It probably won’t come as much of a surprise, but if you want to be an MCU completist going forward, then the Disney+ Marvel shows are going to be mandatory. While before you could skip things like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Daredevil and be totally fine, the Disney+ Marvel shows are part of the fabric of the MCU going forward. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige explained to Bloomberg [via The Playlist]:

“If you want to understand everything in future Marvel movies, he says, you’ll probably need a Disney+ subscription because events from the new shows will factor into forthcoming films such as ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.’ The Scarlet Witch will be a key character in that movie, and Feige points out that the ‘Loki’ series will tie in, too. ‘I’m not sure we’ve actually acknowledged that before,’ he says. “But it does.’”

While you can argue that Marvel tried this gambit before with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., that was probably just wishful thinking on the part of all parties since there was no way to get a 22-episode-per-season network series to coincide perfectly with a series of movies. The Disney+ shows, on the other hand, are being personally overseen by Feige and they run on the schedule he wants between movies.

Some may cry foul that you’ll need a monthly subscription to keep up with the MCU, and if Disney+ only offered these Marvel shows and not much else, you might have a point. But since Disney has made a point to load up Disney+ with loads of content, I think it’s fair to say you’re getting your money’s worth unless you only care about Marvel to the exclusion of all else.

There are no official release dates for the Marvel series, but filming is currently underway on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which will be released in fall 2020. As for the other Marvel shows, we’re getting WandaVision and Loki in spring 2021, What If…? in summer 2021, and Hawkeye in fall 2021.