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About

Twenty years of films, one order

Snapline answers a simple question that has become very hard: in what order should you watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be ready for Avengers: Doomsday, when you don’t have 200 hours to spare?

Last updated: 16 September 2026 — Snapline was called Road To until that date.

The problem

The MCU now counts more than a hundred films and series, spread across several studios, several continuities and two sagas. Existing guides generally offer two answers, and both are poor.

Release order tells the story out of sequence: it shows you a revelation before the scene that sets it up. Chronological order is even worse: it moves flashbacks to their in-story date, which destroys the questions the films deliberately raise.

Above all, both share the same flaw: they are lists. A list doesn’t say what matters. It puts Iron Man and a four-minute short on the same line, and leaves the reader to decide alone.

The site’s answer

Snapline offers not a list but routes. Each route is a row of posters leading to a milestone film: Avengers Assemble, Age of Ultron, Endgame, Doomsday. You read from left to right, you see the destination at first glance, and you always know where you are.

Three principles govern everything else:

1. The order follows the post-credits scenes

It is the end of a film that tells you which one comes next — far better than its release date, and far better than the in-universe chronology. The final scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp is the snap seen from below: placing it before Infinity War would reveal the effect before the cause. So it comes after, against every official timeline.

2. The status describes a consequence, never a quality

Each title carries a status that answers one question only: what do I miss if I skip it?

None of these words says whether a film is any good. “A must-see” is a debatable judgement; “what follows doesn’t explain it again” is a verifiable observation. The site only does the latter.

3. Nothing gives away the ending of a film you can still go and see

Full summaries exist — ending included, for anyone who wants to refresh their memory without rewatching everything — but they are always folded behind a button labelled “Spoilers”. And for a film still in cinemas, the summary stops before the ending and says so.

What the site gives you

No account is required. No email, no name, no personal data requested — and that holds all the way: if you open an account to pick up where you left off on another device, it rests on a public username you choose and a four-digit code, nothing else. Everything you tick stays on your device unless you choose otherwise.

How it is made

Snapline is a static site: HTML, CSS and JavaScript, with no framework, no dependency and no build step. One exception only, and it does not touch the page you are reading: the function that checks access keys relies on a proven library, because security code is not written by hand. This choice is not nostalgia — it is what makes offline use real and what ensures the site will still work in five years’ time.

The editorial data — the order, the statuses, the role of each title — is the result of human research, judgement and checking. Three sources are cross-referenced, and they contradict each other: the official timeline published by Marvel, Wikipedia’s list of phases, and a community ranking of priorities. A written rule settles conflicts, in this order: a site rule already argued, then the official timeline, then the ranking, then the release date.

The code of this site was written with the assistance of Claude, Anthropic’s assistant. The research, editorial decisions, judgement calls and checks are human; the technical implementation is assisted. This transparency is repeated in the terms of use.

What it is not

Snapline is a personal, independent project, non-profit, with no advertising and no merchandise. It is not affiliated with, associated with, authorised or endorsed by Marvel Studios, The Walt Disney Company or any other producer, director or distributor of the works mentioned. It is not an official source and does not claim to be: it is a viewing guide, kept by someone who has done the sorting.

The details of these notices are in the legal notice and the terms of use. What is stored, where and why is explained on the Data & privacy page.

Photo credits

The actors’ portraits come from Wikimedia Commons, under free licences. For each one: the author and the licence.