Well, you would have to watch the first Iron Man, because it not only kicked off the MCU, but also introduced Tony Stark to the wider world. Iron Man I provides as accurate a picture of the man that drove the MCU for 10 years, as you could ever hope to get, distilling Robert Downey Junior’s character down to a simple, easily digestible meal.
After that, Captain America: The First Avenger would be your next stop. Now some people might make an argument for The Winter Soldier. And no doubt, the second Captain America movie is one of the best comic book movies Hollywood has ever produced. But The First Avenger deserves the second spot here because it features Steve Rogers at his most innocent before the world ultimately jaded him.
The First Avenger will tell you why Rogers is the heart of the Avengers team, its moral compass, a man that is so thoroughly outmatched in the grander cosmic scheme but who simply refuses to bend in the presence of injustice.
And once you have met Captain America, then you might as well skip the line to Thor Ragnarok. Yes, it’s the third movie in the Thor franchise, but Ragnarok was the canvas on which the Thor Odinson of Avengers: Endgame was painted. It was in Ragnarok that the hero lost some of his brooding edges and gained some much-needed color.
That is not to say that the first three incarnations of the character were somehow inferior. But if you need to understand the Thor that will appear in Endgame, then you might as well make Ragnarok your first encounter with the Greek god.
With those three characters out of the way, your next stop has to be the first Guardians of the Galaxy because it finally takes the MCU story to space, not to mention introducing a few of the surviving guardians that will feature in Endgame.
With all your major players finally introduced, you can just sprint to the finish line. I did not like Captain Marvel, but you need to watch it to meet Carol Danvers. Now, that technically makes five movies. But if you choose to watch at least one of these movies a day, that leaves you two whole days in the week to fill.
So, you might as well watch Captain America: Civil War to get a better sense of the event that fractured the Avengers before Thanos’ arrival. Better yet, find a way to fit the first Avengers movie in between Captain America I and Ragnarok. You need to see earth’s mightiest heroes meet one another for the first time.
That makes seven movies, but it does not count Infinity War, which you obviously cannot avoid watching, because it is the first part of the two-part Infinity War/Endgame story. I have managed to watch all 22 MCU movies in the last three weeks. So, eight movies should be child’s play; do not miss out on the biggest movie event of the decade.
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