolen vibranium but even more not-stolen vibranium, which is a nice change. Everyone mostly behaves themselves around vibranium for the rest of Phase 3, but since we’ve established that Vision’s body counts, his corpse in WandaVision is one of the more recent greedy vibranium grabs in the MCU.
Sam Wilson gets his hands on Cap’s shield at the end of Avengers: Endgame, but the true effects of that transaction aren’t felt until The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, in which walking trash bag John Walker gets the shield and proceeds to act like an absolute maniac with it. This is why Wakandans think we can’t handle this stuff!
Length of Marvelthon: 849 minutes, or 14.1 hours
5. Team Cap vs. Team Iron Man
Credit: Marvel
Captain America: Civil War made fans choose between Team Cap and Team Iron Man, and so will these duelling Marvelthons. Pick EITHER Captain America OR Iron Man and follow their individual story up until Zemo’s devious plan to splinter the Avengers marked the beginning of the end.
For Team Cap, start with Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. We’re not going to include The Avengers in this because it doesn’t contribute as much to Steve and Tony’s eventual tension. That said, move on to Avengers: Age of Ultron to watch the first cracks form, see those cracks turn into a fault line in Captain America: Civil War, and see how Cap brought it all home in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.
For Team Iron Man: Tony’s neat little trilogy with Iron Man 1, Iron Man 2, and Iron Man 3 makes his half of this Marvelthon easy peasy. If you want, include The Avengers between Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3 so Tony’s further issues with heroism and mental health make more sense. Watch his guilt nearly destroy the world in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and move on to see him doing his darndest to make it right with the Sokovia accords in Captain America: Civil War. Finally, just like Cap, Tony gave his all to bring not only the Avengers, but everybody back in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.
Length of Team Cap Marvelthon: 893 minutes, or 14.8 hours
Length of Team Iron Man Marvelthon: 1008, or 16.8 hours
6. The Multiverse Chronicles
Credit: Marvel
If you’re more of a TV binger than a movie marathoner, this is the alternate Marvelthon for you. Phase 4 is going all in on the multiverse with its canon Disney+ shows, and piecing together how exactly this whole multiverse thing works is going to be a huge question going forward. To get a jump start on the discourse, start with WandaVision, which sort-of-maybe cracked open the multiverse with the fastest red herring in TV history. After that, check out Loki and pay attention to the TVA to get a better grip on how timelines, variants, and the multiverse intersect (warning: it’s super confusing).
Marvel’s What If…? is an animated take on the many different realities that are possible in alternate universes. Its narrator The Watcher gives a bit more context as to how multiple universes are going to work in the MCU, which feeds directly into the first live action acknowledgement of the multiverse in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Length of Marvelthon: 1078 minutes, or 17.9 hours
7. The Rogues
Credit: Marvel
Marvel movies can be pretty hit-or-miss when it comes to memorable villains (quick: name the main bad guy from Thor: The Dark World!), but when they hit, they really hit. This Marvelthon is a trophy case of the best baddies ever to appear in the franchise, in release order.
Obviously the OG here is Loki, who had a decent introduction in Thor but came into his own with the iconic “kneel” speech in The Avengers. No one could topple Loki from his villainous throne until the middle of Phase 3, which delivered four of the MCU’s greatest villains in a row: Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming, Grandmaster and Hela from Thor: Ragnarok, Erik Killmonger in Black Panther, and the purple people-snapper Thanos in all his Infinity War original timeline glory.
Lastly, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings boasts a virtually flawless villain with Wenwu, Shang-Chi’s father, as played by the inimitable Tony Leung.
Length of Marvelthon: 700 minutes, or 11.6 hours
8. The Cosmic Cluster
Credit: Marvel
Know what’s cool? Space. Know where Marvel movies are going to spend a lot more time now that the Eternals are in the mix? Space. Enter: The Cosmic Cluster. These are all of the Marvel movies that take place at least partially off-planet, so everyone can enjoy the cool visuals and have a solid refresher on what Xandar is, what the Kree are up to, and so forth.
Start out with Captain Marvel to get the first chronological human-to-space plot in the MCU (though Ego and the Eternals have certainly been around longer, their movies mostly take place in the “present.”). Meet the Kree, the Skrulls, and get a good look at Ronan the Accuser, who turns up again in Guardians of the Galaxy. Go ahead and double feature that with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, then pop on over to Asgard and Sakaar in Thor: Ragnarok to find out what happens when a civilization is founded on space war crimes.
Doctor Strange isn’t necessarily cosmic as in the cosmos, but his magical powers are still a step above what most Marvel heroes deal with and involve dipping around in alternate dimensions. Finally, watch the Avengers go to space, learn some stuff, and lose some friends along the way in the Infinity War/Endgame cap to Phase 4.
Eternals isn’t available to stream yet, but when it is, that unbelievably good looking super-team will be the perfect clincher to connect the world of space gods to the realm of MCU humanity.
Length of Marvelthon: Currently 968 minutes, or 16.1 hours. When Eternals streams, it will be 1125 minutes, or 18.6 hours.
9. Welcome to the Spider-Verse
Credit: Sony
This Marvelthon hinges on the rumors that Spider-Man: No Way Home will bring together all three live-action iterations of Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland) for a multiversal crossover adventure. To prepare for this eventuality, we must enter the Spider-Verse.
Since Spider-Man only joined the MCU relatively recently, this is the only Marvelthon to include non-MCU movies. Start with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the animated masterpiece that demonstrates the concept of the Spider-Verse using Miles Morales as its multiversal anchor. Once you’ve got the multiverse down, proceed to Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and (yes, sorry) Spider-Man 3. Say hi to the two out of three Green Goblins (Willem Dafoe and James Franco) who will appear in this marathon and keep your eyes on Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock.
Once Tobey’s taken his last bow, head over to The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 starring Andrew Garfield. Green Goblin #3 is in there (Dane Dehaan) and so is Electro (Jamie Foxx).
Here’s where we’re gonna put the MCU’s introduction to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, which is Captain America: Civil War. Follow that one up with his first solo adventure in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Now that you’re just watched all of the Spideys back-to-back, encourage healthy debate among your fellow marathoners as to who was the “best” Spider-Man (trick question: we love all of them).
Currently, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is not streaming on any services, but once it does, feel free to take a two-movie detour with Venom (2018) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Pay close attention to the post-credits of both movies and meet us back at the MCU for…
Spider-Man: Far From Home! Until No Way Home comes out, this is the final stop for the Spider-Verse marathon. You are now fully prepared to head to that theater on December 17 and know everything that’s going on.
Length of Marvelthon: 1334 minutes, or 22.2 hours
Just the ‘thons, please:
The Assemble Edit
Captain Marvel is streaming on Disney+.
Iron Man is streaming on Disney+.
The Incredible Hulk is available to rent or buy on Apple TV.
The Avengers is streaming on Disney+.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is streaming on Disney+.
Spider-Man: Homecoming is available to rent on Apple TV.
Avengers: Infinity War is streaming on Disney+.
Follow The Tesseract
Captain America: The First Avenger is streaming on Disney+.
Captain Marvel is streaming on Disney+.
The Avengers is streaming on Disney+.
Thor: The Dark World is streaming on Disney+.
Thor: Ragnarok is streaming on Disney+.
Avengers: Infinity War is streaming on Disney+.
Avengers: Endgame is streaming on Disney+.
Loki is streaming on Disney+.
The Widow’s Journey
Iron Man 2 is streaming on Disney+.
The Avengers is streaming on Disney+.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is streaming on Disney+.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is streaming on Disney+.
Captain America: Civil War is streaming on Disney+.
Black Widow is streaming on Disney+.
Avengers: Infinity War is streaming on Disney+.
Avengers: Endgame is streaming on Disney+.
Give That Back
Captain America: The First Avenger is streaming on Disney+.
Iron Man 2 is streaming on Disney+.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is streaming on Disney+.
Black Panther is streaming on Disney+.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is streaming on Disney+.
Team Cap
Captain America: The First Avenger is streaming on Disney+.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is streaming on Disney+.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is streaming on Disney+.
Captain America: Civil War is streaming on Disney+.
Avengers: Infinity War is streaming on Disney+.
Avengers: Endgame is streaming on Disney+.
Team Iron Man
Iron Man is streaming on Disney+.
Iron Man 2 is streaming on Disney+.
Iron Man 3 is streaming on Disney+.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is streaming on Disney+.
Captain America: Civil War is streaming on Disney+.
Avengers: Infinity War is streaming on Disney+.
Avengers: Endgame is streaming on Disney+.
The Rogues
The Avengers is streaming on Disney+.
Black Panther is streaming on Disney+.
Thor: Ragnarok is streaming on Disney+.
Avengers: Infinity War is streaming on Disney+.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is streaming on Disney+.
The Multiverse Chronicles:
WandaVision is streaming on Disney+.
Loki is streaming on Disney+.
What If…? is streaming on Disney+.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is streaming on Disney+.
The Cosmic Cluster
Captain Marvel is streaming on Disney+.
Guardians of the Galaxy is streaming on Disney+.
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is streaming on Disney+.
Thor: Ragnarok is streaming on Disney+.
Doctor Strange is streaming on Disney+.
Avengers: Infinity War is streaming on Disney+.
Avengers: Endgame is streaming on Disney+.
Eternals is coming soon to Disney+.
Welcome To The Spider-Verse
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is available to rent or buy on Apple TV.
Spider-Man is available to rent or buy on Apple TV.
Spider-Man 2 is available to rent or buy on Apple TV.
Spider-Man 3 is available to rent or buy on Apple TV.
The Amazing Spider-Man is available to rent or buy on Apple TV.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is available to rent or buy on Apple TV.
Captain America: Civil War is streaming on Disney+.
Spider-Man: Homecoming is available to rent or buy on Apple TV.
Venom is available to rent or buy on Apple TV.
Spider-Man: Far From Home is is available to rent or buy on Apple TV.
