Welcome back to Reply All, a semi-regular conversation series between Robby and me about a variety of MCU topics. Since April, we’ve released two articles (#1, #2) as well as a Q&A-style interlude all about crafting a new way to watch the Multiverse Saga.

Longtime readers and listeners know that the original Friends From Work podcasts were structured around Robby’s unique Infinity Saga watch order- not release order, but also not quite chronological either. Instead, Robby shifted projects around, focusing on themes and how each project flowed into the next. You can find that original Infinity Saga order in the first article linked above or by visiting the FFW website’s rewatch page.

The Multiverse Saga has proven to be an infinitely more difficult watch order to crack. With twice the content (well over 100 hours!), several unforeseen external factors that shifted the release order around (pandemics, strikes, fired actors, etc.), and the small fact that the Saga is still incomplete, it has been a fun but frustrating experience to figure out. Robby and I have spilled thousands of words about it here, and thousands more behind the scenes.

But now, we are finally ready to reveal our Official FFW Watch Order for all the projects released between January of 2021 (WandaVision) and June of 2025 (Ironheart). This order is tentative and subject to change, especially as additional projects are released over the next 30 months, culminating with Avengers: Secret Wars in December 2027. We know many fans of the MCU and the pod will be embarking on rewatch journeys over the next year (several have already started), and we hope you’ll consider following our order and then jumping over to our Discord server to let us know how we did and offer feedback and suggestions.

THE MULTIVERSE SAGA

PART IV

1. WandaVision

2. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

3. Spider-Man: Far From Home

GREG: The beginning of the saga remains unchanged from Robby’s initial vision a couple of years ago.

ROBBY: This is a chapter about trying and failing to hold on to what was — from Wanda’s literal recreation of the past in WandaVision to the botched attempts to find a new Steve Rogers and Tony Stark in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Spider-Man: Far From Home, respectively. The ending of Far From Home emphasizes the futility of running it back, contrasting Peter’s identity reveal with his former mentor’s.

4. Eternals

5. Moon Knight

6. Thor: Love and Thunder

GREG: This section also remains unchanged from prior incarnations, focusing on Marvel’s version of “gods and monsters.”

ROBBY: This chapter showcases the unseen forces moving the pieces on the board we’ve known as the MCU. It’s a story of long-awaited events finally coming to fruition. It’s not about recreating the past. It’s about reframing it and revealing what’s been going on behind everything we’ve seen.

We learn of Celestials that predate the Infinity Stones themselves, god-like Eternals that have shaped the course of human history, and actual gods, not just from Earth, but from across the universe. Thor travels to the very center of the universe to meet Eternity personified and, in doing so, demonstrates what it truly means to be a god.

7. Loki: Season 1

8. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

9. Loki: Season 2

GREG: This is the first section that starts to deviate from Robby’s prior Phase 4 order. With Jonathan Majors fired from the studio, Robby had the brilliant idea to create a mini “Kang Trilogy” here, wrapping the two seasons of Loki around Quantumania. By the end of season 2, all (or at least most) of the rules of the multiverse are established, propelling the watch forward into true multiversal content.

ROBBY: The first season of Loki ends on the looming image of the statue of He Who Remains. Cut to Quantumania, which opens with Kang the Conqueror crash-landing in the Quantum Realm. It is a transition I really like. That movie ends with Scott terrified about what he may have unleashed, which leads right back into the second season of Loki. This order satisfyingly resolves Kang’s arc instead of giving the (mistaken) impression that Kang is being set up as the “big bad” on the horizon for the entire Saga.

PART V

10. Spider-Man: No Way Home

11. Hawkeye

12. Echo

13. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

14. Ms. Marvel

15. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

16. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

17. Ironheart

18. Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

GREG: This section of the watch order looks slightly different from the previous version. First of all, two recent projects (Echo and Ironheart) move up, closer to their chronological placement. And then Robby and I decided to flip Shang-Chi and Ms. Marvel and move Wakanda Forever later, now following She-Hulk. I’ll let Robby explain further.

ROBBY: I think our original order worked fine, with Echo leading into Wakanda Forever, but I don’t think it’s a transition that’s particularly additive. Echo flows more smoothly into Shang-Chi, and the new placement for Wakanda Forever allows us to take advantage of the joke in the She-Hulk finale. She-Hulk actually has several references to Wakanda throughout the series, so while it tonally doesn't fit at all, it was seemingly designed to lead into Wakanda Forever to some degree.

This new permutation also allows us to take advantage of the post-credits scene in Shang-Chi featuring Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers, which perfectly tees up the next two projects, Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk.

GREG: One other note about this section of the watch order- an ambitious viewer who wants extra credit could very easily slot a Sony Spider-Man rewatch in between Part IV and Part V, journeying through the three Tobey Maguire movies and the two featuring Andrew Garfield.

PART VI

19. Deadpool & Wolverine

20. The Marvels

21. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

22. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

23. Secret Invasion

24. Daredevil: Born Again S1

25. Captain America: Brave New World

26. Thunderbolts*

GREG: This is the section everyone has probably been waiting for. It has elicited the most discussion between Robby and me as we attempt to chart a path towards Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Ultimately, we landed on splitting Marvel’s Phase 4 and 5 into three distinct parts, and transitioning from Multiverse of Madness (where we encounter Patrick Stewart’s Professor X for the first time) directly into Deadpool & Wolverine and its focus on Earth-10005. And just as the transition from Part IV to V leaves room for a Sony Spider-Man rewatch, the transition from Part V to Part VI also lends itself to a FOX X-Men rewatch for anyone wishing to expand their journey.

Once Deadpool & Wolverine and The Marvels fell into place at the beginning of Part VI, the rest of the projects fell into place fairly easily, culminating in the first pseudo-Avengers movie of the entire Saga, Thunderbolts*.

ROBBY: Now this I like a lot. It fits much of what I’ve been trying to achieve with our order. At a certain point, I realized how much not having Avengers films messes with what I like to accomplish with a watch order. It is so much harder to make individual chapters feel standalone in the way Phases 1, 2, and 3 could. It would be like ordering the Infinity Saga without The Avengers or Age of Ultron.

One thing I was struggling with but hadn't cracked the code on was whether we could anchor each section to the introduction of another universe. I think this order helps accomplish that (with the help of Sony and FOX) and finishing with Thunderbolts* could springboard Part VII to begin with a journey to Earth-828. But we can leave that discussion for another day.

GREG: There you have it—our first crack at a Multiverse Saga Watch Order. Before wrapping things up, I want to answer a couple of questions you might have— namely, where are Agatha All Along and Werewolf By Night?

Robby and I decided to exclude those projects for now. Both are worthy of inclusion based on the quality of the projects. However, Werewolf By Night is the most disconnected live-action project to date, and is unlikely to be followed up on in either Avengers movie. In the case of Agatha, the show does have some tie-ins to both Ironheart and Multiverse of Madness, but we would like to see how next year’s Vision show follows up on Agatha before settling on a placement. So, we’ve chosen not to include either one at this point in time.

We look forward to your feedback on the watch order and hope you’ll consider testing it out over the next 12 months while everyone waits for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. What do you like? Where did we miss the mark? Where would you put the two projects we excluded? Please reach out and let us know. We also plan to update the watch order page on the FFW website to reflect these changes soon.

Happy Rewatching!

-Robby and Greg