MCU After Endgame Ranked
Every Marvel Studios film released after Avengers: Endgame ranked to see if there’s still hope for the superhero cinematic universe in its second decade.
Six years ago, Marvel somehow pulled off the impossible with Avengers: Endgame, satisfyingly concluding over a decade of ambitious, intertwined, multi-instalment comic book storytelling featuring dozens of beloved characters and leaving auditoriums full of dedicated geeks whooping and weeping the world over. Then they kept making more movies.
Two overriding themes mark out Phases Four and Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: superheroes passing on the mantle and the implications of living in a multiverse. As has been commented on by every pop culture critic worth their salt (and plenty who are not) this has been far from a runaway success, the latter direction in particular coming under fire for over-complicating things and ultimately making it more difficult to care about many of these new characters and their ongoing adventures. It’s an unavoidable fact that many of these films seem less focused, new characters aren’t given the time they need to make any real impact and the many pressures on the film industry have often been in evidence in the final product.
It’s not been all bad though, in fact a lot of it is much better than jaded superhero fatigued critics might suggest. There have been moments of brilliance, revelatory casting and many of the films released since 2019 could be considered in the upper tier of Marvel’s output to date. So without further ado, from worst to best, here are all 15 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies released post-Endgame ranked.
15. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
Scott Lang/Ant-Man and the whole Pym/Van Dyne family are forcefully transported to the microverse of the Quantum Realm, where they face exiled time-travelling warrior Kang (Jonathan Majors) and his designs for escaping into the wider universe to bring order through conquest.
Rounding off the Ant-Man trilogy and introducing the (now cancelled) big bad Kang the Conqueror, Quantumania was nevertheless a huge disappointment. This was supposed to load the bases for the next big Avengers crossover event but real-world controversies forced Marvel to backtrack and belatedly course correct, making most of the stuff here that isn’t directly Ant-Man related seem like a waste of time. There were sparks of imagination here and a fun family science-fantasy adventure to be had, but it’s too muddled and busy and the strain on overworked VFX teams shows.
14. Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
Now wielding Steve Rogers’ vibranium shield as the new Captain America, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) faces a global conspiracy revolving around President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford), who is hiding a big red rage-monster-y secret.
It wasn’t looking great for Marvel at the start of 2025. For all the heart Mackie brings to this, and as entertaining as Ford’s no-F’s-given period of his career is, Brave New World misses the mark in several respects. The action is solid, but this was very obviously a victim of late re-shoots and re-edits. What could have been a timely thriller with a social conscience that confronted America’s relationship to race and iconography instead ends up politically de-fanged and almost completely lacking in any substance to back up its action.
13. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth) teams up with his ex Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), now empowered as the new bearer of the magic hammer Mjolnir to fight Gorr the God-Butcher (Christian Bale) and prevent him from living up to his moniker.
Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok was a welcome change for the MCU: visually arresting, self-aware and iconoclastic. Waititi’s return, Love and Thunder fails to strike the right balance or do much of interest with a potentially fascinating conflict between mortals and gods. Despite some good gags, memorable sequences like the black-and-white planetoid battle and good performances from Hemsworth, Portman and Bale (plus Russell Crowe having campy fun as Zeus), Waititi gets the tonal balance completely wrong. It doesn’t help either that he gives his own comic relief character Korg way too much screentime and the storytelling and visuals are frustratingly inconsistent.
12. The Marvels (2023)
A cosmic event triggered by the warlike alien Kree’s resource harvesting causes three superpowered individuals - Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) - to keep inconveniently swapping places across the universe.
Winning performances, warm surrogate sisterly chemistry between the core trio and some quite out-there comedic scenes are the saving grace of The Marvels. The rest of Nia DaCosta’s film is less successful, with standard-issue action, some jarring editing likely to disguise late-in-the-day story changes and some missed opportunities to delve into some darker subject matter. This was also one of Marvel’s biggest box office stumbles to date, especially in comparison to the stellar performance of Captain Marvel, which of course provided ammunition to worst kind of perpetually online culture warriors.
11. Black Widow (2021)
Between Avengers adventures, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) confronts her dark past, reconnecting with the sleeper agent family and fighting to stop an army of brainwashed assassins under the control of General Dreykov (Ray Winstone) from world domination.
Johansson and Florence Pugh really make this one, bringing to vivid life the strained relationship between traumatised adoptive sisters Natasha and Yelena. The scenes of them trying to navigate their highly unconventional family dynamic with “dad” Alexei and “mum” Melina (Rachel Weisz), where trained killers become children again before our eyes, are the undoubted highlight along with how they process their guilt over their past actions as assassins and more immediate threats to the world. It becomes a much more conventional superhero movie as it goes on, but Black Widow’s much-belated solo movie was just about worth the wait.
10. Eternals (2021)
For millennia, humanity’s progress has been guided by powerful extraterrestrial beings known as Eternals, until the day their mortal enemies the Deviants return and unveil their master’s ultimate plan for the Earth.
Chloe Zhao’s one and only blockbuster movie to date is ambitious, visually sumptuous and layered. It’s also unwieldy, over-stuffed and overly serious, and awkwardly tries to make mismatched genre elements from superhero movies and big idea sci-fi work in harmony. Still, you have to give credit for shooting for the stars, and the earnestness with which this elaborate space opera material is played should be admired, plus it was thrilling to see what a filmmaker like Zhao could do with this budget level and a starry ensemble.
9. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and teenage dimension-jumper America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) fight to save the multiverse from Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), who has been driven mad by grief.
Fans of WandaVision were understandably perturbed by some of the character decisions here in how Wanda well and truly goes off the deep end, but Multiverse of Madness still a more interesting sequel than many out there. Moments of real imagination and flashes of vintage Sam Raimi horror imagery overrides the MCU multiverse material he clearly had less interest in, plus Cumberbatch and Olsen really get some mileage out of playing warped, alt-universe versions of their characters.
8. Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) tries to save his universe from reality collapse with the help of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and both encounter a series of unlikely superhero and villain variants.
If you like the first two Deadpools, you’ll like this one, and if you have a weird affection for Marvel superhero movies before the MCU, you may come over all misty-eyed by the time the credits roll. The nuts and bolts of Deadpool & Wolverine aren’t anything special, but Marvel green-lighting a movie that mischievously takes its own universe down a peg or two is certainly entertaining. Reynolds and Jackman give the best performances of their careers and the combination of creative ultraviolence, crass comebacks and self-aware genre deconstruction makes this just the right movie to deliver to audiences on the verge of tuning out.
7. Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s (Tom Holland) school trip to Italy goes off the rails when he is bequeathed Tony Stark’s weaponised drone technology and is drawn into the machinations of a master of deception, Quentin Beck/Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal).
Coming hot on the heels of Endgame and tying up the Infinity Saga, Far From Home inevitably feels like a step down from that highest of highs, but it’s still got a lot going for it. Director John Watts gets the best out of his young cast, notably Holland and Zendaya, the teen comedy vibes are cute and the superhero stuff that deals with fake crime fighters and fooling gullible audiences with special effects feels pleasingly meta.
6. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
After the untimely passing of King T’Challa, Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright) navigates her grief and confronts her destiny as the new bearer of the Black Panther mantle, just as Namor (Tenoch Huerta) and the Atlanteans launch an invasion of the surface world.
Wakanda Forever set director Ryan Coogler the nearly impossible task of paying tribute to its dearly departed star and meaningfully continuing the wider story of the advanced African nation and allowing characters to grow. Coogler and his design team (notably returning Hannah Beachler and Ruth E. Carter) balances the big emotions of the story with bold visuals, and this ensures that while the final film inevitably feels like it is attempting a few too many things at once, it is still visually arresting and soulful.
5. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
Secret martial arts master Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) is on the run from his immortal warlord father Wenwu (Tony Leung) and fights to defend a mythical lost land of Ta Lo from his criminal syndicate who seek to exploit its power gifted from a dragon god.
Sadly the only notable solo movie for a new Marvel hero over the last six years, Shang-Chi stands out with its ambitious Hong Kong-influenced fight scenes (designed by the late great Brad Allen) and through exploring Chinese mythology and expat culture through a vivid genre lens. Why we haven’t had a sequel to this yet is frankly baffling, but in this one you do get charming performances from Simu Liu and Awkwafina and Tony Leung playing a charismatic villain who can go all Dynasty Warriors on entire armies.
4. Spider-Man No: Way Home (2021)
After his secret identity is revealed to the world, Peter Parker (Holland) asks Doctor Strange (Cumberbatch) to cast a spell to make everyone forget him, inadvertently causing a fissure in reality that allows multiple villains and two other Spider-Men (Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield) to arrive in Peter’s universe.
The most fun and balanced attempt at exploring the Marvel multiverse to date (not counting Sony’s Spider-Verse movies), No Way Home juggles a lot of competing elements but ends up as an affecting, exciting genuine crowd-pleaser. It’s not the least bit surprising that this helped revive cinema attendance post-pandemic by providing comic book fans with sights beyond their wildest dreams and plenty of cheer-worthy moments from the frankly ridiculous ensemble cast.
3. Thunderbolts* (2025)
A group of failed heroes, vigilantes and mercenaries headed by Yelena Balova (Florence Pugh) reluctantly team up after being sent to kill each other and soon discover a path to redemption while fighting a powerful foe.
The first sign that in 2025 Marvel might be on the up and up again. Thunderbolts* was a funny, pacey and surprisingly profound blockbuster about confronting depression and finding somewhere to belong. Pugh, David Harbour and Lewis Pullman all deliver among the most affecting performances in the MCU and something that could have been just another Suicide Squad ended up being one of the most refreshing new takes on a sort-of superhero movie in years. Here’s hoping all of these characters are given plenty to do in the upcoming Avengers movies, because Marvel needs to make the most of the real assets they’ve uncovered in this phase of their cinematic universe.
2. The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
In an alternate universe, super-family the Fantastic Four (Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach) face new parenthood and defending their world from the Devourer of Worlds, Galactus (Ralph Ineson).
Further confirmation that MCU movies in 2025 have still got it. Back-to-basics in its storytelling, but determinedly character-based, earnest and hopeful, First Steps, Marvel demonstrated Marvel finally getting their First Family right on the big screen. The chemistry between Pascal, Kirby, Quinn and Moss-Bacharach is off the charts and their adventure is pleasingly old-fashioned and keen to deliver the kind of spectacle more common in classic sci-fi than modern superhero movies, where not every action scene has to be a fight and close relationships fuel every moment of jeopardy.
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
Scrappy intergalactic defenders the Guardians, chiefly scoundrel Peter Quill/Starlord (Chris Pratt) and cyborg animal inventor Rocket Racoon (Bradley Cooper), face the trauma of their past and fight to stop eugenicist scientist the High Evolutionary’s (Chukwudi Iwuji) dastardly experiments.
It’s not even close, if we’re honest. It’s the old story: boy makes successful movie about obscure comic characters, boy makes successful sequel about same comic characters, boy is fired by studio after a bad-faith right wing campaign, boy makes successful sequel for studio rivals about obscure comic characters, boy is re-hired by apologetic original studio to compete his trilogy.
Guardians Vol. 3 is a truly emotional experience that allows writer-director Gunn to wear his passions proudly in a frankly wild twisted sci-fi adventure, and he is able give the characters he has shepherded so lovingly for a decade the best possible sendoff. Marvel were foolish to let him end up working for their rivals as this is the kind of energy, imagination and heart all comic book movies need to keep them as must-watch multiplex viewing rather than repetitive obligations.
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