This is the end…

The world of Pop culture will remember April 2019 for two things: the release of Avengers: Endgame and the final series of Game of Thrones. Both mark the culmination of tentacular stories with many iconic characters which could die at the really end… or not.

As Game of Thrones approaches the midpoint of its final season*, Marvel, after eleven years and 22 movies, reaches a conclusion to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) with "Avengers: Endgame” coming into theaters on April 24.

Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans) and their fellow superheroes are getting a second shot at Thanos (Josh Brolin) after their brutal Infinity War defeat one year ago.

If you haven't seen all of the MCU movies, it would be a bit hard to go into this one filled with callbacks and meta winks to every movie in the series.

So, if you have the time, the main arc to watch or rewatch is the one with these three films : "Captain America: Winter Soldier" (2014), "Captain America: Civil War" (2016) and "Infinity War" (2018).

They are all directed by the Russo brothers and written by the same screenwriters, the same team who wrote and directed "Endgame”

 

What is the Marvel Cinematic Universe and why did Marvel start with these characters?

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is composed of 22 films. Each relates its own distinct story but is also connected with other films in the MCU, to tell an overarching tale. It's a technique Marvel Comics pioneer Stan Lee also used in his comics.

Some Marvel characters appear in films that don't connect to the MCU because in 2007 Marvel was recovering from bankruptcy and had sold the film rights of some of the company's most popular characters like the X-Men and Spider-Man.

Marvel still owned Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor and Captain America who form the core of the Avengers team.

Marvel used the early MCU films to introduce these heroes, then brought these characters together for the crossover film Avengers Assemble. This crossover was planned from the very beginning.

The MCU is the most successful film franchise of all time, making more than $18.4 billion so far.

 

Here is the complet list of the MCU films.

Iron Man (2008)

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Thor (2011)

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

The Avengers (2012)

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)

Avengers: Age Of Ultron (2015)

Ant-Man (2015)

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Doctor Strange (2016)

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Black Panther (2018)

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Ant-Man And The Wasp (2018)

Captain Marvel (2019)

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

 

 

*Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen and their allies are set to battle the White Walkers at Winterfell. The April 28 episode stands to be the biggest action sequence in the Emmy-winning drama's history!