Doctor Doom 101: The essential Marvel watch order before ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

Marvel is lining up a true multiverse mash-up — Avengers, the new Fantastic Four , and even the Fox-era X‑Men all sharing the same battlefield — with the big wild card being the reportedly cast Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. If you’re building a watchlist before the movie hits, here’s the cleanest path through the MCU and the legacy films that will make the payoffs land.

Avengers: Doomsday is currently slated to open in theaters December 18.

The backbone

Start with the core Avengers saga — it sets the relationships, rifts, and losses everything else builds on.

• The Avengers (2012) — The original team-up that locks in the chemistry between Stark, Rogers, Thor, Banner, Natasha and Clint.
• Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) — Key seeds for Wanda and Vision, and the first real fractures in the team.
• Captain America: Civil War (2016) — The Sokovia Accords split the heroes and introduce Spider- Man and Black Panther in a big way.
• Avengers: Infinity War (2018) — The Snap, the scale, the scars everyone still carries.
• Avengers: Endgame (2019) — Time heist, alternate timelines, major goodbyes — and the moment the MCU’s multiverse truly opens.

How the multiverse works

These lock in the rules (and dangers) of multiple realities — the language Doomsday will be speaking.

• Loki Season 1 (Disney+ ) — The TVA, variants, Nexus Events and the Sacred Timeline; the MCU’s multiverse user manual with heart.
• Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) — Three Spider-Men prove cross-franchise storytelling can hit on emotions, not just nostalgia.
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) — Incursions, dreamwalking, and the Illuminati (including a Charles Xavier variant) show just how messy universe-hopping gets.
• Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) — The Quantum Realm widens the lens on timelines and reality-level threats.

Character check-ins that matter

These aren’t just side quests — they reset where several major players stand before the next war.

• Black Widow (2021) — Fills Natasha’s post-Civil War gap and introduces Yelena Belova, Red Guardian, and Taskmaster, all of whom tie into the MCU’s current teams.
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) — Shuri takes the mantle; Namor and Talokan enter the picture; Wakanda’s political weight grows.
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) — Establishes Shang-Chi as a future leader and teases the mysterious Ten Rings energy.
• Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) — Thor’s headspace post-Endgame and the introduction of Love, who could matter going forward.

Fox-era primers

Doomsday is poised to fold in legacy mutants and mercs. A quick refresher kicks the nostalgia into gear and clarifies long-running relationships.

• X-Men (2000), X2 (2003), X‑Men: The Last Stand (2006), X‑Men: Days of Future Past (2014) — The core Professor X/Magneto era with Cyclops, Beast, Mystique, Nightcrawler and more.
• Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018) — Wade’s fourth-wall chaos and his on-again, off-again bromance with Colossus and company.
• Logan (2017) — A powerhouse farewell to Wolverine that deepens his history with Xavier and makes any return sting (in a good way).

The bridge to Doomsday

Recent and upcoming titles that directly set the table — from leadership to lineups to, reportedly, Doom himself.

• Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) — The clearest on-screen handoff between Fox’s world and the MCU, loaded with cross-universe cameos.
• Captain America: Brave New World (2025 ) — Sam Wilson truly takes the shield, positioning him to help rally a new Avengers-era roster.
• Thunderbolts (2025) — Yelena Belova, Red Guardian, Bucky Barnes, John Walker, Ghost and more test-drive teamwork on the MCU’s murkier side.
• The Fantastic Four (2025) — The First Family ’s MCU debut; its post‑credits scene is widely reported to tee up Doctor Doom’s arrival.
• The next Spider-Man movie (title TBA, reportedly 2026 ) — Continues Peter Parker’s story after No Way Home and is widely expected to dovetail into the next Avengers-sized crisis.

One optional but rewarding detour: WandaVision (Disney+). It’s not required homework, but it deepens Wanda’s grief and power set, which feeds straight into Multiverse of Madness and the MCU’s supernatural lane.

Avengers: Doomsday is currently planned to hit theaters on December 18.