MCU Tracker
Three deliberate departures from pure release order - each explained
The tracker's default position is release order. The MCU films were written for that sequence, and almost no adjustment improves on it. But three specific cases exist where the release calendar and the story calendar diverge in ways that create real problems for viewers. These are the only three changes the tracker makes.
Black Widow was filmed and intended for a 2020 theatrical release, placing it immediately after Civil War in the release calendar. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed it to July 2021 - after WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki had already aired on Disney+.
The film's story takes place in the days immediately following Civil War. Natasha is on the run. The Sokovia Accords are still fresh. The characters she encounters are all responding to Civil War's aftermath. Watching it five years and six titles later removes all of that context.
The one rule that applies: skip the post-credits scene when you first watch. It takes place years after the film's story, during the Hawkeye era. The tracker marks the exact moment to come back to it.
Both Hawkeye and Spider-Man: No Way Home are set at the same Christmas - December 2024. They were released within weeks of each other. Spider-Man: No Way Home opened December 17, 2021; Hawkeye's finale dropped December 22, 2021.
A specific character appears in both finales in a way that makes the two stories feel deliberately connected. Watching No Way Home between episodes 5 and 6 respects the simultaneous timeline and lets both finales hit with the weight they were designed to carry. Watching Hawkeye all the way through first, then NWH, mutes one of them.
This is the tracker's smallest adjustment and the one most people notice least - the viewing experience flows naturally across the split.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is set only a few months after the first film, and its story is entirely self-contained within the Guardians' world - it doesn't reference or depend on anything in Civil War or the other Phase 2/3 releases between them. The emotional arc of the two films works as a single story: Vol. 1 introduces the family; Vol. 2 tests it.
Playing them back-to-back creates a natural Guardians double feature that improves both films' emotional momentum. Nothing is spoiled, and nothing is missed by watching them together before returning to the main MCU timeline.
Those are the three adjustments. Every other entry in the tracker appears in the order it was released. If you prefer pure release order, the guide page explains where those three titles sit in the unmodified calendar.