Essential MCU Shows to Watch Before Avengers: Doomsday

The list of things you need to watch before the release of Avengers: Doomsday has been steadily growing for years, but there are actually only three MCU shows you need to watch to understand the next crossover movie. Since the Multiverse Saga began after Avengers: Endgame, the MCU has released 14 movies, with Spider-Man: Brand New Day slated to be the final installment before Doctor Doom’s emergence.

Most of the important context and developments needed for Doomsday comes from those movies. There are some important Multiverse Saga movies you need to watch before Doomsday, such as Fantastic Four: First Steps, that have important moments, like Doom kidnapping Franklin Richards. Watching all those movies is still a tall order, but luckily, you don’t have to watch nearly as many of the MCU shows on Disney+.

WandaVision, Loki, And What If…? Are The Only MCU Shows You Need To Watch Before Avengers: Doomsday

Wanda and Vision embrace in WandaVision

The only MCU shows you need to watch before Avengers: Doomsday are WandaVision, What If…? and Loki. There are, of course, important bits of information in many of the other shows that would be nice to know. Hawkeye, for example, introduced Kate Bishop taking over for Clint Barton, while Ironheart is important to understanding who took over after Tony Stark’s death, but you don’t need to watch them to understand Doomsday.

Loki, What If…?, and WandaVision, on the other hand, are going to be extremely important context for Doomsday. WandaVision, for example, explains the Scarlet Witch’s villainous turn and the importance of Vision’s death and who White Vision is. Meanwhile, Loki is essential to understanding the multiverse that Doctor Doom is surely going to utilize, as is What If…?

For the rest of the MCU’s myriad of shows, a cursory understanding of their biggest moments should be enough. You don’t need to watch all of Secret Invasion, for example, to understand who the Skrulls are and what powers they have. What If…?, Loki, and WandaVision, on the other hand, do a lot of heavy lifting with explaining the multiverse, important character changes, and giving viewers context for Doctor Doom’s arrival.

Avengers: Doomsday Can’t Assume That Audiences Have Seen Every Single MCU Show

Watcher and Captain Carter after battle in What If…? season 2

The fact that you only need to watch three MCU television shows is also a very good thing for Avengers: Doomsday. To date, there are currently well over a dozen live-action MCU television shows, with others like VisionQuest and Wonder Man on the way. Watching all of them would take literal days of viewing. It’s completely unreasonable to expect casual viewers to watch all those shows just to understand Doomsday.

If Doomsday did assume that its viewers had fully watched every MCU television show, it would instantly alienate a huge part of its audience. It wasn’t unreasonable to ask viewers to watch all the MCU movies and shows leading up to Avengers: Infinity War because there simply weren’t as many. Now, six years later, there’s a mountain of content to watch that most people simply haven’t completed.

It wasn’t even reasonable to assume general audiences would watch all 16 movies in the Multiverse Saga, let alone the hundreds of hours of content from long-form serialized stories. Superhero fatigue is real, and the MCU didn’t command nearly as much attention after Endgame as it did before. Avengers: Doomsday really wouldn’t be able to succeed if you needed to watch more MCU TV shows.