The Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, was created in 2008 when Marvel Studios released “Iron Man.” Since then, the MCU has been growing quickly, with more than 25 movies in the franchise, in addition to some older TV shows like “Agents of Shield” and newer short series like “WandaVision” and “Hawkeye.”

If you haven’t grown up watching most of the content as it’s been released, it can be intimidating to join the Marvel fandom. But within the MCU, there are several movies that can be watched and enjoyed on their own, such as “Ant-Man” and “Dr. Strange.”

However, it appears that “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” the second of Dr. Strange’s personal movies, will likely be a movie where having some context of past movies and TV shows could prove helpful. 

But don’t let that stop you from watching it. There are many ways to get caught up on the required background information before diving into the new Marvel movie.

If you want to have a marathon to prepare you for the movie, the content that would most likely be helpful is in this order: “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Captain America: Civil War,”  “Dr. Strange,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Avengers: Endgame,” “Wandavision,” and “Spiderman: No Way Home.”

Instead of watching all of those movies and one short series, you could also brief yourself on some of the main points below. Below is an illustration depicting some of the most important events, scenes, and objects to have in mind before entering the theater for a showing of “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”