MCU & 9 Other Movie Franchises That Were Released Out of Chronological Order

The MCU has over 20 films, including some that weren’t released in chronological order. It wasn’t the only franchise to do so with some success.

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It has forever been debated the best way to watch certain long-running franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Star Wars. Some fans claim that you must watch them in the order they were released, while others will loudly say that chronological order is the only way. This debate has been fueled even further with the online discussion of the MCU order, with some going as far as to include specific scenes that should be watched in the middle of other movies for an authentic timeline accurate experience.

There are certainly pros and cons to the view order of a movie franchise and like the MCU and Star Wars, many have played with their timelines to further expand their universes including prequels, TV series, and spin-offs. While some of these projects were intentional, many were created to flesh out a popular character’s backstory or to help explain an organization’s creation.

10 Star Wars

While unknown at the time, George Lucas’ original trilogy were episodes 4-6 in a nine ‘episode’ epic named, the Skywalker Saga. The Star Wars franchise as a whole has expanded exponentially since the first movie premiered in 1977, spawning books, comics, TV series, video games, and more. All of these stories were considered to be canon until 2012 when Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion.

Currently, Star Wars canon consists of the 11 theatrical films and TV series like The Clone Wars, Rebels, Resistance, and The Mandalorian, and all of the Marvel Star Wars comic books (2016-present) as well as the novels beginning with A New Dawn (2014). All of these stories take place before, during, and after the original Star Wars trilogy and allow for the franchise to constantly expand, but it does make the galaxy a bit complicated to follow chronologically.

9 Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)

The MCU is praised for being the most successful interconnected film franchise in history. The shared universe consists of 23 feature films with several others already set for release as well as a slew of Disney+ series including Wandavision which premiers January 15, 2021. Many fans have tried watching the films in chronological order starting with Captain America: The First Avenger which takes place in the 1940s and ending with Spider-Man: Far From Home taking place in 2024 (eight months after the events of Avengers: Endgame).

While the Netflix Marvel shows and the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are loosely connected to the franchise, they too take place throughout the complicated MCU timeline. Even future films are rumored to take place at different times such as Black Widow which is said to be set after the events of Captain America: Civil War.

8 The Fast Saga

Although it was unintentional at the time, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift ended up shaping the future of the franchise as one of the most beloved characters, Han, was killed off only to be brought back for films four, five, and six. Each movie had fans wondering when Han would end up in Tokyo and live out the events of the third film. The movies were aware of this themselves and often had the character discussing how he’ll get to Tokyo “eventually.”

However, in the mid-credits scene of Fast & Furious 6, the story finally catches up to itself, reshowing the car chase that ended in Han’s death. Only this time it’s revealed to be Deckard Shaw, who is seeking revenge for his brother Owen, who was the main antagonist of the sixth film. To make matters even more complicated, the trailer for F9, set to release May 28, 2021, revealed that Han is actually still alive.

7 Kingsman

The British-American film franchise based on the comic book series of the same name hit theaters in 2015 with Kingsman: The Secret Service. The movie centers around a spy organization called the Kingsman, who recruits a street kid named Eggsy and works to stop a world-dominating tech genius. The film was praised for its creative take on the spy genre as well as it’s fighting choreography and cinematography. The worldwide box office gross of $414 Billion allowed 20th Century Fox to green-light a sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which introduced an American version of the Kingsman, called the Statesman, and featured an all-star cast with Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, and Elton John.

Director Matthew Vaughn decided to look back at the creation of the Kingsman with the third film, The King’s Man, a prequel to the franchise set in the early 1900s. Future plans for the franchise have a movie set after The Golden Circle called Kingsman: The Blue Blood as well as a possible spin-off movie centered around the Statesman. It will be interesting to see where this unique franchise goes and in what country and the time period it takes place.

6 The Lord Of The Rings

What started as a single book called The Hobbit spawned one of the most recognizable franchises in history as J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a follow-up. Unlike the books, however, the film franchise started with The Fellowship of the Ring and followed Frodo and the rest of the fellowship on their quest to destroy the One Ring.

After the success of the film franchise, Warner Bros. green-lit a trilogy of films based on The Hobbit which follows Frodo’s cousin Bilbo Baggins and his journey alongside Dwarfs and the wizard Gandalf, on their quest to steal the treasure from the dragon, Smaug. After milking this final piece of J.R.R. Tolkien’s legacy, Amazon Studios bought the television rights to the franchise and is producing a series set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, before the events of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

5 Wizarding World

The success of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books has spawned a media franchise that involves novels, movies, stage plays, video games, and even theme park attractions. While technically the source material only consists of the seven books, Warner Bros. worked to further the franchise’s future with the release of the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016).

The movie was set in the 1920s and follows magizoologist, Newt Scamander, who wrote a textbook that Harry Potter uses in his classes at Hogwarts. The new movie actually sets up the elaborate backstories for Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald, two historically significant characters in the Wizarding World. While five movies are planned for the franchise, there are rumors online that with the release of their streaming service HBO Max, Warner Bros will be quick to greenlight an original series based in the world of Harry Potter.

4 Despicable Me

The Despicable Me franchise, which includes everyone’s favorite Minions, is the highest-grossing animated film franchise in history. Its success has led to three main Despicable Me films as well as a Minions prequel/spin-off film. Its sequel, Minions: The Rise of Gru, will be released on July 2, 2021, and feature the Minions as they meet a young Gru.

A fourth Despicable Me film is in the works and will go back to the original series timeline. While this franchise is relatively new, its success and popular minion characters have made the Illumination studio a household name, and the studio’s biggest franchise has no plans of slowing down.

3 X-Men

20th Century Fox’s X-Men had a 20 year run with the release of 13 feature films. While the chronology of the shared universe isn’t set in stone, Kristen Acuna ran an article on Insider.com ran an article that has X-Men: First Class kicking off the franchise and the post-apocalyptic Logan, closing it out. Some opinions hold that X-Men: Days of Future Past wipes the original trilogy out of context.

This means one could view the original films as a parallel timeline. While not all of these films were successes, there were a lot of great characters and movies that came from this franchise and it’ll be interesting to see how the mutants get treated as they rejoin the rest of the Marvel Universe over in Disney’s MCU.

2 The Lion King

While many of the Disney Renaissance films spawned direct-to-video sequels and TV series, few were as world-building as The Lion King. The 1994 masterpiece was the highest-grossing film of that year and even claimed the spot of the highest-grossing animated film as well. Disney has fully explored the world of the Pride Lands with stories being told before, during, and after the events of the first film. The Timon & Pumbaa series centers around the title characters and their misadventures which led to the release of The Lion King 1½ which tells the events of the first film but through the perspectives of Timon & Pumbaa.

The story forges ahead with The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride following Simba’s daughter Kiara and her forbidden romance with Kovu, a young cub from the Outlands. Most recently Disney built upon the franchise by introducing Kiara’s brother Kion, who like his uncle Scar becomes the leader of the Lion Guard, whose job it is to protect the Pride Lands and defend the Circle of Life. While Disney is planning to make a sequel to the 2019 CGI remake of the film, it’s worth diving into the original world of The Lion King across its many stories.

1 Transformers

Paramount’s Transformers film franchise has lost a lot of its steam since the success of the first one in 2007. To date, there are six feature films, which for the most part are direct sequels, the one exception being Bumblebee (2018), a prequel and origin story of the fan-favorite Transformer. Although the first five films are linear, they often have opening scenes that reveal more about being from Cybertron and their past. For example, Transformers: The Last Knight shows that Transformers were living on earth at the time of King Arther, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon reveals their role in the U.S. landing on the moon in 1969.

Part of the charm of these movies is the way they weave historical events into the plot. As of March 2015, Paramount announced a writer’s room to help develop the future of the franchise which includes many top writers including Robert Kirkman. As of this article, there are talks about a Bumblebee sequel, an animated prequel, and a Beast Wars spin-off, though nothing is currently in production, giving fans plenty of time to plot out the complicated timeline of the Robots in Disguise.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/mcu-film-series-not-chronological-releases/