The first 10 years of Marvel Cinematic history is in the books, and now you can see how every major character factors into the overall puzzle.
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You can thank Reddit user Cheesenaut for creating a rather simple to use guide on how the main characters of the MCU fit into the overall picture. Starting with Iron Man and feeding into Iron Man 2, you can see the other cornerstones of the MCU take their spots, with Thor, The Incredible Hulk, and Captain America: The First Avenger rounding out the group.
That, of course, led to the landmark Avengers film, which brought superheroes together like no other had before. The lines coming from each movie represent the main characters of that franchise, so in regard to Captain America: The First Avenger that would be Cap and Bucky, who shows up next in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. For Iron Man 2 it meant War Machine and Black Widow in addition to Iron Man himself, and for Thor it meant Thor, Loki, and Hawkeye.
In the next tier, you can see the lines feed into Avengers: Age of Ultron except for Winter Soldier, who doesn’t show up again until Captain America Civil War. Loki follows a similar route but doesn’t show up until Thor: Ragnarok. The Guardians pretty much maintain their straight line until Avengers: Infinity War.
Ironically the only characters to note feed into Infinity War are Ant-Man and the Wasp, as their next film takes place before Infinity War. Hawkeye is mentioned in Infinity War but won’t show up until Avengers 4. Captain Marvel isn’t on the timeline yet, though she hasn’t actually debuted yet, which will change early next year.
You can check out the full timeline above.
Some noted that Red Skull’s appearance in Infinity War should probably get him added to the timeline (a move that no one really saw coming), and it will be interesting to see this timeline change once Avengers 4 releases and things move into Phase 4.
Marvel Studios’ Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War are in theaters now. It will be followed by Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6, 2018, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.