The question we are getting a ton right now is, “what Marvel movies should you watch before going to see ‘Avengers: Endgame’?” It’s not an easy question to answer, as there have been 21 movies released in the last 11-or-so years. With just over two weeks until the most anticipated movie of all time releases, watching all 21 movies would be tough. Even if you had the time, watching all of them really isn’t necessary to be well-prepared for the release of ‘Avengers: Endgame’.

With this being such a “pivotal” answer, I figured the opinion of one man would not be the most efficient way to go about making a list. I decided to enlist an audience vote (which garnered thousands of votes) and Marvel movie experts KenJac (Lights Camera Barstool), Robbie Fox (My Mom’s Basement), Coley Mick (Mickstape) and Fran (Chicks In The Office). The votes were all weighted by 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th place, with a slight bump to the point values of the “expert” votes. After compiling all of the data, we landed on our ranking of all 21 movies in order of viewing importance. Let’s review all four tiers…

The most obvious choice off the top, and the leading vote-getter (it garnered 44.5% of all possible points) is ‘Avengers: Infinity War’. Yes, no shit, the movie that came before the sequel is a “must-watch” before going to see ‘Endgame’. I’d actually argue that you could only watch ‘Infinity War’ and still be in good shape for the new movie. At #2 we have 2012′ ‘The Avengers’, the team-up movie that started it all. I did not have this on my “must-watch” before ‘Infinity War’ because I felt you could get the gist by watching the more recent team-up movies. This is very much not the case now and there is one massive reason why: time travel. All indications are that the Avengers will go back in time in ‘Endgame’ and, along the way, they will revisit the Battle of New York from the first Avengers movie. Having an understanding and recognizing the events of that movie will certainly add to how well you connect with ‘Endgame’. When I say “more recent team-up” movies, I am mostly referring to ‘Captain America: Civil War’. An important movie in this 21 movie story arc, ‘Civil War’ covers so many bases. You get to see the rift between Captain America and Iron Man, get introduced to Spider-Man and Black Panther (with quick, yet effective, backstories) and the emotional importance of Bucky Barnes is explained for the characters. Captain America and Iron Man will reunite in ‘Endgame’ and understanding that dynamic is surely a major key. The last two movies to round out the Top 5 are the cosmic movies of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and ‘Thor: Ragnarok’. Thanos makes his debut in ‘Guardians’ and his relationship with Gamora and Nebula is established for the first time in the MCU. We also get our first look at an Infinity Stone in its final form and a great breakdown of what exactly stones are and their meaning to the Universe. Meanwhile, ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ fills in the gaps from ‘Civil War’ left absent by Thor and the Hulk. You get to see Thor develop his new powers and mindset, as well as the beginning to the push-pull relationship between Bruce Banner and the Hulk, which will surely be resolved in ‘Endgame’.

The first two movies in Tier 2 are essentially locked up at #6A and #6B. Both ‘Doctor Strange’ and ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ give expansive breakdowns of the Quantum Realm. All time travel rumors for ‘Avengers: Endgame’ are tied to the idea that the Avengers will be traveling through the Quantum Realm. Not understanding this aspect of the movie, as well as not seeing the post-credit scene to ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’, would likely hurt your viewing experience of ‘Endgame’. You might be saying “those need to be Top 5 to understand the Quantum Realm!” Counterpoint: There is no chance they don’t give a thorough explanation of this in ‘Endgame’. The only alive character to understand the Quantum Realm is Ant-Man, he is going to need to explain it to the Avengers. Any movie involving an Infinity Stone (the Mind Stone in Vision) belongs in a Top 10, and that’s why ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ is slotted in at #8. While we might get a bit of a look at Captain Marvel and who she is in ‘Endgame’, the vitally important character does have her own solo movie. The movie was meant to be seen right before ‘Endgame’, so it makes sense giving it a watch. Round out the Top 10 is ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2′ another movie important to understanding Thanos. He might not be in the movie, but you get a great sense at how important Nebula’s mission is to take down her Mad Titan father.

Slowly but surely the movies on this list are becoming less and less important to see. ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ is underrated in my eyes. It has the Space Stone in Tesseract form as well as the appearance of Red Skull, a character connected to the Soul Stone in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’. You could argue ‘Iron Man’ being the first movie makes it important and that Bucky Barnes’ involvement in ‘Captain Amerca: Winter Soldier‘ helps flesh his character our more, but I don’t really believe in their rewatch impact. The important things from ‘Thor: The Dark World’ and ‘Ant-Man’ (the Reality Stone and the Quantum Realm) are both explained better in future movies.

‘Black Panther’ is a good movie, and you get to meet a bunch of pivotal characters, but you already get a good look at T’Challa in ‘Civil War’ and much of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ is already set in Wakanda. ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ establishes the father-son-like relationship between Tony Stark and Peter Parker, but the most emotional scene for the two of them already happens in ‘Infinity War’. The rest of these movies are not really important whatsoever.

I imagine you’re asking, “what about ‘The Incredible Hulk’!?”

No.

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That’s it! There are the rankings. Good luck catching up on these movies and don’t worry, we are very close to finally getting to ‘Avengers: Endgame’.