What You Actually Need to Watch Before Avengers: Doomsday

If you walked out of Avengers: Endgame in 2019 and slowly stopped keeping up with Marvel, Avengers: Doomsday can look less like a night at the cinema and more like an exam you forgot to revise for.

The MCU has since added Disney+ series, a new Avengers team, the Fantastic Four and returning actors from Marvel films that predate the MCU. Marvel now describes heroes from three distinct universes heading towards a deadly collision. Trying to prepare by watching everything released since Endgame would be absurd.

The useful answer is much shorter. Start with four projects, then add context only for the characters and ideas you care about.

The four-project route

This is the shortest route we would recommend: four projects in roughly 10 hours 50 minutes, with one clear job for each.

1. Loki Season 1 — the multiverse rulebook. Its six episodes introduce the TVA, variants, the Sacred Timeline and the branching realities that now make collisions between universes possible. Season 1 is enough for that foundation. Season 2 continues Loki's story, but Marvel has since moved Avengers 5 away from Kang and rebuilt it around Doctor Doom.
2. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — the conceptual primer. Marvel's Doomsday synopsis says heroes from three universes are on a collision course. Multiverse of Madness gives the MCU's clearest explanation of incursions: what can happen when boundaries erode and worlds collide. Marvel has not said its plot continues directly into Doomsday, but it is the most useful preparation for the danger itself.
3. Thunderbolts* — the current team sheet. It brings Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, John Walker, Ghost, Red Guardian and Bob together as the New Avengers. All six performers are in Marvel's published Doomsday cast, making this the fastest way to meet a large part of the present-day ensemble.
4. The Fantastic Four: First Steps — the direct bridge. It introduces the Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm returning in Doomsday, along with their separate retro-futurist universe. Marvel has described the Fantastic Four cast as playing key roles in the Avengers film. No other recent release offers a cleaner connection.

This route assumes you remember the broad outcome of Avengers: Endgame, especially Tony Stark and Steve Rogers leaving the board. If that has become a blur, rewatch Endgame first. Its 3-hour 1-minute runtime takes the complete route to roughly 13 hours 50 minutes, but it is a refresher rather than another new branch of homework.

The longer route

The longer route adds context rather than requirements. Keep the four projects above, then choose from these according to what you want Doomsday to carry into the cinema.

• For more multiverse context: Loki Season 2 remains optional if you want to complete Loki's personal journey and continue the TVA story. Spider-Man: No Way Home shows live-action Marvel worlds crossing, while Deadpool & Wolverine makes the old Fox films usable history and introduces Channing Tatum's returning Gambit.
• For the current MCU teams: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever establishes Shuri as Black Panther and introduces Namor, Namora and Talokan. Captain America: Brave New World establishes Sam Wilson and Joaquin Torres as the current Captain America and Falcon pairing. These films update heroes in the published cast, but Marvel has not established their solo plots as necessary Doomsday setup.
• For individual returning heroes: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings introduces Simu Liu's confirmed hero. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Thor: Love and Thunder can refresh Scott Lang, Cassie Lang and Thor. These are character refreshers, not established Doomsday setup; a returning actor does not make the latest solo plot essential.
• For the legacy X-Men: X-Men and X2 are the efficient introduction to the school, Professor X, Magneto, Cyclops, Mystique and Nightcrawler. Add Days of Future Past if you want the franchise’s altered-timeline history. Marvel has confirmed returning actors, not that every detail of Fox continuity will transfer unchanged.

Where Brand New Day fits

Spider-Man: Brand New Day belongs in the longer route, not the minimum. It is the latest account of Peter Parker’s life after No Way Home and contains connective tissue to characters now moving through the wider MCU. That makes it useful recent context for a committed catch-up.

It is not established as required. Tom Holland is absent from Marvel’s current Doomsday billing, and neither Marvel nor Sony has named Doomsday as the destination of Brand New Day’s story. Spider-Man may still appear; an incomplete cast list is possible. The evidence simply does not support making his film compulsory today.

What you can leave out

There is no compelling Doomsday-specific reason to add every post-Endgame release. Eternals, Hawkeye, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Secret Invasion, The Marvels, Echo, Agatha All Along and Ironheart may receive callbacks, but current public material does not make their plots necessary preparation.

The same rule applies throughout this guide: a returning actor does not automatically make the latest solo story mandatory. The question is not whether a project could be referenced. It is whether skipping it is likely to prevent you from understanding the crossover.

Do not turn Doomsday into homework

For the practical route, watch Loki Season 1, Multiverse of Madness, Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Add Endgame only if you need the refresher. Then use the longer route as a menu: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine for more multiverse crossings, Wakanda Forever and Brave New World for current teams, Brand New Day for recent Spider-Man context, and X-Men, X2 and Days of Future Past for returning mutant faces.

Doomsday still has to explain its own story. A catch-up guide should make the collision more rewarding, not punish anyone who stopped watching six years ago.