What each order means
Release order lists titles by their first US release date: cinema release for films, premiere on Disney+ for series. It is a plain fact, so every guide agrees on it.
Story order, also called chronological order, lists titles by when their events happen. It is an interpretation, because films jump around in time, run in parallel, or never say what year they are set in. Two guides can disagree on story order and both have a case.
Why release order is the safer first watch
- Later films assume you have seen earlier ones. A prequel made in 2019 may show you something a 2012 film kept hidden.
- Credits scenes point forward in release order. Many tease the next film to come out, not the next one in the timeline.
- The effects and tone change with the years. Jumping from a 2019 film back to a 2008 one and forward again can feel uneven.
When story order is better
- On a rewatch, when the surprises are already spent.
- For a franchise with a clear in-world history, where seeing events in sequence makes cause and effect easier to follow.
- For the X-Men films, many viewers like seeing the 1960s to 1990s films first, because the series restarted with a younger cast in 2011.
Where our story orders come from
- Marvel: the timeline order Disney+ publishes, as recorded on Wikipedia. Titles Disney+ does not list are placed by us, and each says why.
- X-Men: there is no official order, so ours sorts the films by the year in which most of each one takes place, from its Wikipedia plot summary.
- Spider-Man: each run of films is its own continuity and was released in story order, so the two orders are the same.
The Marvel planner switches between both orders with one tap and keeps your ticks either way.