Key Marvel Movies Missing From Disney’s Official Avengers: Doomsday Watchlist

On December 18, Marvel Studios will release its biggest film since Avengers: Endgame with Avengers: Doomsday. While official plot details remain unconfirmed, the storyline centers on multiversal incursions, where entire realities collide and risk total destruction. Current expectations point to the primary Marvel Cinematic Universe, designated Earth-616, clashing with the alternate reality from The Fantastic Four: First Steps and a version of Fox’s X-Men universe featuring comic-accurate suits.

To prepare audiences for the crossover, Marvel released an official watchlist on Disney Plus. The catalog spans decades of comic book adaptations, including:

• X-Men
• X2
• Captain America: The First Avenger
• The Avengers
• Avengers: Infinity War
• Avengers: Endgame
• Loki
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
• Spider-Man: No Way Home
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
• Captain America: Brave New World
• Deadpool & Wolverine
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
• Thunderbolts*
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps

The marathon demands dozens of hours, yet several essential films are absent. Three notable omissions leave major narrative gaps ahead of the upcoming ensemble.

Captain America: Civil War

The Disney Plus watchlist jumps directly from 2012’s The Avengers to 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. While skipping Avengers: Age of Ultron is manageable despite Tony Stark introducing the idea of a suit of armor around the world, omitting Captain America: Civil War breaks the continuity.

Civil War fractures the core superhero team. At the end of the original 2012 film, the group stands united. By the start of Avengers: Infinity War, the members are scattered across the globe, and Steve Rogers and Tony Stark are estranged. Skipping the 2016 release removes the emotional context behind the fractured team. Disney likely omitted the entry to keep the watch list from becoming overwhelming, but the story remains a vital pillar of the broader MCU narrative.

The Marvels

Marvel has not confirmed Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel, or Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau for the upcoming ensemble. Even so, the post-credits scene of The Marvels directly sets up multiversal crossover elements. The sequence strands Rambeau in an alternate reality alongside Kelsey Grammer’s Beast, which appears to be the same mutant timeline featured in the new film.

If Rambeau appears in the alternate dimension, viewers will need context for how she arrived there. The Marvels also summarizes the backstories of its three lead heroes, which removes the need to watch separate streaming series like WandaVision and Ms. Marvel. The omission may stem from an effort to avoid spoiling surprise cameos or Disney’s hesitation to highlight a box-office disappointment. The Marvels cost $374 million to produce and earned only $207 million worldwide, yet its final scene carries direct plot significance.

X-Men: The Last Stand

The 2006 sequel X-Men: The Last Stand receives regular criticism from fans, but the film marks the cinematic debut of Kelsey Grammer as Hank McCoy. Beast has appeared in recent promotional material, and his introduction in the third mutant movie establishes the live-action portrayal that carries into modern Marvel projects.

The continuity of the 2006 film complicates things, as the plot features the deaths of Professor X and Cyclops alongside Magneto losing his powers, even though these characters return later. Adding X-Men: Days of Future Past alongside the earlier trilogy would smooth out those timeline discrepancies. Disney likely excluded the film because of its mixed reception, but Grammer’s presence makes the movie relevant to the returning cast.

Avengers: Doomsday arrives in movie theaters on December 18.

Source: Polygon