One beauty of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that it contains stories within the larger story that you can watch on their own if it strikes your fancy. Here’s how to watch the Captain America movies in order, from the story of the boy from Brooklyn and beyond.
First and foremost, I’ll track Steve Rogers’ three-movie arc in the MCU as the Star-Spangled Man With a Plan. I’ll add some additional material and tell you where Chris Evans as Steve appears as Cap in the Avengers films, too. They’re not really necessary as long as you’re at least a little familiar with his friends from work, but it helps to know where they fall in the order. Ultimately, your Captain America marathon can be as long or as short as you like! It is entirely up to you. The order itself is not complicated–chronological and release order is the same. The only things I’m not including are the Evans cameos in Thor: The Dark World and Spider-Man Homecoming.
All of the below titles can be streamed on Disney+ and rented wherever you rent movies. You could also, if you’re feeling wild, buy a box set of the first three movies. And don’t forget about your local library!
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Let’s start at the very beginning. In the 2011 film, we meet Steve Rogers, a scrawny boy from Brooklyn who desperately wants to serve his country and fight fascist bullies in World War II. His pure heart makes him a perfect candidate for a super soldier serum under development by the Strategic Scientific Reserve, a top-secret military agency. At first, the government just wants to use Steve a.k.a. Captain America as a symbol. It isn’t until his friend Bucky Barnes is captured that he becomes a hero.
But then, alas, Bucky falls off a train and Steve falls into the ice. So clumsy! Decades later, S.H.I.E.L.D. (which was born out of the S.S.R.) uncovers his body and revives him.
Steve Rogers appears next in The Avengers (2012)
As the wholesome fish out of the water, Steve serves as an audience surrogate in the film. His particular blend of loyalty and skepticism (plus punching) makes him an asset on the superhero team.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
After The Avengers, Steve Rogers adjusts to his life as a man out of time. He even makes a new friend in fellow veteran and counselor Sam Wilson, a.k.a. The Falcon. But the past comes back to haunt him when an assassin targetting Nick Fury turns out to be Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. the Winter Soldier and a.k.a. his best friend. Since disappearing during WWII, Bucky has been brainwashed, given super strength and a bionic arm, and kept in a cryostasis container between missions.
Steve Rogers appears next in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Sam and Steve briefly mention the search for Bucky, but otherwise, Cap takes something of a backseat in this film. Wanda’s illusions do reveal his inability to move on from World War II and live his life. But the most notable thing he does is tear a log in half with his bare hands.
Agent Carter Seasons 1 & 2 (2015-2016)
Cap is technically not in this show. Watching this does break the release and chronological time continuum because it takes place chronologically between five minutes before the end of The First Avenger and five minutes between the end of Avengers: Endgame. However, this is my list, and I say that true fans of Captain America in the MCU should include the series about his former (and maybe future, whatever) best girl. Not only does it center characters from The First Avenger but it’s thematically as much of a Captain America story as any of the films. If you really want to be a completist, start with the Agent Carter one-shot as well.
The first season digs into how both Peggy Carter and Howard Stark mourn losing Steve. There’s an incredible bit in an early episode about a radio program that portrays Peggy as a damsel in distress. Some of the Howling Commandos make a brief appearance. You get to meet the OG Jarvis, the butler who went on to raise Tony Stark, and he’s a hoot! Peggy even has her very own Black Widow, though they’re not always on the same team. In the second season, Peggy gets her groove back and becomes even more of a hero in her own right. She does what Steve is actually never able to do–she moves on.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
The third Captain America film, and for all intents and purposes the end of the Steve Rogers trilogy involves so many MCU heroes (and introduces Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man) that it feels more like Avengers 2.5 than Captain America 3. However, it is a continuation of his story. Cap may be a symbol of patriotism, but Steve Rogers has always forged his own path and pushed back against the institutions that seek to control him. In the first movie, it was the U.S. Army. In the second, it was the U.S. government. And in the third, it was the Avengers themselves. Oh, and Tony Stark also learned that Steve sorta knew that his BFF Bucky killed Howard and Maria Stark whilst brainwashed. He kind of forgot to tell him, and it caused a whole thing!
Steve Rogers appears next in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
At the start of the duology, Steve and “Team Cap” are on the run after refusing to sign the Sokovia Accords (and some other things) in Civil War. They got up to stuff. Steve also grew a beard. After half of the universe gets snapped away, he eschews Avengers leadership and runs a support group. The gang finally reunites and pulls a time heist where Steve revisits some events and people from his past, and puts the world right again. When the battle is done, Steve “retires” by going back in time to live out his days with Peggy–who despite multiple promotions and love interests on Agent Carter seems to be living single in the suburbs with not much else going on. He also officially passes the torch shield to Sam.
Are Steve and Peggy in a new timeline that he created with this choice? Or was Steve actually Peggy’s husband all along, and she neglected to tell him this in her old age? When he kissed Sharon Carter, was he kissing his own niece? Amazingly, almost five years later Big Marvel still has not answered definitively. Do not try to ‘splain it to me in the comments! I’ve done the research! I’ve been on the ground! You can find interviews that “confirm” both possibilities. Ugh!!
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier (2021)
Like Agent Carter, this Marvel television series features cast and characters from the Captain America movies but not Steve Rogers himself. Unlike Agent Carter, this series features not one, or two, but three characters who carry the moniker “Captain America.” Sam Wilson isn’t sure whether or not he wants to step into Steve Rogers’ footsteps. So, the government stepped in and offered the “job” of Captain America to a soldier named John Walker. Sam knows that symbolically representing the United States would be different for him as a Black man in America. He then meets Isaiah Bradley, a Korean War veteran and supersoldier, who was experimented on and imprisoned by both the US and Hydra. This confirms Sam’s worst fears and more. But when Walker goes rogue and shames the Captain America name, Sam reluctantly steps up and claims it for himself.
Captain Carter appears in What If Season 1 and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.
Let’s not talk about those.
Captain America: Brave New World (2024)
We don’t know what’s to come in the fourth Captain America film, but the first to be led by Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson. Can he be Captain America on his own terms? We’ll still have to wait to find out.
