When Avengers: Endgame ended in 2019, it felt as though Marvel had closed a gigantic book. Tony Stark was dead. Natasha Romanoff was dead. Steve Rogers had grown old, lived the life he never had with Peggy Carter, and handed the Captain America shield to Sam Wilson. Thor left with the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers, at least as we knew them, practically ceased to exist.

Seven years and an almost indecent number of movies and TV series later, they are finally coming together again in Avengers: Doomsday.

It is therefore the first Avengers movie since Endgame and the first time Marvel has tried again to do what, for more than a decade, was its great specialty: take apparently separate stories and prove that they were all moving toward the same place.

The difference is that this time, following the road has been considerably more exhausting. The good news is that you do not need to rewatch everything. The bad news is that there are some things you really do need to remember.

So here is my Avengers: Doomsday for Dummies.

First: Where Did We Leave the Avengers in Endgame?

Let us start with the basics.

Tony Stark died defeating Thanos. Natasha died on Vormir so the heroes could obtain the Soul Stone. Steve Rogers returned to the past, lived the life he had never been able to have with Peggy Carter, and eventually handed the Captain America shield to Sam Wilson. Thor survived. Hulk survived. Clint Barton survived. But the team Nick Fury had first assembled in 2012 effectively stopped existing. Since then, we have had heroes. We have had alliances. We have had crossovers.

What we have not had is another movie called Avengers.

Doomsday changes that. Marvel is bringing back Anthony and Joe Russo, directors of Infinity War and Endgame, and placing in front of them a cast that mixes Avengers, Wakandans, New Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and characters from the old X-Men movies.

Robert Downey Jr., however, is not simply returning as Tony Stark. He is playing Victor von Doom, Doctor Doom. And that is where the confusion begins.

WandaVision: Wanda Opened a Door That Never Really Closed

Even though it is a TV series, WandaVision is probably one of the most important stories of this entire new era.

After losing Vision, Wanda Maximoff unconsciously created an entire reality in Westview where she could live the family life she desperately wanted. She eventually had to destroy it and lose Vision, Billy, and Tommy all over again.

What matters for Doomsday is not memorizing everything that happened in Westview.

It is remembering that Wanda became the Scarlet Witch, and that Marvel began using reality, magic, and parallel universes as central parts of its storytelling. She apparently died in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

“Apparently” and “Marvel,” naturally, should always be used cautiously in the same sentence.

Do you need to rewatch it?

Important, especially alongside Doctor Strange 2.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: There Is a New Captain America

Steve Rogers is no longer Captain America in the main MCU timeline. Sam Wilson is.

The series followed Sam’s initial reluctance to take up the shield, the US government’s attempt to create another Captain America, and, eventually, Sam accepting the role Steve had chosen for him.

This matters because Sam is now one of the most natural people to try to rebuild the Avengers.

Do you need to rewatch it?

Not necessarily. Just remember: Sam Wilson = Captain America.

Black Widow: Forget Natasha for a Moment and Remember Yelena

Black Widow takes place before Natasha’s death, so it might seem relatively unimportant. It is not. The movie introduced Yelena Belova, Natasha’s adoptive sister and one of the characters who has grown the most since Endgame.

Florence Pugh later returned in Hawkeye and then Thunderbolts*, turning Yelena into something close to Natasha’s emotional successor, even if she is not simply replacing Black Widow.

What do you need to remember?

Natasha died. Yelena stayed. And she carries much of Natasha’s legacy without necessarily wanting to become her.

Do you need to rewatch it?

No. But you do need to know who Yelena is.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: Those Rings Still Need an Explanation

This may be one of Marvel’s biggest cases of “remember this?”

Shang-Chi ends with Wong examining the Ten Rings alongside Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers. They discover that the artifacts are extremely old and appear to be sending some kind of signal. To whom?

Years later, we are still waiting for the answer. With Shang-Chi now part of the larger Avengers picture again, there is a good chance Marvel will finally explain why that movie ended by essentially looking directly at the audience and saying:

“This will matter later.”

Do you need to rewatch it?

At least remember the ending.

Eternals: A Giant Celestial Is Sticking Out of the Earth, and Everyone Pretended It Was Normal

Eternals ended with one of the hardest images to ignore in the entire MCU: the Celestial Tiamut partially emerging from Earth before being turned to stone.

For years, almost nobody in the MCU seemed particularly concerned that there was an enormous cosmic being sticking out of the ocean.

Captain America: Brave New World finally remembered it existed.

Materials connected to Tiamut became strategically valuable and created a new source of geopolitical tension.

Do you need to rewatch it?

No.

Just remember this: There is a petrified Celestial in the ocean, and its remains have become strategically important.

Spider-Man: No Way Home: The Multiverse Stopped Being a Theory

This is a genuinely important piece. Peter Parker asked Doctor Strange to make the world forget that he was Spider-Man. Everything went wrong. Characters from other universes began crossing into the MCU, and in the end, Strange had to cast an even more drastic spell: Nobody remembers Peter Parker anymore. But for Doomsday, the larger point is even more important.

No Way Home proved definitively that characters from completely different movie franchises can coexist through the multiverse.

Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield appeared alongside Tom Holland.

After that, almost any door was open.

Do you need to rewatch it?

Yes, at least the ending.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Learn One Word — Incursion

This may be the single most important concept you need for Doomsday. Doctor Strange travels across multiple universes while trying to protect America Chavez, a young woman who can move between realities. The movie introduces alternate universes, variants, and the Illuminati. But above all, it introduces a crucial idea: incursions.

An incursion happens when two universes collide, threatening to destroy one or both of them. And what appears to be at the center of Doomsday? Heroes from different realities are on a collision course.

This is not just another multiverse detail.

It is likely the heart of the story that will lead from Doomsday into Avengers: Secret Wars.

Do you need to rewatch it?

Yes. One of the essentials.

Thor: Love and Thunder: Thor Is a Father Now

You can forget most of the rest. Jane Foster died after temporarily wielding Mjolnir and becoming the Mighty Thor. Thor ended the movie taking care of Love, Gorr’s daughter. Thor remains one of the very few original Avengers still active. But there is an important difference between this Thor and the man who faced Thanos: Now he has someone to lose.

Do you need to rewatch it?

No.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: Wakanda Lost T’Challa and Gained a New Black Panther

After T’Challa’s death, Shuri took on the mantle of Black Panther. The movie also introduced Namor and Talokan, a powerful underwater civilization, and revealed that T’Challa had a son with Nakia. For Doomsday, the essential thing is that Wakanda remains one of the MCU’s major powers, but it is now led by a new generation.

Shuri, M’Baku, and Wakanda remain part of this larger board.

Do you need to rewatch it?

No, but remember that Shuri is now Black Panther.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: The Big Plan Marvel Changed Along the Way

This may be the great archaeological curiosity of Marvel’s post-Endgame era. Quantumania was supposed to be a major building block for the Kang storyline. Kang, his variants, and the Council of Kangs were clearly being set up as the great threat that would eventually culminate in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. That movie no longer exists.

Marvel changed course, Kang stopped being the central villain, and Doctor Doom took over the larger storyline.

So what might still matter?

The Quantum Realm, the idea of variants, and Cassie Lang as part of the younger generation of heroes.

Do you need to rewatch it?

Probably not.

More than any other movie, it now feels connected to an abandoned version of Marvel’s future.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: The Guardians We Knew Are Over

Peter Quill returned to Earth. Gamora went her own way. Rocket took over a new Guardians lineup. Drax and Nebula stayed on Knowhere. In other words, the old team ended.

So far, nothing suggests Guardians 3 is fundamental to understanding Doomsday.

Do you need to rewatch it?

No.

You may rest.

You have earned it.

The Marvels: Monica Rambeau Fell Into the Wrong Universe

The movie may not have been one of Marvel’s biggest successes, but its ending is extremely important. Monica Rambeau uses her powers to close a rupture in space and ends up trapped in another reality. There she finds her mother, Maria Rambeau, alive as an alternate version of herself. And most importantly, she encounters Hank McCoy, Beast, once again played by Kelsey Grammer.

In other words, the X-Men officially entered Marvel’s multiverse game.

Doomsday brings back characters associated with the old Fox X-Men films, including Professor X, Magneto, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Mystique, and Beast.

The Marvels helped open that door.

Do you need to rewatch it?

Just the ending.

Honestly.

Loki: Stop Everything. This May Be the Most Important Series

If you are only going to rewatch one series before Doomsday, make it Loki. Especially Season 2.

Loki discovers that what everyone once called the “timeline” is far more complicated than anyone understood. By the end, he literally takes responsibility for holding together countless branching timelines, becoming something like the guardian of the multiverse itself. And Loki is part of the larger Doomsday picture. That is probably not a coincidence.

He began as the villain who forced the Avengers to come together for the first time in 2012. He may now become one of the figures who explain why they need to come together again.

Do you need to rewatch it?

YES. In capital letters.

Deadpool & Wolverine: The Fox Universe Is Officially Part of the Game

Deadpool & Wolverine did something that would once have seemed impossible. It openly absorbed the history of the old Fox superhero movies into Marvel’s multiverse. Wolverine returned. Blade appeared. Elektra appeared. Gambit appeared.

Discarded characters, dead franchises, and abandoned cinematic universes suddenly became part of one larger narrative logic.

That matters enormously because Doomsday appears ready to do something similar on a much larger scale with the X-Men.

Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Alan Cumming, and Kelsey Grammer are among the veterans brought back into the picture.

Do you need to rewatch it?

Yes.

More for the logic of the multiverse than for the specific plot.

Captain America: Brave New World: Sam Needs a Team

This matters because it repositions the Avengers inside Marvel’s political world. Sam Wilson is no longer simply trying to prove that he deserves the shield. He is Captain America. And he now operates in a world without Steve Rogers, without the old Avengers structure, and without the certainty that there even is an Avengers team anymore.

The obvious question becomes: Who exactly are the Avengers now?

Doomsday will have to answer that.

Do you need to rewatch it?

Recommended.

Thunderbolts*: Surprise, They Are the New Avengers

Now we arrive at what is probably one of the movies most directly connected to Doomsday.

Yelena, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, John Walker and Bob/Sentry become an extremely unlikely team.

And then comes the reveal:

They are presented as the New Avengers.

This creates a wonderfully messy problem.

Sam Wilson should theoretically be rebuilding the Avengers.

Valentina Allegra de Fontaine now has another team effectively using the same legacy.

Doomsday therefore does not begin with “the Avengers.”

It begins with multiple groups carrying, claiming or competing for different versions of what that name means.

And several members of Thunderbolts* are directly tied to the new Avengers lineup.

Do you need to rewatch it?

Yes. Absolutely.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps: They Are Not From the Same Universe

This one is essential.

The Fantastic Four do not originally live on the same Earth as the Avengers.

Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm come from another universe, one with a retrofuturistic 1960s-inspired aesthetic.

That matters enormously because Doomsday brings together characters from different realities, and the Fantastic Four are one of the central groups involved.

There is also another obvious reason they matter:

Doctor Doom is historically one of the characters most deeply connected to the Fantastic Four.

Reed Richards and Doom are practically inseparable in Marvel mythology.

Do you need to rewatch it?

YES.

Alongside Loki, Thunderbolts* and Doctor Strange 2, this is probably among the most important homework.

And Robert Downey Jr.? Did Tony Stark Become Doctor Doom?

This is exactly the question Marvel wants you to ask.

Robert Downey Jr. died as Tony Stark.

Now he returns as Victor von Doom.

At this point, that does not automatically mean Tony Stark somehow “became” Doctor Doom.

The multiverse allows several possibilities.

He may simply be Victor von Doom with Tony Stark’s face.

He may be a variant.

The resemblance itself may be part of the story.

Or Marvel may still be hiding something much larger.

What matters is simple:

Robert Downey Jr. is playing Victor von Doom.

And putting the face of the man who saved the universe in Endgame onto the villain now threatening its new heroes is obviously more than just a casting decision.

So What Do You Actually Need to Rewatch?

For anyone who has a life and does not intend to spend the next several months rewatching dozens of hours of Marvel, my list would be much shorter.

Essential

Loki — Seasons 1 and 2
To understand timelines, variants and the current state of the multiverse.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
To understand incursions.

Thunderbolts*
To understand who the New Avengers are.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps
To understand where one of Doomsday’s central teams comes from.

Deadpool & Wolverine
To understand how Marvel absorbed the old Fox universes into its multiverse.

Just Remember the Ending

Shang-Chi — the Ten Rings are sending a mysterious signal.

Spider-Man: No Way Home — nobody remembers Peter Parker, and the multiverse has already brought together different cinematic versions of the same heroes.

The Marvels — Monica is trapped in another universe and meets Beast.

Captain America: Brave New World — Sam Wilson is now fully established as Captain America and is dealing with a world that no longer has a clear Avengers team.

You Can Probably Survive Without Rewatching

Black Widow.

Eternals.

Thor: Love and Thunder.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Quantumania.

Not because nothing from those films can return, but because Marvel will almost certainly have to explain again anything that becomes truly important.

So What Is the Real Preparation for Doomsday?

Maybe it is simply understanding that Marvel has spent the last several years building not one new team, but several.

Sam Wilson carries Captain America’s legacy.

Yelena and the Thunderbolts have become the New Avengers.

Shuri leads a new generation of Wakanda.

Shang-Chi appeared, became important and then practically vanished for years.

The Fantastic Four exist in another reality.

The X-Men exist in another.

Loki is holding the multiverse together.

And somewhere between all of those stories stands Victor von Doom wearing the most recognizable face in the history of the MCU.

That may be the fundamental difference between Endgame and Doomsday.

Endgame brought together characters we already understood as part of the same story.

Doomsday first has to convince its characters — and perhaps its audience — that all of these stories still belong to the same universe.

Or, in this case, the same universes.

Only then can Marvel say it again:

Avengers, assemble.