Thanos Movies in Order: Mad Titan Watch Order

While the Marvel Cinematic Universe might be focused on its heroes, who are certainly the pillars of the whole franchise, the villains have earned their place in the franchise as well. Some of the villains were episodic, some recurring and some had a major role in one or several movies. The first major villain in the franchise was Thanos, the Mad Titan.

Thanos was a highly influential character in the MCU, a villain foreshadowed by cameo appearances in several post-credits scenes, and a villain that completely changed how the MCU was perceived when he finally debuted.

In this article, we are going to bring you a chronological list of all the Thanos movies within the MCU, with a guide to each of them and some additional information.

Since the focus is on Thanos, we’re going to list just those movies where he appeared in full capacity, and not the ones where he appeared in a cameo role or just in a post-credits scene. If you want a complete watch order of all MCU movies where Thanos has appeared, you can check our whole MCU watch order.

How Many Thanos Movies Are There?

Thanos, as a villain, doesn’t have any individual movie focused on him. Instead, he has made several appearances in post-credits scenes scattered throughout different movies and has appeared as the main villain in two movies. The latter two could be described as “Thanos movies” and they are:

Guardians of the Galaxy (July 21, 2014)
Avengers: Infinity War (April 27, 2018)
Avengers: Endgame (April 26, 2019)

As said, Thanos has, indeed, appeared in other MCU movies, but since he was there in a relatively small and insignificant capacity, these movies aren’t on this list.

Thanos Movies in Order

The list is going to include all the movies where Thanos starred in that have, so far, been released as part of the MCU. The list is, as we have said, going to include just those movies in which Thanos was the main villain, without those where Thanos appeared as part of a group or not as the main character.

We’re going to bring you some basic production info and an overview of each of the movies’ plots.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Directors: James Gunn
Screenplay: James Gunn, Nicole Perlman
Release Date: July 21, 2014

Starring: Chris Pratt (Peter Quill / Star-Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax), Vin Diesel (Groot), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Bradley Cooper (Rocket), Lee Pace (Ronan), Josh Brolin (Thanos)

Adventurer Peter Quill steals a coveted artifact from the powerful Ronan, who has ambitions to destroy the entire galaxy. Peter, who likes to call himself Star-Lord, then joins forces with the crazy raccoon Rocket, the tree-like humanoid Groot, the enigmatic Gamora, and the vengeful Drax the Destroyer. Together they form a futuristic team of superheroes who protect the galaxy from danger.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo
Screenplay: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Release Date: April 27, 2018

Starring: Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark / Iron Man), Chris Evans (Steve Rogers / Captain America), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner / Hulk), Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow), Josh Brolin (Thanos)

The supervillain Thanos comes from a planet called Titan, whose inhabitants have all died due to overpopulation. In order to prevent the same thing from happening to other worlds, Thanos decides to kill half of all living things on every planet in the entire universe.

To that end, Thanos attempts to find six Infinity Stones and combine them into a gauntlet called the Infinity Gauntlet so he can accomplish anything he wants with the snap of a finger.

Thanos obtains an Infinity Stone called the Power Stone by destroying the planet Xandar. He gets an Infinity Stone called the Space Stone by making a deal with Loki in exchange for not killing Thor.

He steals the Reality Stone from a person in space named Collector, he receives the Soul Stone in exchange for killing his daughter Gamora. He makes a deal with Dr. Strange to get the Stone of Time in exchange for not killing Iron Man.

He leads an alien invasion of Earth to get the Mind Stone from the robot superhero Vision by killing him. The Avengers, Spider-Man, Black Panther and the Guardians of the Galaxy all work together to stop Thanos.

Then Thanos snaps his fingers and wipes out half of all living things on every planet in the entire universe. There’s a post-credits scene where Nick Fury successfully tries to point out someone who can do something, but he gets killed by Thanos’ snap.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

1049451 weta and thanos come full circle avengers endgame

Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo
Screenplay: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Release Date: April 26, 2019

The Titan Thanos, having managed to appropriate the six Infinity Stones and bring them together on the Golden Gauntlet, was able to achieve his goal of pulverizing half the population of the Universe with the snap of his fingers.

The few surviving Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, Steve Rogers, Thor, Natasha Romanoff, Tony Stark, Carol Danvers, Clint Barton, Bruce Banner, James Rhodes, Nebula and Rocket hope to make amends for Thanos’ mischief. They find him but it turns out that the latter destroyed the stones and Thor beheads him.

Five years later, as everyone tries to move on with their lives and forget the many dramatic losses, Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, manages to escape the Subatomic Dimension where he has been trapped since Doctor Hank Pym’s disappearance.

His wife Janet Van Dyne and his daughter Hope Van Dyne. Lang offers the Avengers a solution to revive all the missing beings, including their allies and teammates: recover the Infinity Stones in the past thanks to the Quantum Realm.

To do this, using the scientific knowledge of Bruce Banner and Tony Stark, they will split into several groups to go look for gems in various past eras.

Do You Need to Watch the Thanos Movies in Order?

Well, the two Avengers movies in which Thanos starred are in order and if you want to make sense of the story, you have to watch the two movies while respecting the chronological and – incidentally – release order of these movies. As far as Thanos’ other appearances are concerned, you can skip the movies and simply focus on the post-credits scene.

Will There Be More Thanos Movies?

Thanos died in Endgame, back in 2019, and therefore, it is highly unlikely that we will see him in a new movie in the same capacity as we did in Infinity War and Endgame. Thanos might appear in a pre-Endgame movie or in the form of a flashback, but it is highly unlikely that he will appear in the same role as before.