Head on over to the Marvel section of Disney+, and you'll find a whole section dedicated to movies and TV shows that you should watch in preparation for Avengers: Doomsday, which just so happens to come out on December 18th of the 2026 movie schedule (the same day as Dune: Part Three, making it Dunesday!).
Oh, wait. Did I say TV shows? I meant TV show, singular, as when you go to the “Countdown to Avengers: Doomsday” section, you'll find 14 movies you should watch before seeing the film, and just ONE TV show: Loki.
That this is RIDICULOUS! I’ve spent literally HOURS watching MCU TV shows, and you're telling me that only ONE of them matters when it comes to Avengers: Doomsday? Arg. Let's talk.
For A Time, It Seemed Like All Of The MCU Shows Mattered. Now, Almost None Of Them Do
I'll tell you, when WandaVision debuted back in 2021, I was in love. The show was so weird and experimental that it felt like a revelation. What interested me the most, however, was how it would eventually connect back to the MCU movies, proper. Because back then, that was sort of the promise of these MCU shows - They weren't just standalone programs. They would connect to the movies at some point.
The resulting movie following the events of WandaVision was 2022's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which…well, I'll be frank. I didn't love. Even so, I appreciated that my time didn't feel wasted with WandaVision. The same goes for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, with Captain America: Brave New World being the result of that series. The point I'm making is that for a time (with Ms. Marvel being another example), the shows fed into the movies, and vice versa.
Then something changed. We started getting shows that didn't really seem to connect to the films at all. Now, with the Countdown to Avengers: Doomsday saying that only Loki really matters when it comes to the events for this movie, well…I kind of feel like I wasted my time watching all of these shows, especially a few in particular, which I’ll get into next.
Certain Shows, Like Moon Knight, And She-Hulk Feel Especially Pointless Now
Moon Knight is my favorite Marvel character, so when there was word that we were getting a Moon Knight TV show, I was seriously losing my mind. However, Moon Knight came and went, and while I liked certain aspects about it, I also greatly disliked other aspects about it. Not only that, but I also felt like it could have been a real turning point for the MCU, but that's neither here nor there.
What bugs me, though, is that, as far as we know, Moon Knight will NOT return in Avengers: Doomsday. Plus, his show was so inconsequential that you don't even need to have watched it in preparation for this film. Same goes with She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. I mean, I loved it, but it feels like a forgotten relic now.
Agatha All Along? Unnecessary. Echo? Unnecessary. Hawkeye? Unnecessary. Secret Invasion (which sucked)? Unnecessary. I mean, jeez, now that so many of these shows are not connected to Avengers: Doomsday, they feel like a COMPLETE waste of time to me, which is why…
I Think I'm Done Watching Marvel TV Shows Now...For The Most Part
The other day, somebody asked me what I thought about Wonder Man, and they were shocked when I told them that I didn't even watch it (and now that it's been canceled, I'm glad I didn't watch it).
The truth is, I gave up on the MCU TV shows a while ago. The last one I watched in earnest was Season 2 of Loki (which I guess is a good thing since it's the only show that seems to matter for Doomsday). But Ironheart? Didn't watch. Daredevil: Born Again? Didn't watch. Eyes of Wakanda? Didn’t watch. I probably WILL watch VisionQuest, and because it might connect to Avengers: Secret Wars! And really, that's all it takes.
