What Marvel Movies to Watch Before ‘Eternals’

If you’re planning on seeing Eternals this weekend, you’re going to want to do your MCU due diligence and catch up on the Marvel movies with lore important to these new heroes. So, does that mean rewatching every MCU film to come out in the last decade? Possibly. But we have a shorter solution before you head to the theater this weekend.

Marvel fans that all caught up on the MCU, we’d highly recommend you check out director Chloé Zhao‘s other movies — The Mustang and the Best Picture-winning Nomadland — before you tune in for Eternals. Why? Zhao has her own stylistic tendencies, perhaps more than any other Marvel director hired to create a movie for the franchise. It feels a little different than the superhero movies we’ve come to know and love, so you may want to see what her directing style is like before you pop a squat in a theater for almost three hours.

But if you’re looking to get all caught up MCU-wise, we have the Marvel movies you should watch just as well. Here are the five MCU movies to watch before you go see Eternals.

What Marvel movies should you watch before Eternals?

You should be up-to-date on as many MCU films as possible, because Eternals mentions Thanos here and there. If you don’t want the big reveals of films like Avengers: Infinity War or Endgame spoiled, you’ll want to watch the MCU films leading up to those as well as those films.

But realistically, we know you probably don’t have time for all that jazz. Instead, you may want to just watch the four main Avengers movies to get the gist of what’s going on Re: Thanos and the MCU. Those include The Avengers, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. And their post-credits scenes, too!

Rewatching Guardians of the Galaxy is also highly recommended, as the film introduces the Celestials, which are a race of powerful beings that also rear their heads in Eternals. The Collector (Benicio del Toro) discusses the Celestials in Guardians, explaining their purpose in the universe. Since Eternals discusses them more, we won’t go too in-depth about what’s to come.

Where are the above Marvel movies streaming?

Along with being able to rent or purchase on digital platforms, here’s where you can find our five recommendations streaming:

• The Avengers: Disney+, Epix, Paramount+
• The Avengers: Age of Ultron: Disney+, TNT, TBS
• Avengers: Infinity War: Disney+, TNT, TBS
• Avengers: Endgame: Disney+, TNT, TBS
• Guardians of the Galaxy: Disney+

Is Eternals streaming? Where to watch Eternals:

Nope, not at this time. You’ll need to purchase tickets at your nearest cinema to see Eternals anytime soon. Seeing that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Marvel’s first in-theaters only release since the pandemic began, is releasing on Nov. 12, we can expect Eternals to release around 10 weeks after it lands in theaters. That would mean it would drop on Disney+ around Jan. 14.

That being said, Disney has a 45-day release window with its theater exclusive films. There’s a chance Eternals could be available on Disney+ earlier. If that’s the case, Disney would drop Eternals around Dec. 20, right in time for Christmas. The best gift ever!