Elvis and Top Gun: Maverick have both earned $30.5 million at the domestic weekend box office so far and will have one final battle today, June 26, to see who comes out on top.

As reported by Variety and Box Office Mojo, Top Gun: Maverick currently has a slight lead at $30,500,176 in its fifth weekend in theaters. Elvis, which debuted this weekend, is sitting at $30,500,000.

Top Gun: Maverick is having one impressive run at the box office and has now reached $521 million domestically. It has also crossed the coveted $1 billion mark at the global box office and has become the highest-grossing movie in 2022 and the first film to pass $1 billion since Spider-Man: No Way Home earned $1.9 billion last year.

On the other hand, Elvis raked in another $20 million from 51 markets internationally and has a global tally of $50.5 million so far.

Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis have dropped down Jurassic World Dominion, the film that held the #1 spot for the past two weekends, to third place as it only earned $26.4 million. However, that was enough to bring the latest Jurassic World film past $300 million domestically and $746.6 million globally.

The Black Phone, which also debuted this weekend, took fourth place by earning $23.3 million domestically. It brought in $13.4 million overseas to help bring its global total to $35.8 million. The Black Phone only cost $18 million to produce, so it is well on a way to a successful box office run.

Lightyear rounded out the top five with $17.7 million, but it saw a 65% drop from its opening weekend. Lightyear has reached $88 million in North America and has earned $152.4 million at the global box office.

For more check out our review of Elvis and The Black Phone, how The Black Phone director's traumatic past inspired the horror film, and why the Elvis team says "credit needs to be given" to Rock & Roll's black pioneers.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

The iconic representations of Team Rocket, Jessie and James have been battling the main protagonists of the Pokèmon franchise for decades. The delightfully dressed duo is never seen without their trusty Pokè-pal Meowth, and they always have a sassy—and often rhyming quip—for their opponents.

You may already be familiar with the iconic Jessie (in Japanese: ムサシ Musashi), but do you know more than the basics of her biography? Let's dive into a list of the top ten interesting things to know about Jessie, the dastardly, magenta-haired leader of the Team Rocket trio.

1. Her First Appearance

Jessie first jumped onto TV screens in the second episode of Pokèmon’s first season "Pokémon Emergency!" The episode saw Ash Ketchum, the lead protagonist, head to Viridian City in the hopes of healing his badly injured Pikachu. Unfortunately for the young Pokè-trainer, it just so happened that the city was under siege by Team Rocket, who were there to steal rare Pokèmon and look good while doing it. Jessie is first introduced when she and Team Rocket ransack the hospital, through the roof no less! Shockingly (pun absolutely intended) they’re beaten back by a group of Pikachus. It was a humiliating defeat of the kind that the group would come to be known for, but was an impactful introduction to some of the show’s most entertaining recurring villains....

2. She Trained in a Classic Pokèmon Region

Like every member of Team Rocket, Jessie trained in the Kanto Region. It was at the Team Rocket training academy that Jessie was teamed up with James and Meowth. Kanto is the oldest region in both the Pokèmon game andis named after the region of real-life Japan. It's also the home of Ash Ketchum, who lives in Kanto's Pallet Town. Jessie’s time at the academy is the closest information we have as to where her hometown might be, though in The Bridge Bike Gang (Season 1, Ep. 6), she does say that she and James could almost call Sunnytown their hometown.

3. "Chainer Jess" Was Once Part of a Biker Gang

Speaking of The Bridge Bike Gang, that's where it’s revealed that Jessie was part of the titular group. The current incarnation of bike punks accost protagonists Ash, Misty, and Brock on a new bridge as they try to cross to Sunnytown. It's only when Team Rocket shows up that viewers learn more about Jessie's eventful upbringing. The team arrives on outrageous unicycles, causing the gang’s kids to get googly eyed over "Chainer / Big Jess" and "Little James." How did she get that name? Well, it’s because she always swung a chain around as she rode her bike. Once a badass, always a badass.

4. She Has a Dark and Snowy Past

One of the more interesting things about Jessie is that she's actually a legacy member of Team Rocket. Her mother was also a member of the nefarious crew of villains but sadly died while she was on a dangerous mission to try and locate the Mythical Pokèmon, Mew. Her loss in an avalanche led to Jessie ending up in foster care. In the Indigo League Christmas special Snow Way Out! (Season 2, Ep 10), it’s revealed that despite her mother's death, she loves snow because it reminds her of eating snow sushi as a child in foster care. It's a very sympathetic take on a tragic past, and only makes Jessie more endearing.

5. Jessie’s Name Might Have an Unexpected Inspiration

According to legend (and several sources), the English character names of Jessie and James are inspired by the famed American outlaw Jesse James. While his reign was far more violent than the Pokèmon-centric shenanigans of Team Rocket, the reference makes sense. Jesse James was a famed train robber, and while our Jessie—and her partners in crime—are pretty terrible at their jobs, they are technically famed Pokè-stealers! This is a great bit of history that establishes the type of person Jessie is without the audience ever actually needing to be told. Really smart stuff.

6. Meet Jessie’s Rival: Team Rocket Continues the Wild Western Theme

During their time at the Team Rocket training academy, Jessie met her rival Cassidy and his partner Butch, along with a Raticate. The pair's English names continue the western theme of Jessie and James, this time based on Butch Cassidy, another old West outlaw. Like Jesse James he was a train and bank robber. Cassidy was active in the late 19th and early 20th century, and just like Jesse James he became an infamous national figure. Once again, it's a smart nod to the notion of Team Rocket as modern day bandits and also a really great reflection of the team they were created to rival in both name and criminality.

7. Jessie Really Loves to Sing

Jessie and James are known for their dramatic flair, which even extends to musical numbers. Whenever the beat drops, Jessie is ready to belt out a tune, especially if it's about catching Pikachu or annoying Pika's Pokèmon trainer, Ash. In The Song of Jigglypuff (Season 1, Ep. 42), she performs a particularly outrageous one with her teammate in sailor-inspired gear. In it, her classical vanity comes out as she sings that she's the "gorgeous one." That's far from the only ditty she's performed, though—most well known hit is likely Double Trouble, which featured in many episodes of the English dub of the anime thanks to the Pikachu's Jukebox segment.

8. Like Most of Our Favorite Anime Characters, She Loves Food

From Sailor Moon's Usagi to Naruto's titular character, all the way through Dragon Ball Z's Goku, one of our favorite anime protagonist traits is a love of food. Despite not being a protagonist herself, Jessie continues that long tradition with a voracious appetite and passion for delicious snacks.

[team rocket, jessie, james]
dining together, like family

♡ #anipoke #ロケット団 pic.twitter.com/neIBLH9Nx7

— daily team rocket! (@TeamRocketDaily) January 10, 2022

Though their villainous ways are usually more focused on stealing Pokèmon, Team Rocket is often seen searching for food as well, and when they do manage to eat they're very enthusiastic about it. Of the three, it’s Jessie who definitely channels her hunger the most intensely. It's easy to imagine her and Usagi chowing down on some snacks together.

9. Jessie Shares a Voice With Other Famous Pokè-Character(s)

While Jessie is certainly unique, she does share one quality with other characters in the series! Her voice actor in the English dub is Rachel Lillis who also voices none other than Misty, one of the protagonists Jessie regularly harasses. That's not all, though, as the talented voice actor has also brought a ton of Pokèmon to life too. In the movie series she voiced many different Pokèmon, including Jigglypuff, Vulpix, Goldeen among others. It's pretty wild to imagine Jessie essentially arguing against or trying to catch herself, but that's the magic of voice acting and talented performers like Lillis.

She's not only a Pokèmon icon either, with the voice of Jessie also appearing in classic anime like Boogiepop Phantom, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Berserk, and many, many more.

10. She's the Most Prolific Female Pokèmon Character of All Time

Jessie isn't just a fashion icon, singing star, survivor, and all-time great Pokèmon character, she's also broken boundaries for a female character in the franchise. She's the only female character who's been in all 23 Pokèmon movies, from 1998's Pokémon: The First Movie to 2020's Pokèmon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle. She holds that impressive record in the anime series too, as the only female character appearing in every generation. It's no surprise that she's become such an iconic and beloved character, when she's been on screens causing chaos for decades. She's still looking good doing it, too. We salute you, Jessie!

Have any fun facts we may have missed here? Let us know in the comments!

Ready for more anime? See below!

For more Pokèmon, be sure to check out:

Rosie Knight is an Eisner-winning journalist, author and comics writer. She co-hosts Crooked Media’s X-Ray Vision podcast, discussing pop culture from superhero movies to prestige television to the best fantasy novels and, of course, comics.

While Resident Evil may have started as a video game franchise, Paul W.S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich helped bring the series to the big screen with a film series that spanned six movies. The films feature characters and villains from the games, but they tell their own separate stories and star Jovovich as a newcomer to Resident Evil lore.

If you want to watch all the Resident Evil movies in chronological order so you can see the story unfold from the beginning, we have some very good news for you. All the films serve as sequels to their previous entries, meaning there is no difference between watching them in release order vs. chronological order. For even more good news, those that wish to just jump into the latest film, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, will be happy to know that it serves as a reboot of the film franchise with a new cast and can be watched without needing to see the prior six films.

With all that being said, we still wanted to provide you with a mostly spoiler-free look at how you can watch the Resident Evil movies in chronological order, and you can find that below!

The Resident Evil Movies in Chronological Order

1. Resident Evil (2002)

Where to Watch: Hulu

2002’s Resident Evil introduced the world to Alice (Jovovich), an original character created for the films who awakens with amnesia before remembering she is a private security operative for the Umbrella Corporation. This first film shows how the genetically engineered T-virus, which causes dead people to return as zombies, was released in a lab called The Hive. It also reveals how the lab’s AI security system, the Red Queen, killed every living thing inside the lab to try to contain the virus.

The plan didn’t work and the zombies escaped the lab. Alice and her team have to try to contain the outbreak by finding an anti-virus that is thought to still be in the Hive.

This first film included several references to the first two Resident Evil games, not the least of which was the first tease of the iconic Resident Evil 3 villain, the terrifying, rocket-wielding Nemesis.

Read our review of Resident Evil.

2. Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)

Where to Watch: Hulu

Resident Evil: Apocalypse is a direct sequel to the original film and brings back Jovovich’s Alice to once again take the fight to the undead. Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson did not return to direct this new film due to other commitments, but he did stay on as a producer while Alexander Witt took the helm. Apocalypse sees Alice attempting to escape Raccoon City before it is attacked by a nuclear missile that is attempting to stop the spreading T-virus plague.

Nemesis is also a big part of this second film and he’s seen terrorizing the survivors throughout it, but that is hardly the only nod to the games. There are many influences pulled into Apocalypse, including characters Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) and Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and certain shots that were recreated for live-action, including a shootout at police department in the beginning that is reminiscent of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and a scene in a cemetery that very much harkens back to Resident Evil CODE: Veronica.

Read our review of Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

3. Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)

Where to Watch: Hulu

2007’s Resident Evil: Extinction reveals that the T-virus has spread across the world. In addition to the return of Alice, the storyline also follows several attempts by the Umbrella Corporation to clone her, in hopes of replicating her powers. As the story progresses, the primary Alice and other survivors are working their way toward Alaska in an attempt to outrun the ever-expanding zombie apocalypse.

Extinction continues to bring in more aspects and characters of the games, including Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) and Albert Wesker (Jason O’Mara).

Read our review of Resident Evil: Extinction.

4. Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)

Where to Watch: Hulu

Resident Evil: Afterlife is the first film after the original to see Anderson back in the director’s chair, where he stays for the rest of the series. Set one year after the events of Extinction, Alice and her clones work together to assault Umbrella Headquarters HQ and Albert Wesker. Unfortunately, all doesn’t go as planned and Alice finds herself without the powers that have assisted her so well in this zombie apocalypse.

Afterlife continues the streak of bringing in characters from the games, and this time it's Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller) that gets the invitation.

Read our review of Resident Evil: Afterlife.

5. Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)

Where to Watch: Hulu

2011’s Resident Evil: Retribution picks up after the events of Afterlife. Alongside introducing such game characters as Leon S. Kennedy (Johann Urb), Ada Wong (Bingbing Li), and Barry Burton (Kevin Durand), Retribution also sees Alice teaming up with Wesker in an attempt to stop the reactivated Red Queen AI from the first film, who now controls Umbrella and wants to eliminate all life on earth.

Read our review of Resident Evil: Retribution.

6. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2017)

Where to Watch: Rent or Purchase

The aptly named Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is the last feature film in the series to involve husband-and-wife team Anderson and Jovovich. It follows Alice as she returns to Raccoon City and the Hive in order to stop the Red Queen and Albert Wesker, but also reveals more of the origin of the T-virus and who is really behind all the chaos that has been building since the first film.

Read our review of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.

Bonus: Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)

Where to Watch: Starz

Directed by Johannes Roberts, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is a reboot of the franchise and requires no prior knowledge of the movies. Along with the new director comes a new cast and a story that more closely follows the events of the first two Resident Evil games. Several familiar characters from the games and earlier movies return, including Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario), Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell), Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen), Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper), Leon Kennedy (Avan Jogia), Ada Wong (Lily Gao), and more. The film’s story is set in Raccoon City and tells the early days of a zombie outbreak.

Read our review of Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.

Resident Evil Movies in Order of Release

• Resident Evil (2002)
• Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
• Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
• Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
• Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
• Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016)
• Bonus - Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)

More Movie Watch Lists:

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Everybody knows what an indie film is: a fresh new movie made outside the soul-sucking corporate environment of the major studios like Rushmore or Mean Streets… Except, those two were actually made with money from major producers while The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Terminator 2 weren’t.

It's harder than you might think to pin down what it means to be an independent film. Is a true Indie one that's made without money from the studios? If that's the case, then Terminator 2 and Fellowship of the Ring are "indies" and Rushmore and Mean Streets are not.

In this list, we're digging into some of the best indies in cinema history to find out exactly what defines independent cinema. In our search, we’ve found out that there are at least 10 categories that indie films can be grouped into, and we are using those to help rank our top 10 independent movies of all time.

10: Indie by No Majors - Reservoir Dogs

To start, let’s ignore the exceptions for a moment and focus on those production and distribution companies that don’t have “Sony” or “Disney” on their org chart. This includes America’s first indie studio United Artists - created to free silent stars from the early clutches of the big studios - a company that gave us most of Chaplin’s best, Rebecca, and 12 Angry Men.

More recently, A24 has been curating much of the best indie talent in the digital age and has brought us such incredible films as Uncut Gems, 20th Century Women, Waves, and Eighth Grade.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Drive were also made and distributed with no studio interference, but our favorites here come from the era of the indie, which fall right into the ’90s and 2000s. This was a time when mini-majors like Miramax, New Line, and Lionsgate ran the show with classics like Buffalo 66, My Own Private Idaho, Night on Earth, and our first pick: Reservoir Dogs.

Reservoir Dogs’ post-heist-hole-up-gone-wrong was an indie sensation. Capturing festival-goers and mainstream audiences alike, it landed like a firecracker in 1992 with its plot out of order, its dialogue rattling off the eaves, and its tension bursting at the seams of its mostly single location. In many ways, it launched indie filmmaking towards the ’90s mainstream.

Originally planning to shoot it himself on black and white film with no-name actors, Quentin Tarantino’s script found its way to Harvey Keitel, who helped raise $1.5 million for the film. Miramax scooped it up after its premiere sensation and distributed it to iconic status.

To this day, the energy and vigor and differentness of Tarantino’s feature is distinguishably “indie,” which is ironic given how he famously modge-podged it together from a video-store worth of influences. But there was then - as there still is now - a certain something to it that the world was very much hungry for.

9: Independent by NOT the MAJORS - Lost in Translation

In the wake of the successes of films like Reservoir Dogs, the majors eventually said, “Hey, we can make some money with this indie racket,” and they created a bunch of different niche house brands like Focus Features and Fox Searchlight to scoop up the best of the festival circuit and sell them to fans of The Shins.

Today, plenty of independent filmmakers make something incredible and are rewarded with lots of money and wide release by those studios without ever getting told what they could and could not do. So, maybe independent distribution doesn’t matter so much when it comes to “indie” classification.

They’ve brought us Brokeback Mountain, In Bruges, Whiplash, Call Me By Your Name, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Garden State, Before Sunrise, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and so many more.

However, our favorite independent film that went this route has to be Lost in Translation.

Sofia Coppola’s sensitive sophomore film about loneliness in Tokyo and an unexpected connection between a young woman and an aging star is a perfect example of indie filmmaking’s delightful contradictions.

On the one hand, she took great pain to make the film her way, including recruiting Bill Murray directly from his personal 1-800 number, signing him on with no contract, and just taking him at his word that he’d show up in Japan. She also chose to shoot the film in a run-and-gun, natural-light, improvisational, frequently unpermitted style with a small crew, and purposefully chose not to pre-sell the American distribution rights so that no one could take away her final cut.

On the other hand, she’s Sofia Coppola, the daughter of Francis Ford, whose American Zoetrope is one of the heaviest hitting “indie” film studios of all time with more connections in Hollywood than a QAnon conspiracy.

So, it’s fitting that it ended up at Focus Features, the indie arm of a major film studio, for distribution. But they knew exactly what to do, promoting the film to theatrical success and wins at the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards that it very much deserved.

8: Self-Funded Only - Night of the Living Dead

Of course, after our last category, you might be thinking to yourself, “Hey, wait a minute. Aren’t those major studios that are spending tens of millions to buy the best of the indie films actually exerting indirect market pressure on the savvy independent production companies that are financing them because they would really like to make a profitable sale, making them technically NOT independent?”

And uh… yeah. They definitely are.

So, maybe real indie films have to be self-funded and made entirely by first-time filmmakers, new companies, or students outside of the tidal pull of Hollywood’s incentive system.

Films like Hoop Dreams, Evil Dead, Blue Ruin, Bad Taste, John Carpenter’s Dark Star, Chris Nolan’s Following, David Lynch’s Eraserhead, and our favorite classic of the self-funded indie films: George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.

George Romero and his friends pitched what would eventually become Night of the Living Dead - the godfather of all zombie movies - to an industrial video company out of Pittsburgh for $6,000 dollars. And their approach was just as homemade.

The film was costumed by Goodwill, it was shot in a building set to be demolished so they could destroy it, and the entrails were made from donated ham. This film was designed to capture audiences with horror exploitation, but it succeeded also on account of its grittiness as the black-and-white film stock and early hand-held aesthetic gave it a flavor of documentary and reality that seriously heightened the terror.

Audiences were treated to something that looked both shocking and believable, which helped it on its way to being the most profitable horror film ever made outside the studio system.

7: Indie by Low Budget - Slacker

So okay, maybe money is just bad news. Maybe the only real way to get free is to use as little of it as possible. Maybe good indies all come out of massive creativity in the face of budget restrictions.

That was certainly the case with Eraserhead, Primer, The Blair Witch Project, Napoleon Dynamite, Tangerine and El Mariachi. And it certainly had something to do with our number seven pick, Richard Linklater’s debut feature, Slacker.

Made on a shoestring budget of just $23,000, Slacker’s 16mm tour of Austin, Texas’ resident bohemian weirdos - arranged along one seemingly-continuous thread of criss-crossing intersections - is a low-budget indie revelation.

Inspiring an entire wave of independent filmmaking including Kevin Smith’s Clerks, Linklater’s second feature radically challenged what parts of cinema were most important. With little traditional plot to speak of, the film floats from one eccentric character to the next without ever seizing upon any particular throughline other than just… sharing the time.

And it doesn’t just work; it’s astounding. Linklater balances dozens of unusual personalities without ever slipping into easy trope or caricature, ensuring that each moment has a peculiarity alongside its serious authenticity.

6: Independent Movie by Sundance/Festival Rewarded - Sex, Lies and Videotape

Thinking dollars and cents has been all well and good, but Plan 9 From Outer Space was made for nothing and we’d never call that “indie.” Everything Everywhere All At Once, on the other hand, had double-digit millions and that’s an independent movie to the bone. Clearly, we’re missing something here: This is art we’re talking about, and it can’t be made or broken solely based on whose ledger we’re making entries in.

Art is a matter of taste. And fortunately for Indiedom, there’s been a preeminent tastemaker since 1978 separating the avant-garde wheat from the manic-pixie chaff in the form of the Sundance Film Festival.

Sundance has brought us films like Heathers, Moon, Brick, In Bruges, Calvary, Hereditary, Donnie Darko, Almost Famous, Fruitvale Station, The Witch, and so many more. And probably their best pick ever is also our number six: Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies and Videotape.

If Slacker was a revelation, Sex, Lies and Videotape was a wildfire. Soderbergh’s Sundance debut smashed open the window for commercially successful indie filmmaking in a way that changed the cinematic landscape of the ’90s and early aughts. Not only did it win the Sundance Audience Award and the Cannes Palme d'Or, it also found a wide theatrical release to earn $36 million back globally on a $1.2 million dollar budget.

Perhaps also the top candidate for most-accurately-titled-movie-of-all-time, Soderbergh makes a searingly honest study of sex in all the places it isn’t, truth in all the places it isn’t, and the voyeurism that lets us connect from a distance.

The casting, acting, writing, direction, and editing are pure brilliance, all without the slightest scent of inexperience or underconfidence.

5: By Audience - Killer of Sheep

Then again, maybe we’re looking at the wrong end of the stick as Sundance rejected Swingers, Following, George Washington, and Short Term 12 after all. Maybe it’s not who created a film that makes it independent, or where the film got tapped to premiere… maybe it’s about who it was created for.

Some of the most interesting independent cinema has come from serving underserved audiences.

When teenagers began emerging as a major segment of theatregoers, studios mostly made films that spoke down to them, leaving room for independent cinema to engage with them at their level with films like The Wild Angels, Rat Fink, and The Trip.

Queer cinema was kept on the margins even longer, slowly bubbling up in the subtext for decades in the avant-garde before appearing in indie films like Lianna, Parting Glances, and Desert Hearts. It finally began exploding in the early ’90s with indie greats like Poison, Happy Together, and Paris Is Burning.

We also have to mention independent black cinema, featuring such incredible films as Prince of His Race, Scar of Shame, Blood of Jesus, The Homesteader, Within Our Gates, Sweet Sweetback’s Badaasssss Song, Ganja + Hess, She’s Gotta Have It, Medicine for Melancholy, and our favorite: Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep.

Shot on weekends for Charles Burnett’s UCLA MFA thesis for less than $10,000, Killer of Sheep is perhaps the most distinctly American answer to the European New Waves… and it just so happens to come from Black America.

More of a portrait of life in the Watts neighborhood of LA than featuring any explicit plot, the film unfolds with an almost neo-realistic restraint with the camera balancing a documentary-like distance with an empathetic curiosity.

And with this sincere authenticity, it broke significant ground by representing African American life from a place of lived experience, neither co-opted by Hollywood for its own ends nor rendered in caricature for exploitation.

4: Subject Matter/Message - Pink Flamingos

Then again, studios have grown extremely accustomed to targeting any demographic they think has money to spend, no matter how niche. Maybe it’s not who a movie is FOR that makes it Indie, but instead what it’s about.

We’re talking subject matter. The taboo. Saying and exploring things that standards and practices would never let out the studio door.

Much of horror’s innovations have grown out of the indie world - from Blood Feast to Texas Chainsaw Massacre to the work of Roger Corman to Hostel and Saw to the Blumhouse work of today.

Films like Scorpio Rising, Trainspotting, Requiem for a Dream, Happiness, Kids, Gummo, Julien Donkey Boy, Antichrist, Nymphomaniac, Hard Candy, and Raw all came from outside the system to push up against the standards of good taste and - in so doing - the edges of cinema.

But if there’s a maestro of pushing boundaries, he surely has the thinnest of mustaches. We’re talking John Waters, the filmmaker who shocked the world with Female Trouble, Polyester, and our next pick: Pink Flamingoes.

Filled with anus dancing, corprophagia, incest, and all other manners of debauchery, Pink Flamingoes - if you’re unfamiliar - follows Baltimore criminals competing for the title of the filthiest person alive.

With the acting assistance of his volunteer band of Dreamlanders, Waters wrote, directed, shot, and edited this film that was unsurprisingly not supported by traditional Hollywood studios.

Slapped with the severest of ratings in all the markets it wasn’t banned, the film has nonetheless become something of a cult classic because there’s a kind of perverse brilliance and fun to it. An absolute fearlessness to breach every boundary and offend every single individual. If there are both meaningful and arbitrary limits to our cinema and our society, John Waters has helped us find them by pointing all of them out from the other side.

3: By Style - Easy Rider

Closing in at number three, we have to concede that plenty of indies are perfectly comfortable to watch with your mother and that - maybe - the thing we’re responding to in indie films might just be in the filmmaking itself. Maybe “Indie” is about style.

And if indie is about style, then the best independent films are surely neon and pulsating as in films like Enter the Void, Spring Breakers, and Only God Forgives. They are also planometric and pastel in the films of Wes Anderson, surreal and dream-like in the work of David Lynch, direct-to-camera in the films of Spike Lee, mumbly and improvised in the films of the Duplass Brothers, or peering and frenetic in the films of the Safdies.

Of course, one of the original indies to blow a hole in the studio system with its own sense of free-form style is our next pick: Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider.

If Sex, Lies and Videotape launched the indie movement of the ’90s and 2000s, Easy Rider launched its predecessor, “New Hollywood.” A loosely plotted motorcycle tour from California to New Orleans, the film brought counterculture to the mainstream in a way few others have, but it also brought its own new kind of counter-aesthetics to match.

With a camera that is as free-spirited as its hippie drug-smuggling heroes, an edit system that flashes transitions before our eyes, and an extended acid trip sequence in a cemetery that unravels cinematic coherence into hallucinatory aesthetics through space and time and symbol, Dennis Hopper gave America something different… and America responded by devouring it.

In many ways, the singularity of Easy Rider’s vision - and the success that came with it - paved the way for the alternative cinema in America that have given rise to the indies of today.

2: By Structure - Memento

Style can be flashy and a lot easier to notice than its reclusive uncle: Structure, but indie filmmaking has long been the testing ground for structural innovation outside of Hollywood’s traditional formula, and it is a key marker of some of our most beloved indies.

Pulp Fiction set off an indie revolution with its story-out-of-order. Clerks passed the time with very little structure at all. Moonlight hews itself cleanly into three. Boyhood spanned a real decade. Adaptation collapsed reality and fantasy in its structure. And Palindromes fractured its main character into eight pieces.

Of course, little structural innovation is more memorable - or more precisely executed - than the film that started at the end. For our number two pick, we have Nolan’s Following follow-up: Memento.

Unusual in that it was made on a $9 million budget with no involvement from the majors at all, Memento is a testament to the groundwork of the indie boom of the ’90s. Proving that audiences did indeed have an appetite for new and interesting things, Chris Nolan took the structural innovations of earlier indies and said, “What if I did this but math,” and hasn’t let up since.

But Memento is still probably his most brilliant gymnastics routine through time. Folding backwards and forwards at exactly the right moments with a stylistic principle to guide viewer comprehension, the phenomenological experience of Leonard’s memory loss is mirrored by the audience’s disorientation, and that is the film’s real brilliance - not just that Nolan’s structural innovation lets us see our way through time in a new way, but that the new way leads us deeper into identification and empathy with the hero of the story.

1: By Something New - Shadows

Of course, plenty of great films we’d call indies have incredibly by-the-book three-act structures, and by now you’re probably beginning to suspect that what we refer to as “indie” isn’t really about any one thing at all.

Most of all, what we think people really mean when they call something “indie” is that it feels “fresh” and “new.”

It’s the latest fashion, trend, and style writ in cinema. It’s counter-culture. It’s defining itself as a reaction against the center, and by so-doing, moving that center, such that what is indie today is mainstream tomorrow once Hollywood manages to get their teeth around it.

It is the front edge of where a new generation of artists encounter the culture of Hollywood capital and get to make really exciting things with - frequently - real money and less than average oversight.

It’s Do the Right Thing, Moonlight, Blood Simple, early Tarantino, middle Altman, Parasite, and all the movies we’ve already mentioned on this list. It’s Get Out, Pi, Matewan, Drugstore Cowboy, The Florida Project, and Stranger Than Paradise. And it’s almost all of the work of maybe the most important indie director of all time: John Cassavetes. More specifically, his film Shadows.

Shadows’ story of a relationship turned on its head in the 1950s when a white man discovers that his girlfriend is in fact a light-skinned African American grew organically out of years of acting workshops. It also happened thanks to improvisation, filming, refilming, and reworking to arrive at the indie landmark before us today, utterly unlike everything that had come before it.

But actor Cassavetes’ directorial debut has something else beyond a freshness to it that marks it out as meaningfully “indie.” It has another feature found in most of the other films on this list: a heightened sense of attunement, attention, and empathy towards what it means to be a human being. It also doesn’t settle into tired tropes, but instead relishes in all the delightful peculiarities of emotional co-existence as a real person on this planet.

And maybe that demands freshness. Maybe the reason indies sit towards the avant-garde is that this kind of human sensitivity must be constantly rediscovered. Maybe that formula must be constantly recreated because it can’t live on a shelf.

Good indies aren’t just made… they’re an act of discovery. That’s why a good indie feels fresh while a great indie feels timeless.

And it’s exactly why we think Shadows is one of the very best there ever was.

So there you have it: a fool-proof working definition of the indie film - something that was made without studio money… unless it was. Something that was produced outside the Hollywood system… unless it wasn’t. Something that was recognized by Sundance… unless it wasn’t. Something that got seen by a usually-forgotten audience segment… or maybe just everybody. Something that tackled something super edgy… or maybe very mundane. Something that told its story in an intricate - or simple - way that dazzled us with a style that was completely new… or very very old. Something that is, in a word, an indie.

For more movie lists, check out the best A24 movies, the best horror movies on Netflix right now, or the best Star Wars movies!

Thor: Love and Thunder's Chris Hemsworth has revealed that showing his butt in the upcoming MCU film was "10 years in the making" and was basically a dream come true for the actor.

Speaking to Variety at Thor: Love and Thunder's premiere at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Hemsworth shared why this revealing moment is so special to him.

Chris Hemsworth on seeing Thor's butt in #ThorLoveAndThunder: "It was 10 years in the making that scene — kind of a dream of mine. The first time I played Thor I took my shirt off and I thought, 'You know what's gonna sweeten this...'" https://t.co/3aIXbiXW0C pic.twitter.com/kD2wsPN0zL

— Variety (@Variety) June 24, 2022

"It was 10 years in the making that scene — kind of a dream of mine,” Hemsworth said. “The first time I played Thor I took my shirt off and I thought, ‘You know what’s gonna sweeten this… a decade from now it’s all gonna come off.”

Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi also discussed Hemsworth's big butt moment in the film, saying that Chris worked too hard to not show off his body.

"I feel like we had all talked about it,” Waititi said. “We had talked about, ‘Yeah, we gotta show off this body.’ My whole thing was like, Chris works so hard, you’ve gotta show it off. Don’t cover it up with all these suits and the cape and stuff, it’s not fair!”

In the same chat with Variety, Hemsworth also talked about seeing Natalie Portman as Mighty Thor for the first time, saying that it was "a little stab to the ego, but I quickly got over it and I was in awe of everything she had done."

You can check out a blurred version of Thor's butt at the end of Thor: Love and Thunder's official trailer, and you can thank Russell Crowe's Zeus for making it happen.

Thor: Love and Thunder will be released in theaters on July 8, 2022. For more, check out why Christian Bale's Gorr the God Butcher is one of Hemsworth's favorite Marvel villains, how he wants to play Thor in Deadpool 3 to upset Hugh Jackman, and how he wants to quit playing Thor before he's told to go.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

The DC Extended Universe was set to rival the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but its track record hasn’t been quite as successful. As time went on, the films started becoming more standalone and only contained smaller references to the wider universe and story. This was made even more clear when Joker and The Batman shed off all their DCEU connections and began telling their own stories.

Despite that, there is still a lot to enjoy in the collection of films that began with 2013’s Man of Steel. Fans can obviously watch the films in the order that they were released, but there were a few entries that take place before some of the films that came before them. If you want to watch the DC films in chronological order, this guide was made specifically for you.

While Joker and The Batman may have veered off course, the DCEU is set to continue with Black Adam, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Batgirl, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, The Flash, Wonder Woman 3, and many more. If you wish to catch up before the future of this universe arrives, we’ve listed all of the films in chronological order and release order below, and we will leave the choice of how you watch them entirely up to you!

The X-Men Movies in (Chronological) Order

1. Wonder Woman (2017)

Where to Watch: HBO Max

Despite being the fourth installment of the DCEU, 2017’s Wonder Woman takes place earliest in the timeline. This film marks the second appearance of Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman and follows her introduction in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Primarily a period piece set during the first World War, the film introduces audiences and Diana to US pilot Steve Trevor after he crashes on Themyscira, the hidden island of the Amazons. Soon after, German soldiers invade Themyscira, and certain other events that follow lead Diana and Steve to leave the island and travel to London.

Read our review of Wonder Woman.

2. Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Where to Watch: HBO Max

As with Wonder Woman, its 2018 sequel is a period piece, this time primarily set in the year 1984. The events of this film bring Wonder Woman to face off against Cheetah (Kristen Wiig) and Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal). Wonder Woman 1984 takes place before all other DCEU films besides the original, and doesn’t feature too many tie-ins to other characters or movies.

Read our review of Wonder Woman 1984.

3. Man of Steel (2013)

Where to Watch: HBO Max

Man of Steel is the movie that kicked off the DCEU and introduced the world to Henry Cavill’s Superman. The film begins by showing audiences the destruction of Kal-El’s home planet of Krypton before depicting Earth in roughly the year 2013. Clark Kent grows up and becomes the legendary Superman (spoilers, in case you hadn’t heard by now), and is accompanied by some familiar faces along the way, including Lois Lane (Amy Adams), General Zod (Michael Shannon), Martha Kent (Diane Lane), Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner), and more.

Read our review of Man of Steel.

4. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

Where to Watch: HBO Max

Very loosely based on a pivotal fight in the classic DC comic The Dark Knight Returns, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice takes place eighteen months after the events of Man of Steel, and tells the story of how Batman (Ben Affleck) reacts to the idea of an alien as powerful as Superman having free reign.

This film marks the first time Batman and Superman have starred in a live-action film together, and it also introduced audiences to modern film versions of Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher), Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), Alfred Pennyworth (Jeremy Irons), and more.

DC fans were also treated to a live-action version of the Superman villain Doomsday as well as a tease of DC Comics’ ultimate baddie, Darkseid.

Read our review of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

5. Suicide Squad (2016)

Where to Watch: HBO Max

The first of the Suicide Squad films takes place about a year after Batman v Superman and even features a quick cameo by Ben Affleck’s Dark Knight. Unlike the classic superheroes featured in that film, however, Suicide Squad stars a group of imprisoned criminals and supervillains who are recruited by government agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) to join what is officially known as Task Force X. The group is tasked with completing a seemingly impossible mission in exchange for a reduction of their prison sentences. However, if they stray from the mission, nanite bombs implanted into their necks will explode.

A divisive film, Suicide Squad nonetheless features an all-star cast. Will Smith stars as Deadshot, Margot Robbie gets her debut performance as Harley Quinn, and certain other recurring characters get their first bit of screen time, including Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney). Oh, and this is the film that introduced the world to Jared Leto’s take on Joker.

Read our review of Suicide Squad.

6. Justice League (2017)

Where to Watch: HBO Max

Justice League takes place about one year after the events of Suicide Squad and stars the returning cast of Batman v Superman. The film deals with the fallout of the death of Superman, and also features Steppenwolf and his parademons as the main villains. J.K. Simmons also makes his first appearance as Commissioner James Gordon, a role he will reprise for DC’s upcoming Batgirl movie.

Mostly shot by Zack Snyder, Justice League was finished by Joss Whedon after Snyder exited the project due to personal tragedy.

Read our review of Justice League.

7. Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)

Where to Watch: HBO Max

While many thought it would never happen, Zack Snyder’s Justice League finally saw its much-requested release in 2021. It is mostly the same overarching story, meaning it is set in the same place in the timeline. However, there are many differences between the two cuts of the film, including the return of Jared Leto’s Joker, a more prominent role for Darkseid, and the introduction of Martian Manhunter.

Read our review of Zack Snyder's Justice League.

8. Aquaman (2018)

Where to Watch: HBO Max

Jason Momoa’s first solo DC film came in the form of 2018’s Aquaman. The film is set about a year after Justice League, but it takes a bit of time to dive deep into Aquaman’s origin story. Alongside the story of Aquaman’s rise to power and his attempt to protect Atlantis, the movie also introduced Mera (Amber Heard), Vulko (Willem Dafoe), King Orm (Patrick Wilson), Atlanna (Nicole Kidman), and classic Aquaman nemesis Black Manta (Yahya Abdul Mateen II).

Read our review of Aquaman.

9. Shazam! (2019)

Where to Watch: HBO Max

2019’s Shazam! introduced audiences to orphan Billy Batson (Asher Angel), a teenager who is chosen by an ancient wizard named Shazam to be his new champion. With the powers he’s granted, Batson transforms into an adult superhero also named Shazam (Zachary Levi), and has to face off against obsessive scientist Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), who is intent on claiming Shazam’s power for his own.

Shazam! is mostly a standalone story, and only includes a few references to other DCEU characters and moments.

Read our review of Shazam!

10. Birds of Prey (2020)

Where to Watch: HBO Max

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is set about four years after the events of Suicide Squad and picks up after the Joker and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) break up. As Quinn recovers from the split, she crosses paths with crime lordRoman Sionis (Ewan McGregor) and his unhinged right-hand-man Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina).

As she struggles against Sionis and attempts to save a young pickpocket named Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), Quinn is joined by disgraced cop Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), the vigilante known as the Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and Dinah Lance, also known as the Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett).

Despite being a loose sequel to Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey is another example of a DCEU film that is mostly disconnected from other films in the franchise, but this is where it would fit into the timeline.

Read our review of Birds of Prey.

11. The Suicide Squad (2021)

Where to Watch: HBO Max

Also a sequel to Suicide Squad, The Suicide Squad was directed by James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy), and is a new take on Task Force X. While it does include some returning characters, such as Harley Quinn, Amanda Waller, Rick Flag, Captain Boomerang, the story is centered largely around the mercenary Bloodsport (Idris Elba) and fellow teammate Peacemaker (John Cena).

As has been the trend in these later films, The Suicide Squad is very much separate from the DCEU’s main story that was being built up in the earlier years, but there are a few nods to the wider world, including of all things a giant, mind-controlling starfish from space named Starro the Conqueror, who was once the first villain the orignal comic book Justice League ever fought!

A huge success, The Suicide Squad is the first film in the franchise to spawn a streaming show in the MCU style, an offbeat miniseries featuring the return of Peacemaker.

Read our review of The Suicide Squad.

Bonus: Joker (2019)

Where to Watch: HBO Max

2019’s Joker is a wildly successful film that earned over a billion dollars at the box office despite being entirely unconnected to the DCEU. While Jared Leto’s Joker starred in 2016’s Suicide Squad, his behind-the-camera antics led to his eventual replacement. Director Todd Phillips cast Joaquin Phoenix in a new take on Batman’s most famous villain. Additionally, its separation from the DCEU means you don’t need to watch any of the other DCEU films to understand Joker’s story.

Read our review of Joker.

Bonus: The Batman (2022)

Where to Watch: HBO Max

Originally intended as a DCEU vehicle for Ben Affleck to produce, co-write, direct, and star in a feature film based on his version of the character, The Batman was eventually reworked into a standalone film by incoming director Matt Reeves after Affleck left the project.

The Batman takes place during Bruce Wayne’s (Robert Pattinson) second year as the Dark Knight, as he attempts to solve the mystery of multiple murders in Gotham being committed by The Riddler (Paul Dano). As a new take on the franchise, the movie also introduces new versions of Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz), Commissioner Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), and Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis), as well as classic Batman villain Penguin (Colin Farrell) and mob boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro).

Read our review of The Batman.

DCEU Movies in Order of Release Date

• Man of Steel (2013)
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
• Suicide Squad (2016)
• Wonder Woman (2017)
• Justice League (2017)
• Aquaman (2018)
• Shazam! (2019)
• Birds of Prey (2020)
• Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
• Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)
• The Suicide Squad (2021)

There you have it! You may also want to check out Marvel Movies in Order and X-Men Movies in Order next.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Spider-Man is one of the most iconic superheroes of all time, but he didn’t swing onto the big screen until director Sam Raimi helped bring 2002’s Spider-Man to life. Since then, Spider-Man has also been one of the most profitable superheroes and his films have taken the box office by storm each time.

While it may be easy to watch the films in release order, there are those of us who love watching stories in chronological order to experience these stories in a whole new way. Luckily, the release order and chronological order of the Spider-Man movies and spin-offs are the exact same, so it really just comes down to how you want to watch all 15 films that tell the complete story of the Spider-Verse (pun intended!).

This guide will help you in your quest to watch all the Spider-Man movies and their spin-offs. Whether you want to watch just the main movies with Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland or you want to have the complete picture and future-proof your Spidey knowledge with various spin-offs, we have you covered.

Below, you can find a mostly spoiler-free look at how to watch all the Spider-Man movies and their spin-offs in chronological order. You'll also see a few lists on Spider-Man movies in release order or with a particular actor.

Spider-Man Movies in Chronological Order

1. Spider-Man (2002)

Where to Watch: Peacock

2002’s Spider-Man is the one that brought Peter Parker into the world of live-action on the big screen. Starring Tobey Maguire as everyone’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane, this film gave us many memorable moments, including the upside-down kiss that may still be one of the most iconic kisses of all time.

Oh, and it features Willem Dafoe and his fantastic first performance as Harry Osborne/Green Goblin and J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, roles they would both reprise in future films beyond the Maguire-era.

Read our review of Spider-Man.

2. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Where to Watch: Peacock

Tobey Maguire’s journey as Spider-Man continues in 2004’s Spider-Man 2, and this time he must face off against Alfred Molina’s Doctor Otto Octavius when a tragic lab accident turns the Doctor into a supervillain. This second film in the Maguire era took place two years after the first and gave us the legendary scene featuring Spider-Man saving a runaway train with nothing but his spider-strength and web-slinging prowess.

Read our review of Spider-Man 2.

3. Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Where to Watch: Peacock

Spider-Man 3 is the last film of Sam Raimi’s trilogy and the final entry starring Tobey Maguire as the titular hero. Whereas the first two films focused on one main villain, this third entry packed three baddies into its runtime, including Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), Venom (Topher Grace), and a new Green Goblin (James Franco). This movie, which takes place about a year after Spider-Man 2, is probably the most polarizing of the first three films, but it did give us Spider-Man’s Black Suit and that must give it some points, right?!

Read our review of Spider-Man 3.

4. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Where to Watch: Netflix

2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man saw Marc Webb swing into the director’s chair, and was the first to star Andrew Garfield as the web-slinging hero opposite Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy. The Amazing Spider-Man is another take on Spidey’s origin story and features some history about Peter’s parents. The big bad in this movie is Rhys Ifans’ Lizard, a mutated scientist who once worked with Peter’s father.

Read our review of The Amazing Spider-Man.

5. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Where to Watch: Rent or Purchase

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was the second and last film in the Garfield era and, much like the last film in the original Spider-Man trilogy, it featured a trio of villains. like. Taking place two years after the original, this sequel introduced Jamie Foxx’s Electro, Paul Giamatti’s Rhino, and Dane DeHaan’s Green Goblin, and was supposed to set up future entries in the franchise featuring Venom and the Sinister Six. Unfortunately, the film’s mixed review and lower box office performance contributed to all of those plans being scrapped.

Read our review of The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

6. Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Where to Watch: Disney+

While Captain America: Civil War is obviously not a Spider-Man movie, it did introduce the world to Tom Holland’s version of Spider-Man. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) recruits Holland’s Peter Parker after he has already become Spider-Man, and we get to see him facing off against or teaming up with many of the MCU’s greatest heroes.

Read our review of Captain America: Civil War.

7. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Where to Watch: STARZ

Spider-Man: Homecoming, Tom Holland’s first solo film as Spider-Man, arrived in 2017 with Jon Watts at the helm. It takes place after the events of Captain America: Civil War, and tells the story of Peter Parker handling the twin challenges of high school and proving to Tony Stark that he’s ready to join the Avengers. Despite that, he still takes it upon himself to improve his skills and stop crimes as Spider-Man alongside hanging out with his friends MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon). Homecoming also introduces us to Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes/Vulture, a villain who will appear again down the line.

Read our review of Spider-Man: Homecoming.

8. Venom (2018)

Where to Watch: STARZ

While there is no Spider-Man in 2018’s Venom, Tom Hardy’s version of the iconic Spidey villain does have a role to play in Holland’s Spider-Man story as future films will see their paths almost cross. It remains to be seen if Holland’s Spider-Man will ever actually run into Hardy’s Venom, but this character will undoubtedly have an important part to play in the future of the web-slinger, one way or another.

Read our review of Venom.

9. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Where to Watch: Rent or Purchase

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is another Spider-Man story separate from the mainline films, but it is one well worth a watch. The story centers around Shameik Moore’s Miles Morales, but Spider-People from many different multiverses quickly enter the picture and build a cast of characters, including Hailee Steinfeld’s Spider-Gwen, Jake Johnson’s Peter B. Parker, John Mulaney’s Spider-Ham, Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir, and more.

Holland previously expressed interest in wanting to join the Spider-Verse, and he said he is just waiting for that special call.

Read our review of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

10. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Where to Watch: Disney+

Avengers: Infinity War features a large cast of the MCU’s greatest heroes, and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is one of them. He plays an important role in Infinity War and his growing friendship with Tony Stark is one of the highlights.

Read our review of Avengers: Infinity War.

11. Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Where to Watch: Disney+

While certain plot reasons keep Tom Holland’s Spider-Man out of Avengers: Endgame for much of the movie, he still makes his presence felt in key moments of this film’s story. Also, it is the culmination of 21 MCU films before it and deserves a spot on the watch list.

Read our review of Avengers: Endgame.

12. Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Where to Watch: FX NOW

Taking place after the events of Avengers: Endgame and dealing with much of what happened in that film, Spider-Man: Far From Home begins in New York City before taking Holland’s Peter Parker to Europe for a school trip. He wants to take a trip undisturbed from the world of superheroes, but the universe has other plans for him. Throughout Far From Home, Holland crosses paths with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), and Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal), who claims to be a hero from a different universe. Make sure to stick around for the post-credits scene here!

Read our review of Spider-Man: Far From Home.

13. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

Where to Watch: STARZ

Much like the first Venom film, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is very much adjacent to the Spider-Man films rather than directly tied in. However, this film builds up the world of Tom Hardy’s Venom, and includes a post-credits scene that brings these two worlds closer together than ever.

Read our review of Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

14. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Where to Watch: Rent or Purchase

Spider-Man: No Way Home picks up right after the post-credits of Spider-Man: Far From Home and is the most recent mainline Spider-Man film to be released. After Peter and his friends’ lives are turned upside down, he goes to Doctor Strange and asks him to make things right by making everyone forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man.

However, things go awry and the multiverse opens up, bringing many familiar faces from previous films into the MCU. No Way Home is as much the next chapter in Holland’s story as it is a continuation of the Maguire and Garfield eras, and the fan service is just so wonderful, especially if you have seen the previous films.

Read our review of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

15. Morbius (2022)

Where to Watch: Rent or Purchase

Morbius, much like Venom, has very little in the way of Spider-Man specifically, but it helps build out the wider universe. We know Morbius takes place in the same universe as Venom as there are certain nods like a reference to the events “in San Francisco,” but the connection to Spider-Man is a bit more unknown. Morbius is a Spider-Man villain, and the film also sees the return of Michael Keaton’s Vulture, who looks to have a bigger role to play in the future of Spider-Man, hinting that Morbius could take place in the MCU or Sony or even a bit of both.

Read our review of Morbius.

Spider-Man Movies in Order of Release

• Spider-Man (2002)
• Spider-Man 2 (2004)
• Spider-Man 3 (2007)
• The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
• The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
• Captain America: Civil War (2016)
• Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
• Venom (2018)
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
• Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
• Avengers: Endgame (2019)
• Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
• Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)
• Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
• Morbius (2022)

Tobey Maguire Spider-Man Movies in Order of Release

• Spider-Man (2002)
• Spider-Man 2 (2004)
• Spider-Man 3 (2007)
• Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Andrew Garfield Spider-Man Movies in Order of Release

• The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
• The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
• Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Tom Holland Spider-Man Movies in Order of Release

• Captain America: Civil War (2016)
• Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
• Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
• Avengers: Endgame (2019)
• Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
• Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

The Devil works hard, but Godzilla works harder. With a career spanning over six decades and over 35 movies, Godzilla is undoubtedly one of the most in-demand action stars to date. (No word if he’ll make an appearance in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, but we digress.) Since his debut in 1954, he’s been smashing, crashing, and thrashing through buildings, enemies, and the Japanese government's defense system, making him the legendary gold standard for the epic genre known as the creature feature. The last time we saw the roaring overlord was in 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, but luckily, the folks over at Legendary and the Japanese movie company Toho (the originators of the franchise) have announced a series of upcoming Godzilla projects for Apple TV+, as well as a sequel to the movie. Now’s the perfect time to (re)prepare yourself and get further acquainted with all the movies this iconic pop-culture franchise has to offer.

TL;DR - Jump to the Simple Ordered List:

Jump to All Godzilla Movies In Order

1. Godzilla (1954)

Is it an overgrown lizard? A time-traveling dinosaur? Or a lab experiment gone horribly wrong? These are just some of the questions the citizens of Tokyo, Japan have after a 164-foot sea creature rises up from the Pacific Ocean to wreak havoc on their town. The Godzilla origin story follows the sea monster’s descent into madness and mayhem after his underwater home and family are destroyed by an American hydrogen bomb that lands in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan. He’s understandably mad as hell and ready to take out his anger on anything that gets in his way.

2. Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

You’d think Godzilla would take some time off to relax at Disneyland, considering it also opened up in 1955, but alas, Godzilla has a laser-sharp focus on the island nation of Japan. In the sequel to the monster flick, Godzilla finds himself in a battle with his old enemy, an ancient fire-wielding ankylosaurus named Anguirus. The people of Japan then have to figure out how to defeat not only one, but two monsters that are determined to destroy the world and each other in the process. This movie is also the first to feature Godzilla fighting another creature, a feature which would then become the main selling point for the future of the series. The 1955 trailer showcases some of the awesome-for-its-time production design and creature stunts required to put such a movie together.

3. Godzilla: King of Monsters (1956)

A re-edited, Americanized version of the original Godzilla from 1954, this film adds approximately 21 minutes of footage that follow a fictional journalist named Steve Martin (Raymond Burr) as he documents the goings-on of the impossibly large sea creature. You can check out the American trailer for the 1956 re-telling and compare it to the original Japanese trailer from 1954. Eagle-eyed Godzilla fans might be able to spot the differences in the plot.

4. King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

King Kong vs. Godzilla is a straight-up entertainment spectacular on many levels. The first time both characters were ever introduced on-screen in color, it’s one of the most popular crossover movies in history as well as one of the highest-grossing Japanese films in history. The movie centers around a money-hungry publicity man who is looking to sell more pharmaceutical ads on television by using King Kong as bait. Unfortunately, when King Kong arrives on the mainland, he and Godzilla (accidentally released from an iceberg after an American nuclear submarine accident) have beef. Who will win their epic battle atop Mt. Fuji? Watch this classic and find out.

5. Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)

Enter Mothra. She’s beauty, she’s grace, and she’s ready to punch Godzilla in the face. From her own debut movie in 1961, Mothra is ready to meet her match. After Godzilla’s epic battle with King Kong, he's ready for more smoke. In this movie, a news reporter and his photographer find a giant egg washed ashore on the beach. Unfortunately for them, a greedy businessman takes the egg so he can put it on display for profit. When people warn the businessman that the egg harbors larvae (that unbeknownst to them belongs to Mothra) that can potentially devastate the population, that’s when things get a little scrambled. For reasons unknown, Godzilla senses a disturbance at the beach and starts to attack the shoreline. Luckily, Mothra is recruited to help the folks of the beachside city conquer the wrath of Godzilla, yet again. Who will win this time?

6. Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster (1964)

From the destroyer of worlds to the protector of the planet, this movie marks a big shift in Godzilla’s role. When a monstrous creature named Ghidorah comes from outer space to invade planet Earth, Mothra has to convince Godzilla to help save the planet from total annihilation. This movie also marks the first appearance of the Pteranodon Rodan who comes to join the fray. Sounds a little similar to The Avengers (2011), doesn’t it?

7. Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)

One small step for man, one giant leap for ancient reptile-kind. Invasion of Astro-Monster follows two astronauts who travel to the mysterious Planet X, located somewhere behind Jupiter. While exploring the planet, home of the alien lifeforms known as Xiliens, the astronauts encounter none other than King Ghidorah, who fled to space after the events of the last film. After assessing the threat Ghidorah posed to their mission, the two astronauts send a request to use Godzilla and Rodan back to their launch bay on Earth to help destroy the monster (again) in a galaxy far, far away. Something fun about this film is that it features a Godzilla victory dance, which is something you can try once you finish your ultimate Godzilla watch list.

8. Ebirah: Horror of the Deep (1966)

Tired from his previous space battle, Godzilla finds himself resting on an uncharted island in the Pacific. Unbeknownst to the sleeping giant, the island is run by a hostile organization known as The Red Bamboo. The group uses slave labor by rounding up a group of natives from a nearby island to produce military-grade weapons and a mysterious yellow liquid that seemingly keeps a giant sea lobster, Ebirah, at bay. Godzilla is awakened by a group of mainland Japanese youngsters who suspect the Red Bamboo has kidnapped their friend. Aquatic chaos ensues once Godzilla tries to help defend the natives from the corrupt organization and evil sea creature.

9. Son of Godzilla (1967)

A big congratulations are in order for Papa ‘Zilla! Somewhere between all the fighting, Godzilla had a little downtime to produce an heir. (As for who the lucky Ms. ‘Zilla is, audiences are never told.) Shenanigans ensue when some scientists attempt to build a weather-controlling device to bring snow to the tropical climate of Solgell Island, but are impeded when the changing weather conditions awaken a swarm of giant praying mantises and spiders. As if that wasn’t enough, the creatures uncover a mysterious egg that when hatched unveils Godzilla’s baby, named Minilla. When Godzilla goes to collect his son, the other predators launch an attack. This movie is perfect for a little father-son bonding time, as it shows Godzilla in a slightly comedic and more paternal light.

10. Destroy All Monsters (1968)

This monstrous blockbuster includes the biggest Godzilla team-up yet. Similar to Jurassic World, all of Earth’s giant monsters are confined by the United Nations Science Committee in a place called Monsterland. Keeping a bunch of caged-up mega-beasts in one area doesn’t works out the way scientists hope, though, as the committee gets hacked by an alien species who not only let the monsters escape into the wild, but also encourages them to attack famous cities like New York, Paris, London, Beijing, and Moscow. With the monsters out of control, who can possibly reign them back in? You can check out the cameo-packed trailer here.

11. All Monsters Attack (1969)

All Monsters Attack is primarily known for being an underwhelming film in the franchise, but most do give it kudos for its heartwarming storyline about a son who wants to connect with his busy mother. Latchkey kidIchiro dreams of going to Monsterland in order to befriend Godzilla’s son, Minilla, as they both have parents who are often absent due to work or in Godzilla’s case, stopping world disasters.

12. Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)

It’s a bird! It's a plane! No, it’s… climate change? Japan is under attack when Hedorah, a space-dwelling monster, makes his way to Earth to feed on the planet’s trash and pollution in order to grow stronger. He soon turns into a sea monster in order to consume more of humankind’s toxic waste. Godzilla soon senses his presence, and tries to pulverize the smog monster into biodegradable dust. A fun fact about this movie is that it features the first and only time Godzilla is shown to fly using his atomic powers.

13. Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Godzilla vs. Gigan is a little bonkers. Things get a bit supernatural when a nefarious group of alien cockroaches arrive on Earth in search of a new home planet. After seeing an homage to the decorated hero Godzilla, the roaches realize they’ll never be able to take over Earth while he’s around, so they hatch a complicated plan involving the puppeteering of recently deceased humans, some other alien life forms, and an attempt to summon King Ghidorah once again to destroy Godzilla once and for all.

14. Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)

When will global organizations learn that nuclear missile testing is just not the answer? Apparently not soon enough. Godzilla vs. Megalon follows the underwater city of Seatopia, which thrived in peace and harmony until nuclear testing destroyed the kingdom with a series of environmental disasters. Understandably distraught, Seatopians unleash a sea-dwelling beetle with the ability to fire ray beams and drop napalm bombs. Godzilla must intervene to send the creature back to the watery depths below. You can watch the explosive trailer here.

15. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)

Considering that Transformers didn’t debut until 1984, the idea to bring a mechanized version of Godzilla into the fray was well ahead of its time. In this futuristic entry to the series, a foreseer prophesies that Godzilla will destroy the island of Okinawa, despite being a keeper of peace for the last decade or so. But it turns out that a new species of aliens known as the Black Hole Aliens who wish to invade planet Earth, have made a titanium version of Godzilla as a fail-safe to protect them from the real Godzilla, just in case he interrupted their plans for world domination. It’s God vs. Machine, who will win?

16. Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

Though Godzilla manages to defeat the robot version of himself in the previous film, he’s going to have to do it again. After a disgruntled scientist gets shunned by the scientific community he decides to rebuild the creature, which then in turn, prompts more aliens to launch a counterattack by enlisting the help of another mega-beast called Titanosaurus. Godzilla can handle the Mechagodzilla, but Titanosaurus proves to be a real threat. He’s a smart dinosaur with antennae atop his head to assist with his mind control powers, as well as a tail that can create cyclones. Similar to Destroy All Monsters, this movie is jam-packed with action.

17. The Return of Godzilla (1984)

After three decades of Godzilla dominating the culture, the mega-hit monster’s popularity finally began to decline. His child-friendly appearance and goody-two-shoes behavior were a far cry from the terror was conceptualized in his debut. Toho Pictures, the studio behind the franchise, struggled for nearly a decade with how to revitalize the giant reptile’s reputation. Eventually, they settled on a total reboot that served as a sequel to the 1954 movie, meaning Godzilla was back, bigger, and more destructive than ever.

18. Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)

Five years after Godzilla attacked the mainland, the city is still reeling from the destruction. Meanwhile, a grieving geneticist who had lost his daughter during the siege infuses a rose plant with her DNA in an attempt to keep part of her alive. After his science is called into question by the scientific community, he is disgraced but takes his twisted experiment further. He extracts leftover DNA from Godzilla and infuses it into the plant in hopes that Godzilla’s immortality will protect his daughter-plant from ever wilting and dying. Godzilla, who had been chilling out in a volcano the last five years, senses a new species similar to him when the rose plant starts to bloom. It’s planet vs. plant vs. reptile, and every man for themselves.

19. Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)

In the movie, three travelers from the year 2204 come to warn present-day Japan about nuclear power and industrialization. Because Godzilla thrives on nuclear power, the time travelers allege that Godzilla will be able to destroy Japan for good if they don’t try to stop him now. However, when a robotic version of King Ghidorah (cryogenically frozen in the past) shows up to attack the city, it seems that the time travelers might not be telling the full truth about the future.

20. Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)

Earth is on the brink of a disastrous climate change scenario. An archeological research team goes to visit Infant Island, an ecosystem inhabited by miniature humans with cosmic abilities, to seek help. The Infant Island residents reveal that the planet is upset by man-made pollution and destruction, and because of this it will release an evil creature by the name of Battra to seek revenge and destroy all humans. When the Battra prophecy comes true, Mothra is enlisted by the residents of the island to help battle the creature. Godzilla then awakens due to the commotion on Earth and joins in on the battle against both monsters.

21. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)

Still reeling from the battles between Godzilla, Mothra, and Ghidorah, the Japanese army teams up with the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center to build an anti-Godzilla machine they call Mechagodzilla. Meanwhile, Rodan is presiding over an egg that doesn’t belong to him. When the military, the UN, and scientists get wind of this they steal the egg from Rodan’s clutches. Unfortunately, because the egg is under duress, it emits telepathic waves to the one and only Godzilla, revealing that it contains a baby Godzilla. Chaos reigns supreme when Godzilla arrives on shore to fight everyone in his way, even if it means certain death from himself via a giant mechanized machine.

22. Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)

Biollante, the hybrid female human plant from Godzilla vs. Biollante, escaped to a black hole after her fight with Godzilla. Due to cross-pollination and an unexplained space phenomenon, a Space Godzilla was born. The space creature proves a formidable foe for the Earth-dwelling Godzilla as it has hard crystal spikes on his body that offer a great deal of protection and power. When the space monster dares to do harm to Baby Godzilla and the people of Earth, Godzilla steps up to protect them. This movie marks the 40th anniversary of the series.

23. Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)

The Japanese Self-Defense Force notices that Godzilla has started to break out in a mysterious red-glowing rash similar to that of oozing lava. Scientists figure that because the monster runs off of nuclear energy, he might be experiencing a radioactive meltdown of epic proportions that might in turn ruin the planet. At the same time, Godzilla is mourning the loss of his son Godzilla junior (also known as baby Godzilla from the 1993 movie) who has presumingly died in the film's previous battle. As if these things weren’t enough, another giant beast has come to challenge him. Destoroyah has the ability to handle Godzilla’s atomic blasts and mega-strength while dishing out his own fury of cosmic energies. It is a battle of truly epic proportions, and truly marks the end of an era, as it features the death of Godzilla, for real this time.

24. Godzilla (1998)

Godzilla comes to America in this reboot of the series for Western audiences. This movie was a star-studded affair helmed by actor Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Inspector Gadget) and directed by action juggernaut Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Moonfall). It gave Godzilla a new origin story as a lab experiment gone wrong after French scientists accidentally mutate a nest of lizards. The mutated lizard makes its way to New York, where the creature then starts to grow into the giant monster, Godzilla. Though heavily criticized for its nonsensical plot, something that would discourage another American remake until 2014’s Godzilla, it was lauded for technical advancements in CGI and creature design. You can check out the trailer here.

25. Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999)

After a series of poor movie receptions, Toho company again returned to the monster franchise's basics. For this new approach, they announced a “Millennium” series with a stronger focus on self-contained films instead of on overlapping continuity. Separated from the forty-decade canon that preceded it, Godzilla 2000 is the first film of this series. It centers around an alien species that wants to harness the regenerative properties of Godzilla DNA, in order to gain immortality and, through it, world domination.

26. Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000)

The second movie in the Millenium series follows the malfunction of a device that creates artificial black holes. As one of the black holes opens,, a dragonfly-like creature manages to escape it and lay eggs in the Japanese city of Shibuya before being sucked back in. The creatures within those eggs start to feed on water and human energy in order to grow and sustain their species, causing quite the disruption to the ecosystem. Similar to Voltron, these creatures band together in order to transform into a giant dragonfly called Meganuras. In this new, fused form, Meganuras attempts to siphon Godzilla’s energy next, so that they can bring it back to their Queen, Megagurius. A three-way battle between the humans, Godzilla, and the Megaguirus begins. Who will win?

27. Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah, Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)

In the third movie for the Millenium series, Godzilla goes ghost. Like Godzilla vs. Megaguirus before it, this movie only acknowledges the 1954 original movie, which ends in the ambiguous death of the towering monster. Now, in the present day, he’s reanimated by the vengeful ghosts of those who died during World War II. These spirits all possess his body giving him a creepy pupilless effect in his eyes to signify his undead nature. The Japanese SDF do not take this threat well, and team up with both Mothra and King Ghidorah in order to bring the possessed monster down. This film rescued the franchise after the first two movies in the Millennium series performed poorly at the box office.

28. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)

In the fourth movie of the Millenium series, Godzilla once again faces off against Mechagodzilla, who this time is operated by a human inside the machinery. It’s reptile vs. machine, will humanity finally win? Unlike the prior films which rely on Godzilla dying in the original 1954 feature, this film asserts that his "bone fragments" survive, which means he still lives. It also references the events of other Kaiju films Mothra and War of the Gargantuas, which is a neat call back to those original King Kong and Mothra crossovers

29. Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S (2003)

The fifth movie in the Millenium series is the first and last to be a direct sequel to the movie before it. In this one, the Mechagodzilla bot undergoes repairs and upgrades after battling Godzilla the year prior. While this is happening the natives from Infant Island are able to figure out why Godzilla keeps terrorizing the city. Because the Japanese military used the original 1954 Godzilla’s skeleton in order to construct Mechagodzilla, the present-day Godzilla seeks revenge. However, if they return the monster’s bones to the ocean not only would Godzilla chill on the destruction, but Mothra could then take over as Japan’s protector from other threats. The battle of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla vs. Mothra continues, will humanity do the right thing?

30. Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)

This movie marked the sixth and final story in the Millennium series. Because the movie also coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Godzilla franchise, it is jam-packed with action, creatures, and mayhem. Similar to 1968’s Destroy All Monsters, this movie features an alien invasion that causes all the Earth’s giant creatures to go rogue and demolish popular cities around the world under mind control. Unlike the older movie though, where Godzilla was primarily an ally, Godzilla has to fight the urge to harm humans in defense of the greater good. It’s an interesting entry in what would be the last of the Japanese movies for the next twelve years.

31. Godzilla (2014)

Just like Godzilla, Hollywood remakes can’t quit. In yet another American reboot of the franchise, Godzilla is ready to do damage, this time in San Francisco. This remake, directed by Gareth Edwards (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen (Brother/Sister duo Pietro and Wanda Maximoff in the following year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron), and Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) is considered one of the better of the franchise remakes. Under Edwards’ direction, Godzilla is an ally to humans believed to help protect the planet from other dangerous monsters, a godlike creature. Not only does he now behead his enemies with his fire breath, but he also is a bit more considerate about the destruction he causes to landmarks and skyscrapers. If you’re looking for an entry into the Godzilla franchise, this one is a jam-packed action movie and a good place to start.

32. Shin Godzilla (2016)

Twelve years after the last Japanese Godzilla film, Godzilla: Final Wars, the Toho Company is back with the 31st entry, Shin Godzilla, also known as Godzilla: Resurgence. In this movie, the Godzilla origin story takes a sort of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles approach after nuclear waste ends up leaking into the Tokyo Bay, causing a mysterious sea-dwelling creature to mutate. (This is a nod to the 2011 Fukushima disaster similar to the way the original Godzilla was linked to the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima during WWII.) The Japanese government call an emergency meeting to determine what to do with the monster as it starts to evolve and cause destruction in its wake. Seems like we’ve heard this story before.

33. Godzilla: Planet of Monsters (2017)

Godzilla goes anime. Many years into the future the Earth becomes uninhabitable and overrun by giant monsters. The ruler of all of those monsters? You guessed it. Godzilla. Some 20,000 years later, humans come back to see if the Earth can be recolonized again, but are shocked to find that Godzilla and the others are still dominating the planet. The remaining humans team up to take back the Earth for themselves. In the battle for Earth, who will become extinct: man or Godzilla?

34. Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (2018)

The second in the anime series deals with the brief defeat of Godzilla, however, when he is reawakened, the humans have to find the Mechagodzilla bot that almost took him down 20,000 years prior.

35. Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018)

In the last in the anime series after the use of Mechagodzilla, the humans still aren’t safe from the immortal monster. Luckily, King Ghidorah comes to Earth in order to battle Godzilla for dominance. Ghidorah's freezing powers might be the only thing that can stop Godzilla’s heat-based radiation.

36. Godzilla, King of the Monsters (2019)

This is the first direct sequel to an American remake of the Godzilla franchise, which is an achievement considering how many times it’s been rebooted. Directed and co-written by Michael Dougherty (Trick ‘r Treat), this film continues to showcase the relationship between Godzilla and the US military as the creature travels to Antarctica to fight newly arrived titans King Ghidorah and Rodan. Like the other American films, they spared no expense on a famous cast consisting of Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things), Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring), and Bradley Whitford (Tick, Tick…Boom!) You can watch the OG trailer here.

37. Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Director Adam Wingard (You’re Next) helms the 36th entry, which functions as a sequel to both the 2014 and 2019 Godzillas, as well as to the 2017 King Kong reboot, Kong: Skull Island. The movie stars Alexander Skarsgard (The Northman), Rebecca Hall (Passing), and Brown reprises her previous role in the series. Godzilla vs. Kong marks the first time in 59 years that the two iconic giants battle on screen again. When Godzilla senses a disturbance on Skull Island, the two monsters enter a battle of epic proportions that must be seen to believe. Who will win?

And more importantly, after the latest entry in one of the longest-running franchises of all time, where will Godzilla end up next?

All Godzilla Movies In Order:

1. Godzilla (1954)
2. Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
3. Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)
4. King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
5. Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
6. Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster (1964)
7. Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
8. Ebirah: Horror of the Deep (1966)
9. Son of Godzilla (1967)
10. Destroy All Monsters (1968)
11. All Monsters Attack (1969)
12. Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
13. Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
14. Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
15. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
16. Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
17. The Return of Godzilla (1984)
18. Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
19. Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
20. Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)
21. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
22. Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)
23. Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)
24. Godzilla (1998)
25. Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999)
26. Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000)
27. Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah, Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
28. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)
29. Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S (2003)
30. Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
31. Godzilla (2014)
32. Shin Godzilla (2016)
33. Godzilla: Planet of Monsters (2017)
34. Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (2018)
35. Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018)
36. Godzilla, King of the Monsters (2019)
37. Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Destiny Jackson is a freelance entertainment journalist. She delights in writing about Film, TV, Black culture, and travel. You can follow her on Twitter (@destinydreadful). She apologizes in advance.

Marvel is headed back to Hall H.

As reported by ScreenRant producer Ash Crossan during a press conference for Thor: Love and Thunder, Marvel boss Kevin Feige confirmed that Marvel Studios will be attending Comic-Con in July when the event returns in-person to San Diego.

Kevin Feige revealed in the press conference for #ThorLoveAndThunder that Marvel Studios will indeed head to Comic-Con next month pic.twitter.com/NiV6u3I1qt

— Ash Crossan (@AshCrossan) June 24, 2022

The return is big news, or rather will bring big news, as Marvel Studios has mostly skipped Comic-Con when the event was held virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Marvel has also skipped previous years, including in 2018 though Marvel did return a year later in 2019.

With Marvel nearing the end of Phase 4, Feige has gone on record to say that the next big saga for the MCU will be revealed in the "coming months." What better place to reveal it than at Comic-Con's famed Hall H?

A Phase 5 reveal would make sense given Marvel revealed most of Phase 4 the last time it was at Comic-Con in 2019. This included reveals for movies like Black Widow, Shang-Chi, Eternals, Fantastic 4, and Blade, as well as the MCU TV shows like WandaVision and Loki.

There's still plenty left in Phase 4 including the new Black Panther, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel, and Fantastic Four still on the slate as well as shows like She-Hulk, Secret Invasion, Ironheart, and Armored Wars.

But aside from the Multiverse and Kang the Conqueror, the big plotline of Phase 4 has yet to be revealed, though Feige says hints for the next storyline are already available.

What do you want Marvel to announce when it makes its Comic-Con return? Sound off in the comments. And IGN will be at Comic-Con this year so check back for all the latest news and announcements.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Warning: Full spoilers follow for The Black Phone.

The Black Phone is the new film from director Scott Derrickson and Blumhouse Productions that stars Ethan Hawke as a kidnapper known as The Grabber. The story was adapted from Joe Hill’s short story “The Black Phone,” and it follows a 13-year-old boy named Finney (Mason Thames) who was kidnapped by The Grabber and locked in his basement. While all seems hopeless, a disconnected black phone somehow gives Finney a chance to talk to The Grabber’s previous victims, all of whom want to help Finney avoid what happened to them.

The Black Phone is a supernatural horror story, but it is one that aims to be grounded in a way that makes moviegoers believe at least part of the story is something that could actually happen. To learn how they made this nightmare a reality, IGN sat down with Derrickson, executive producer Jason Blum, and Hawke.

When you’re done here, don’t forget to check out our The Black Phone review.

The Black Phone: Combining a Short Story and Personal Horrors

While the crux of the 2004 short story remains intact in the film, there are certain elements that were updated and changed, and not just because they needed to make a short last one hour and 43 minutes. One of the biggest changes was to The Grabber himself, as the story described him as an “overweight clown patterned after John Wayne Gacy.”

“There wasn't anything that I was torn about,” Derrickson said, regarding making changes to the story. “It seemed pretty clear to me the things I had to update. In the book, he's an overweight clown patterned after John Wayne Gacy. Obviously, I didn't want him to be a clown after [the] It [movie]. And I really wanted Ethan, so I didn't want this fat, overweight character. And so I sort of started with the mask and Ethan from scratch, and I wanted to try to design a look and an aesthetic and a manner for The Grabber that was very unique from Joe's story.

“Also, the sister character is an older character in the short story and doesn't really do much,” Derrickson said of Madeleine McGraw’s Gwen. “And I felt like the movie, in order to have real emotion and soul, needed a central female character that was highly empowered. And so Gwen was kind of an invention from scratch. And so we created this nine-year-old girl who is a spitfire and is honestly stronger than anybody else in the entire movie, including Finney, The Grabber, and all of the adults. And she's kind of the soul and centerpiece of the movie, and their bond together is what drives the emotional core of the storytelling.”

For Derrickson, his journey to bring The Black Phone to theaters was also a very personal one, as the film is a combination of the one told by Joe Hill and a retelling of sorts of certain traumatic events Derrickson endured as a child.

“I always thought it would be a great feature film, but I didn't know how to expand it,” Derrickson said. “And the answer came after a couple years of therapy, dealing with my own childhood and really the violence in my childhood, and some of the traumatic events in my childhood. … The idea came to me to combine my own experiences growing up in a blue-collar, violent neighborhood in North Denver in the late ’70s with The Black Phone. And that's really what the movie is. It's a combination of my own memories, from my own past, with that short story.”

Why Children Are the Perfect Vehicle for Our Deepest Fears

The Black Phone features a cast that is led by children. It isn’t a simple coincidence that children tend to find themselves at the center of horror stories, and one of the main reasons behind that choice is they are the “embodiment of innocence” according to Blum.

“Most kids are born kind of good,” said Blum. “They are born without prejudice and they are these kind of perfect beings running around. And then the world comes at them and we get cynical and we get this and that. But when you take innocence and you threaten it, there's nothing more wrenching than that. And that's why you see so many horror movies with kids in jeopardy because, when an audience watches that, whether you have kids or not, it's very heart-wrenching and it's very effective.”

Derrickson also talked about The Black Phone being a “coming-of-age film that is interrupted by this horror story” and why focusing on kids in these stories makes them hit so much closer to home than they would otherwise.

“It’s because they're vulnerable,” Derrickson said. “We care about them. And we ourselves always remember that change is what's frightening. The unknown is what's frightening, and there is no period of life where we change more and faster and more against our will than when we're children. And in that coming-of-age period, it's terrifying. And there's nothing we can do to stop it. Everyone has to live through it. And we all remember what it's like and the feelings of that are very powerful feelings.

“And so if you inject that with something truly traumatic, like a child abduction from a sadistic killer, then you're introducing a very big metaphor, but also a very big reality for a character who now has to rise above himself, has to rise above who he has been in the past and enter into adulthood in a way, which is what happens to our character in this movie.”

Walking the Tightrope of a Good Supernatural Story

Telling an effective supernatural story is like walking on a tightrope. When performed perfectly, it’s something that captivates us all. If it teeters too much towards unbelievability or stays too close to the ground or “falls off,” it loses its so-called magic.

The Black Phone chose to walk that tightrope, and that challenge is something Derrickson has been dealing with his whole career with films like The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister, and even the first Doctor Strange.

“My general approach is the more that I can ground something in actual reality, the more that I can make an audience feel like characters in an environment are realistic, the more they are willing to accept the realism of the paranormal or the supernatural when you start to introduce it,” Derrickson said. “And the way you introduce it is really important. If you can get them to accept a story as being a grounded and realistic one and then ease in the paranormal or the supernatural, they go with it.

“And I also think that enables the paranormal and supernatural components to be much scarier because you accept them in a way in a grounded movie more than you would in a movie where the characters are a little more over the top or cartoonish or two-dimensional.”

At its core, The Black Phone is a story that could, unfortunately, happen to any of us. Sure, the talking ghosts may be a stretch, but the story of a father and his children could make sense to many people, horror fan or not.

“[It starts with] this abusive father and his incredible brother and sister relationship, and the movie is a kind of a metaphor for this horrible situation these kids are in with their dad,” Blum said. “And I think Derrickson, Hawke, [co-writer C. Robert] Cargill, and I would all agree that if you focus on the storytelling of the family drama first and foremost, if you get that right, then the scariness of The Grabber of Ethan's character and the scary things that happen in that basement are all much, much more effective because the audience is so wrapped up in the drama that these guys have all created.”

Another strength of The Black Phone, and many other horror movies for that matter, is the power of the unknown. It’s that darkness that creeps into your bedroom and hides the monster under your bed, or the terror of walking through the woods at night and hearing an unfamiliar sound. These are all things we can relate to because we have all felt them in one way or another. We have felt the fear of not knowing, and that is sometimes the scariest feeling of all.

“One of the reasons that I think horror films and scary stories are always so dynamic for us is that there's an aspect of our life that is always unknown,” Hawke said. “And that when you touch the unknowable, it makes you realize how little you actually really do understand about life, about why we're born, about where we were before we were born, about where we go when we die, and, ultimately, what is it all for. And so sometimes these great stories of light or great stories of darkness help us access the unknowable. And I think that is mysterious and intriguing to us as an audience.”

From Hero to Villain: Ethan Hawke’s Journey to Becoming The Grabber

Ethan Hawke plays the antagonist in The Black Phone, and his choice to take on the role of The Grabber was a bit out of the ordinary for him. Setting aside his recent stint as Arthur Harrow in Moon Knight, Hawke doesn’t love the idea of playing the villain in a story, as it can do some pretty nasty things to your psyche.

“One of the reasons why I never like playing villains, just horrible people, is you don't really like inviting that kind of madness and that darkness into your psyche,” Hawke said. “It's so fun to play somebody you admire, or at least somebody you find really compelling, but The Grabber is just flat-out horrible. He's just a broken thing. And he hurts everything he touches, and he probably hates himself and hates everything else more for making him hate himself.”

However, the actor does admit that the challenge of trying to get to the bottom of why an evil character is the way they are can be a bit fun.

“But it is a fun game to play with yourself,” Hawke continued. “What makes him laugh? What makes him interested? Why is he doing this? One doesn't really like to think about why people hurt children, because it's so awful. And the mystery of the universe of why good things happen to bad people is something that breaks our brain. It just does. It's just not fair and it's not right. And we expend a tremendous amount of energy trying to not let that happen. But as an actor, your job becomes to embody these things that do exist.”

The Grabber doesn’t get much in the way of exposition describing his past and how he came to be this sadistic kidnapper, but Hawke did share a story of how Derrickson used a quote from Bob Dylan to help define who the character was.

“The one thing we know is that he doesn't want to be seen,” Hawke said of The Grabber. “Scott used to say this all the time, and I loved it, which is that Bob Dylan line that anybody wearing a mask is telling you the truth. And anybody that is not wearing a mask must be lying, which is just that the one truth is that he does not want to be seen.”

While Hawke doesn’t have much in the way of answers for who exactly The Grabber is, he actually prefers it that way. As is the case in many of the stories that came before The Black Phone and many that will come after, sometimes not knowing is much scarier than the truth.

“So, I don't have any good answers,” Hawke admitted. “I found the mystery of him so interesting. I imagine there's a backstory with that phone and him, and I thought about it and what it meant to him. He's really seen through the point of view of these kids. You don't get to know him and any answer kind of makes it seem smaller to me.”

The Black Phone is now in theaters. For more, be sure to check out our review, why Ethan Hawke says making horror movies is like solving a “geometry problem,” and our choices for the top 25 best horror movies of all time.

Quotes were slightly edited for clarity.

Flux Gourmet debuts in select theaters on June 24, 2022.

Director Peter Strickland knows how to make textures pop. His 2014 romance The Duke of Burgundy explored a BDSM dynamic in a lavishly furnished cottage. His 2018 follow up In Fabric was about a haunted red dress. Both productions incorporate physical sensations to a vast degree, while his earlier film, Berberian Sound Studio — about a foley artist creating sounds for an increasingly disturbing Giallo using vegetables — had a distinctly auditory focus. His latest, Flux Gourmet, takes after the latter, but equally builds on his collective body of work. It's about a group of “sonic caterers,” an art form combining food and acoustics, which Strickland appears to have created whole cloth, and which he subsequently turns inside out. The movie doesn’t always work, often opting for removed observations in between scenes of performative exploration. However, when it occasionally embodies the creative perspective of its characters, it becomes a unique sensory experience.

The images and sounds that introduce us to Flux Gourmet live somewhere between glossy and occult. Under bright studio lighting, meat crackles in a pan, and a feminine hand with long, deep-black nails hovers over a steaming pot, like a fairytale witch cursing a bubbling cauldron. Before long, the full setup comes into view. A table with cooking paraphernalia. A trio of performance artists. A curious journalist. An eager audience. And adorning the table on all sides: cables and microphones, capturing the culinary process from the inside out, sometimes inserted into the dishes themselves. This is the Sonic Catering Institute, an exclusive and somewhat cult-like artistic workshop led by Jan Stevens (Gwendoline Christie), whose intended explorations of food, sound, and gender roles eventually clash with those of her students: Elle di Elle (Fatma Mohamed), Lamina Propria (Ariane Labed), and Billy Rubin (Asa Butterfield).

Present to record the goings on at the institute is a meek print journalist named Stones (Makis Papadimitriou), the ostensible POV character, whose self-effacing Greek voiceover introduces us to the artists’ repetitive routines, and to Stones’ own dietary troubles. Simply put, he’s embarrassingly flatulent, and thus, a bit of a disruption to the creative process. The institute’s elderly, pompous physician, Dr. Glock (Richard Bremmer), tries to diagnose him, but mostly ends up berating him and exposing his insecurities. Before long, even Glock’s ongoing treatment of Stones starts to become absorbed by the trio’s abstract performances, leading to a delightful (if short-lived) subplot about a public colonoscopy. One imagines there’s an allegory hidden somewhere in Stones’ bowels, about what art looks like when digested by the common man, but like his eventual diagnosis, it’s more of an irritant than a shocking discovery lying in wait.

For the most part, the premise exists in service of theatrical vignettes, where the artists blur the lines between emotion, food, and sound, resulting in a deviously enticing sound mix led by designer Tim Harrison and mixer Cassandra Rutledge. Mechanical feedback fuses with organic squishing and smushing, resulting in an uncanny aural tapestry that makes you want to pick apart its elements. But listen closely enough, and even its most jagged and unruly moments begin to feel like music — in particular, a performance that incorporates a blender, whose deafening hums are manipulated to resemble Screamo tracks. As far as human sensations go, combinations like sight and sound, sight and touch, and even touch and taste feel like they can be easily paired, and understood in tandem, with one giving way to the other. Taste and sound, however, rarely go hand-in-hand, which makes Strickland’s choice of fictitious artistry feel so fascinating.

What is less fascinating, however, is the way he attempts to deconstruct his own fictitious artform — as a creative metaphor that can be cut and pasted onto any creative process — via isolated interviews where Stones tries to get to the bottom of Elle, Lamina, and Billy’s past experiences. These scenes, which consume most of the film’s runtime, function as psychoanalytical framing for the exercises we see the artists perform. While they certainly inform each character’s perspectives during discussions and disagreements, the arrival of these lengthy interviews can’t help but feel like a disruptive toddler changing the channel just when things are at most aesthetically engaging. Rare are the moments when Strickland is able to weave his jarring sonic expressionism, and its related images of creators caught up in intoxicating bliss, with his removed and static approach to laying out each of their motivations. While there’s a riveting absurdity to a handful of interactions — in particular, Glock’s pompous, often public dismantling of Stones, and Stevens’ misguided sexual advances towards the young Billy — Strickland seldom manages to make his straightforward narrative inform his more avant-garde acoustic experiments in any meaningful way beyond connecting mechanical dots.

In the process, despite the constant and overt presence of creative metaphors — questions of interpretation, and how much of themselves people pour into their work — Flux Gourmet rarely amounts to much when it isn’t luxuriating in the harsh, disconcerting, and discontinuous compositions of its experimental artists. And while it does crescendo in a delightfully disturbing manner (which literalizes one of the aforementioned metaphors by reframing the opening scenes), this can’t help but feel like too little too late into its 109-minute runtime.

A Marvel movie marathon may be in order! With Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on Disney+ now and Thor: Love and Thunder fast approaching, you might be wondering which Marvel Cinematic Universe movies you should watch (or re-watch) to prepare for the next epic superhero event. Or perhaps you've just seen one of the Avengers movies and want to embark on a huge re-watch. But at this point, how exactly does one watch all the Marvel movies in order? Well, we've got you covered.

Fortunately, you don't actually have to re-watch all 28 MCU movies and binge every single TV series to get caught up. We're breaking down the essentials here, the ones that introduce key characters or deal directly with the Infinity Stones that are so important in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Be aware that while Disney+ series like Loki are open to inclusion, we're ignoring earlier projects like Marvel's Agents of SHIELD and the various Netflix shows that may or may not be part of the official MCU canon. For completists, we've also put together a quick rundown of every MCU movie and D+ series in the proper chronological order. Read on for more, and you can also learn about the next Marvel movies and release dates too.

Beware of some spoilers ahead!

1. Captain America: The First Avenger

Steve Rogers' character arc is a huge part of the first three phases of the MCU. That's especially true in Endgame, as the man formerly known as Captain America comes to terms with his failures and inability to move on in a post-Decimation world. For that reason alone, it's worth going back to the first Cap movie and reliving his early World War II exploits. Plus, this film gives necessary context to the Steve/Bucky relationship as the two friends are finally reunited (sans brainwashing) in Infinity War before being cruelly torn apart again.

There's also the fact that Captain America: The First Avenger revolves heavily around the Tesseract, the Hydra artifact that Red Skull used to power his army and which contained the first Infinity Stone to be introduced in the MCU - the Space Stone. Not to mention that Infinity War finally addressed the fate of Red Skull himself.

• See it on Amazon

2. The Avengers

The Avengers marks the first time Earth's Mightiest Heroes banded together to fight a common enemy. This movie is the true launching point for much of what's unfolded since in the MCU. Not to mention that it technically showcases the first conflict between the Avengers and Thanos's forces, though that fact wasn't made clear until the mid-credits scene.

Perhaps most importantly, The Avengers hinges on Loki's efforts to steal the Tesseract and acquire it for Thanos. That story finally comes full circle in Infinity War.

• See it on Amazon

3. Thor: The Dark World

While not generally regarded as one of the better MCU movies, Thor: The Dark World makes one important contribution by introducing another Infinity Stone, the Reality Stone, found in the destructive weapon known as the Aether. This film also sets the stage for the downfall of Asgard in later MCU movies, ending with Odin being betrayed and replaced by his adopted son, Loki.

• See it on Amazon

4. Guardians of the Galaxy

Prior to Infinity War, most of Thanos' screen time came in 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy. This film more firmly establishes his role as a shadowy power player on the intergalactic scene, as well as his habit of raising women like Gamora and Nebula to be his fiercely loyal assassins. The Thanos/Gamora relationship is a crucial part of Infinity War, and Nebula has an equally important role in Endgame.

The first Guardians movie is also notable for introducing the Power Stone (encased in the Orb everyone is after in this film), which is among the first Thanos adds to his Infinity Gauntlet. Plus, one of the biggest selling points of Infinity War and Endgame are that they feature the first team-up between the Avengers and the Guardians, so it doesn't hurt to see where the latter team got their start.

• See it on Amazon

5. Avengers: Age of Ultron

The road to Infinity War becomes a lot clearer in the second Avengers movie. This film introduces the Mind Stone, revealing it to have been hidden within Loki's mind-controlling staff and serving as the catalyst for the birth of Vision. Vision and his stone later became major plot catalysts in Infinity War and WandaVision.

But in a larger sense, Avengers: Age of Ultron is all about alluding to bigger, darker events awaiting the Avengers. Tony Stark has a nightmare/hallucination about the team being destroyed by an unstoppable cosmic threat, influencing his reckless decision to create Ultron. Similarly, Thor is haunted by visions of extinction - visions which would shortly come to pass for Asgard. This is all important foreshadowing for movies like Infinity War and Thor: Ragnarok.

• See it on Amazon

6. Captain America: Civil War

Every Avengers movie is essential viewing in the road to Endgame. And given that Captain America: Civil War is basically The Avengers 2.5, it's among the most critical MCU movies. Civil War is most crucial when it comes to establishing the state of the Avengers in Infinity War, showing how the fallout of Age of Ultron and the ratification of the Sokovia Accords drives a wedge right down the middle of the team. One of the biggest challenges facing Cap, Iron Man and the rest in Infinity War is that they aren't united against this powerful new threat. That thread pays off in Endgame when the gang finally gets back together.

Civil War also introduces two new MCU heroes who become vital in Infinity War - Spider-Man and Black Panther. Both characters have since had their own solo movies, but you learn everything you really need to know about the two in Civil War.

• See it on Amazon

7. Doctor Strange

Infinity War marks the first time we see Stephen Strange and Wong fight alongside the Avengers, so it doesn't hurt to go back and watch their MCU debut in 2016's Doctor Strange. This film is also important in that it introduces the Eye of Agamotto, a time-manipulating artifact that houses the Time Stone. That stone, and the visions of the future it bestows to the doomed Doctor Strange, are both critical to Infinity War and Endgame.

• See it on Amazon

8. Thor: Ragnarok

The most recent Thor movie does quite a lot to alter the status quo of the MCU and pave the way for Infinity War. This film chronicles the destruction of Asgard, as hinted in Age of Ultron, and Thor's rise to power as the new king of a homeless people. The post-credits scene directly sets up the events of Infinity War, as the resilient Asgard is finally decimated by Thanos and the Black Order.

Thor: Ragnarok is also a key chapter in the story of Thor's relationship with his brother, Loki. It's also a big movie for Hulk, explaining what the character has been up to in the years since Age of Ultron and why his return to Earth is such a big deal.

• See it on Amazon

9. Black Panther

In terms of its ties to Infinity War/Endgame, Black Panther isn't quite as essential as the other films on this list. The title character himself is already introduced in Captain America: Civil War. That said, it's still worth adding it to your watch list. One of the major action sequences in Infinity War takes place in Wakanda, and as one of the survivors of Infinity War, T'Challa's bodyguard Okoye has a role to play in Endgame. Plus, Black Panther is one of the best MCU films to date, and there's never a bad time to re-watch it.

There's also the fact that the MCU will have to deal with the tragic passing of actor Chadwick Boseman. Marvel is moving ahead with a sequel called Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, one which will honor Boseman's memory rather than recast the T'Challa role. However the MCU moves forward, Black Panther shows us why T'Challa and is kingdom matter so much.

• See it on Amazon

10. Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War delivers a massive superhero epic that ties up most of the loose ends from the first decade of the MCU. The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy finally join forces to take on Thanos. And surprisingly, the movie ends not on a triumphant note, but with complete and utter failure. Infinity War raises the stakes as the survivors prepare to confront Thanos one more time in Endgame.

• See it on Amazon

11. Avengers: Endgame

As its name suggests, Endgame is the culmination of everything in the MCU up to that point. The fourth Avengers movie shows us a team grappling with its own failure, struggling to find a way to undo Thanos' act of cosmic genocide. Fortunately, there's still plenty of fun to be had along the way, culminating in the most epic and emotionally stirring battle scene in the entire MCU. Multiple heroes are given the sendoffs they deserve, while others are positioned for even bigger and better things.

• See it on Amazon

12. Spider-Man: Far From Home

The second MCU Spider-Man movie is both an epilogue to Endgame and a taste of things to come in Phase 4 of the MCU. Most importantly, this sequel is all about Peter Parker stepping up to fill the void left by heroes like Iron Man and Captain America and becoming more than just a friendly neighborhood hero.

• See it on Amazon

13. Loki

Loki isn't the first Marvel series to hit Disney+, but it is the one with the clearest impact on the larger MCU. This six-episode series follows the Loki variant who escapes custody in Avengers: Endgame, as he's forcibly recruited to help the Time Variance Authority stop another, even more dangerous version of Loki. The final episode is a real game-changer for this cinematic universe, setting the stage not just for Season 2 but also films like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and (presumably) the next Avengers movie.

14. Spider-Man: No Way Home

The third Spider-Man movie is even more important to the larger tapestry of the MCU than its predecessor. No Way Home opens immediately after Far From Home's shocking post-credits scene, with Peter Parker facing the ultimate secret identity crisis. This sequel becomes the first MCU movie to delve into the concept of the multiverse, beating Doctor Strange 2 to the punch. And it also delivers Marvel movie fan service like no other, bringing back many of the iconic actors from Sony's Spider-Man movies and (we hope) laying the groundwork for a full-fledged Spider-Verse movie in live-action. If you want a sense of Spidey's role in the MCU going forward, this movie is essential viewing.

15. Eternals

As if having an Oscar-winning director like Chloé Zhao isn't enough incentive, Eternals is worth watching for the hints it provides about the future of the MCU. Eternals sheds far more light on the cosmic beings known as the Celestials and their designs for Earth, with the promise of much more to come. Both the mid-credits scene and post-credits scene introduce pivotal new characters who will surely play a key role in Phase 4 and beyond.

16. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

No Way Home might be the first MCU movie to explore the multiverse, but Doctor Strange 2 digs far deeper into the concept as it sends Stephen Strange, Wanda Maximoff and America Chavez on a whirlwind journey across multiple worlds. Even though the main conflict proves surprisingly intimate for an MCU movie, Multiverse of Madness offers plenty of teases for what's to come over the next few years. It introduces the superhero cabal known as the Illuminati and strongly hints that the MCU is preparing to adapt a major Marvel Comics crossover. This sequel has the added benefit of recapping the important beats from WandaVision, meaning you don't have to watch that series if you don't want to (though you should anyway).

This list was originally published in November 2021 but has been updated to reflect the latest releases and streaming information for 2022.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Top Gun: Maverick is heading back to the danger zone… or rather, IMAX theaters. Announced via Twitter, it looks as though the recent Top Gun sequel will be available once again this weekend. If you missed out on the year’s biggest blockbuster to date, you might want to haul jets.

“Great balls of fire, you did it! Shoutout to all the fans who rallied to bring back #TopGun: Maverick to IMAX. Get ready to take to the skies again starting this Friday! #FilmedForIMAX”

Great balls of fire, you did it! Shoutout to all the fans who rallied to bring back #TopGun: Maverick to IMAX. Get ready to take to the skies again starting this Friday! #FilmedForIMAX

Get your tickets now: https://t.co/sDb8t7MnNL pic.twitter.com/ddE10xd1Pd

— IMAX (@IMAX) June 23, 2022

Starring Tom Cruise, Top Gun: Maverick sees the return of his iconic pilot, Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Brought back for one last mission, it looks as though Mav will put all his skills to the test, as he teaches a new Top Gun class how to fly.

It’s already done incredibly well at the box office, too – becoming Tom Cruise’s highest-grossing blockbuster ever, while skirting ever closer to the $1 billion mark. In fact, I can’t help thinking that might be some of the motivation behind pushing an IMAX re-release quite so soon.

Still, it’s worth checking out, especially on the biggest screen you can find.

IGN’s own review says that “Top Gun: Maverick is an out-of-bounds blast of afterburner fumes and thrillseeker highs that's sure to please audiences looking for a classic summer blockbuster. Director Joseph Kosinski doesn't lose the ‘80s nostalgia of movies that were light on reason and huge on chest-beating heroism. The fresh graduate faces are all aces, fighter jet choreography exceptional, and pursuit of excitement at Mach levels.”

If you loved the practical effects of Top Gun: Maverick, be sure to check out director Joseph Kosinski’s next movie – an F1 story featuring similar practical shooting.

Read more about Top Gun: Maverick with our explainer of Top Gun: Maverick's ending, a US Navy fighter pilot reacting to Top Gun, and the top 10 aerial dogfights of all time.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

John Williams has revealed that Indiana Jones 5 will be his final movie… and possibly Harrison Ford’s too.

During an interview with The Associated Press, the legendary film composer revealed his plan to bow out after the upcoming Indiana Jones sequel.

"At the moment I’m working on 'Indiana Jones 5,' which Harrison Ford — who’s quite a bit younger than I am — I think has announced will be his last film,” said Williams. “So, I thought: If Harrison can do it, then perhaps I can, also.”

Of course, Ford hasn’t publicly stated that Indiana Jones 5 will be his last film. But it sounds as though he’s discussed the possibility with Williams, at least.

"I don't want to be seen as categorically eliminating any activity," he said with a chuckle. "I can’t play tennis, but I like to be able to believe that maybe one day I will."

Williams explained that a Star Wars film takes around six months of work, which "at this point in life is a long commitment to me." Instead, Williams would prefer to be working on his own music, which includes a piano concerto he’s writing for Emanuel Ax.

Does this mean he won’t contribute to any further Star Wars projects? That much remains to be seen. If Indiana Jones 5 is the composer’s final work, it looks as though Disney and Lucasfilm will need to look long and hard for a replacement.

Meanwhile, Harrison Ford’s involvement with the galaxy far, far away is a little more finite. Appearing in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he made his long-awaited return as Han Solo, only to be slain by his son, Kylo Ren.

Of course, it was all by design – Ford has long been critical of the Star Wars movies. But his love of Indiana Jones is far more enduring, and the thought of Ford hanging up his fedora and bullwhip is a much more surprising prospect.

Indiana Jones 5 is currently slated to release on June 30, 2023.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Chris Evans is Captain America. But Joe and Anthony Russo think he'd make a great.... Wolverine?

During an interview with ComicBook.com, the Avengers: Endgame directors were asked if, theoretically, the duo directed a multiverse MCU movie, who would they cast Chris Evans as? Joe Russo was quick to say Wolverine, and he revealed why he believes Evans is perfect for the iconic X-Men role.

“Evans has incredible range and great physicality, and he's real good at body control,” said Joe Russo. “He's an incredible actor. I don't mean this in a bad way, but he's nothing like Captain America. Steve Rogers is very controlled and quiet, understated. Chris is energetic and funny and charismatic, and he brings a lot of energy to set. I'd love to see him do something like Wolverine.”

Of course, live-action Wolverine has been played by Hugh Jackman since his appearance in the 2000 X-Men movie. But with the X-Men now a part of the MCU, we might well see Marvel looking for an all-new Wolverine. Especially since Jackman hung up his claws with Logan – the epic send-off he deserved.

Still, the thought of Chris Evans becoming Wolverine is definitely wishful thinking. After all, he’s already played two different Marvel roles – originally suiting up as Johnny Storm in the 2005 Fantastic Four movie, not to mention its sequel.

Plus, The Human Torch is a role Evans himself is even more keen to revisit. “God, wouldn't that be great?” he told MTV News. “No one's ever come to me about that. I mean, I don't exactly look the same anymore. That was 15, almost 20 years ago. Oh my God, I'm old.”

“I really love that character,” he added. “But I think aren't they doing something now with Fantastic Four? I guess all bets are off. Yeah. Look, I would love it. I would love it. That would actually be an easier sell to me than coming back as Cap. You know what I mean? Cap is so precious to me. And you know, I almost don't want to disrupt what a beautiful experience that was. But Johnny Storm, I feel like he didn't really get his day. That was before Marvel really found its footing. So I loved that role and, you know, who knows.”

I get the feeling Wolverine would be an even tougher sell.

Find out more about how Phase Four of the MCU could include the X-Men, as well as what Professor X’s appearance in the Multiverse of Madness really means.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Cardy and Dale are here and they've brought a brand new host with them! Mat.J has arrived and he wants to tell us why you should be playing Neon White. We also have some good chats about Evil West, Ms. Marvel, and at the end we have a big old spoiler session with Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Want to get in touch to talk about digging graves? Cakes? Issues with the name Clive? Feel free to send us an email at ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.

IGN UK Podcast #649: The One That Isn't Just on Spotify

• IGN UK Podcast #649: Phil's Big Night Out 2022
• IGN UK Podcast #648: Geoff's Big Night Out 2022
• IGN UK Podcast #647: Some Great New Star Wars? Stranger Things Have Happened
• IGN UK Podcast #646: Gollum, Sméagol & Irene
• IGN UK Podcast #645: Chip 'n Dale 'n Cardy 'n Joe

The Man from Toronto premieres on June 24 exclusively on Netflix.

Director Patrick Hughes continues to expand his hitman-centered body of work, following up on his The Hitman’s Bodyguard films with Netflix’s The Man from Toronto. Woody Harrelson is the deadly hitman and Kevin Hart is a small-town dope who accidentally creates a scenario that gets him confused as the assassin. Forced to share space, the two go from enemies to somewhat allies in a farcical adventure that offers some laughs and a couple creative action sequences. It never reaches the heights of other films in this genre, like Midnight Run or The Rundown, but it’s a fun summer watch.

Starting with a strong prologue, Teddy Jackson (Hart) talks into the camera, making videos for his non-existent fitness followers as he tries to sell his signature workout techniques like Teddy Burn, Teddy Bar, and Teddy Bands, all of which get him injured. Concurrently in Utah, a lone figure who goes by Toronto (Harrelson) dressed in black arrives at a cabin to perform an interrogation for hire. He lays out his knives and tells the terrified guy tied up on a chair the bleak tale of how he watched his grandfather get filleted by a bear and what he learned from it. His mark spills the beans before Harrelson even has to spill his blood and that nicely sets up the competency disparities between Teddy and the Man from Toronto.

As Teddy is a mess professionally and personally, he at least wants to make his wife Lori’s (Jasmine Mathews) birthday a success so he rents a cabin in Virginia to give her a special weekend. He drops her off for a spa day to set up the rental but realizes he can’t quite read the address on his print out because he didn’t change the printer toner, so he bumbles his way into the wrong cabin that is actually the setting for the Man from Toronto’s next interrogation. The mistaken identity sets the stage for a huge blunder that involves the FBI needing Teddy to act like he’s Toronto to help stop an international incident. Meanwhile, the real assassin is pissed that he lost a high-paying gig, through no fault of his own, and seeks to acquire Teddy so he can finish the job right and get the payday. What ensues is Teddy and Toronto having to help one another so Teddy can get home to his wife and Toronto can get his last big payday and get out of the business.

Comedically, the movie gives audiences who appreciate Hart everything they love about the comedian. There’s the self-deprecating height jokes, the nervous, rapid-fire rants, and 10 out of 10 reactions to his impending bodily harm. Hughes also gives Hart plenty of real estate to riff his way through several interrogation scenes that earn some big laughs, and even some dry heaves due to Teddy’s reaction to some actual violence. Those scenarios do get a little repetitive by the midpoint of the film, and could have used some surgical editing to tighten up the pace, which does drag.

On the other hand, it’s nice to see Harrelson back in a pure action role where he gets to do a lot of physical fighting that he sells with enthusiasm and nimbleness. He’s also a great straight man to Hart’s antics. There’s always a glimmer of fun in his eyes as his character tolerates the inadequacies that make up Teddy, which helps melt the ice between the two men by the second act. As the two quasi-bond over the long-held fears that motivate them, the testosterone-heavy film gets to downshift into some softness and character work, which gives a little depth to the insanity going on around them.

On the whole, this is a showcase for Hart and Harrelson, so the supporting cast and the women don’t get as much to do. Ellen Barkin gives a typically spitfire performance as Toronto’s handler as he grows increasingly annoyed as the mission devolves. But her character is one-note in terms of her relationship with Toronto and her eventual trajectory. Mathews does long-suffering well as Teddy’s wife, but she basically only reacts to his idiocy with compassion. And then Kaley Cuoco shows up in a cameo as Lori’s friend – and to flirt with Toronto. Hers is a role that feels like most of it must have ended up on the cutting room floor as she’s way too big a name, and a comedic talent, to be relegated to a part this small. However, Pierson Fode does a lot with the little he’s given as The Man from Miami, a competing assassin with a sadistic streak and the fortitude of the Terminator.

All of Teddy’s mess culminates in an action sequence that leaves Teddy and Toronto using every trick in the book to survive. Hughes really gets creative with his use of hand-held and Steadicams to capture the melee in large chunks that put Hart and Harrelson through their paces. From room to room, it’s a cacophony of weapons, hand-to-hand combat, and every day props that create dizzying moments of choreography and destruction. In reality, Hart’s Teddy would be broken into 10 pieces after the first time he’s flung into a wall. But, that’s where suspension of disbelief comes in handy because there's a lot of humor watching the way the petite guy gets manhandled like he’s in a live-action Looney Tunes cartoon.

The Man from Toronto ends on a tidy note, with an actual, close-ended conclusion, which is nice to see and feels like a rarity these days. Sure, there’s not a lot of consequences for the unholy havok they create, but logic and consequences are for other movies. For this one, it’s fine to just eat your microwave popcorn and get some mindless summer blockbuster fun right from your couch.

Hang onto your Cappys, Mario fans, as Chris Pratt is setting high expectations for his upcoming role as Mario in Illumination's Super Mario movie. In an interview with Variety, Pratt said his take on the famous plumber will be "unlike anything you've ever heard."

“I worked really closely with the directors and trying out a few things and landed on something that I’m really proud of and can’t wait for people to see and hear,” Pratt said. “It’s an animated voiceover narrative. It’s not a live-action movie. I’m not gonna be wearing a plumber suit running all over. I’m providing a voice for an animated character, and it is updated and unlike anything you’ve heard in the Mario world before.”

Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri is also hyping up Pratt's performance as Mario, saying, "When people hear Chris Pratt’s performance, the criticism will evaporate," in a recent interview.

We still haven't heard even a peep of Pratt's take on Super Mario, but we do know the character won't have an Italian accent.

Pratt's not the only A-list star in the Mario movie, as the bonkers cast also includes Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong. It'll be a while until we see this all-star cast take their best shot at Nintendo's iconic characters, as Illumination and Nintendo delayed the movie to April 2023.

In addition to Mario, Pratt is also tackling the role of Garfield for Sony Pictures' upcoming animated movie, and the internet doesn't quite know how to handle it. For more, you can check out our list of 40 upcoming video game adaptations.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Great Scott! Back to the Future is being turned into a Broadway musical.

A new teaser was unveiled on Wednesday for the upcoming show, giving us a tantalizing hint of what to expect from the Broadway adaptation.

“Synchronize Your Watches,” said the official Twitter account. “The Future's coming to Broadway in 2023!!!”

Synchronize Your Watches — The Future's coming to Broadway in 2023!!!

Sign up to be the first to buy tickets! https://t.co/ZvFEjJ72wR pic.twitter.com/ZGr90KC6sN

— Back to the Future™ (@BacktotheFuture) June 22, 2022

The musical finally makes its way to Broadway after an incredibly successful run in the UK’s West End. And with the teaser depicting the iconic DeLorean, it looks as though Doc Brown and Marty McFly will take to the stage in New York City in 2023.

Unsurprisingly, the plot of the musical is very close to the film:

“When Marty McFly finds himself transported back to 1955 in a time machine built by the eccentric scientist Doc Brown, he accidentally changes the course of history. Now he's in a race against time to fix the present, escape the past and send himself... back to the future.”

Back to the Future creator, Bob Gale told Digital Spy that this is the closest fans will get to a sequel.

“People, of course, had been clamoring for more Back to the Future forever and we had steadfastly said no, we're not going to do a Part IV, and we don't want to reboot it,” he said. “We set a really high bar for ourselves with those three movies, and we don't want people coming out of a remake saying, ‘Man, they messed it up.’”

Gale adds that the musical is “a way to revisit it without tampering with the lore of the movie. Nobody who sees the musical is ever going to get it confused with the movie and that has worked really well to our advantage."

The musical, it seems, aims to capture the nostalgia fans feel for the original. And it’s working.

“When people say, ‘I want to see Back to the Future Part IV,’ what they're really saying is, ‘I want to see a Back to the Future movie that makes me feel the same way I felt when I saw that first movie.’ That's a tall order, but I think that the musical fulfils that.”

Back to the Future – The Musical heads to Broadway in 2023. Sign up at the official website for first access and priority ticket information.

Read more about Back to the Future with our full look at the recent LEGO DeLorean, and find out where the film ranked in our top 25 sci-fi films of all time.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

John Carpenter’s The Thing headed back to theaters for the film’s 40th anniversary… but it didn’t exactly go smoothly.

According to Collider, the re-release earned an impressive $500,000 at the box office, putting it firmly in the top 10 for the weekend. However, the anniversary screening was plagued by problems.

Director Mick Garris headed out to see the film… and aired his frustration via Twitter.

“The film was shot in the 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio, but was shown in 1.85:1, literally cutting out a third of the film,” he said. “The picture was soft-focus, low-resolution, and the digital image was out of registration, so all objects were rimmed in red on one side, and blue on the other. Also, all movement all the way through the movie stuttered, like trying to watch Netflix with a really bad wifi signal.”

I just got back from seeing John Carpenter's masterpiece at the Fathom Events 40th anniversary screening at the Universal Citywalk AMC... and I will never EVER see a Fathom Event again, and I recommend that you avoid them like the plague. pic.twitter.com/FQbkp1OjV9

— Mick Garris & The Post Mortem Podcast (@MickGarrisPM) June 20, 2022

He wasn’t the only one outraged by the screenings, with John Carpenter himself calling the situation “distressing” and “horrible”.

“I'm happy that people want The Thing to be presented at a minimum — at a minimum, man — in the way we made it,” he told IndieWire. “I'm delighted by that."

Of course, the severe backlash prompted Fathom events to respond to complaints:

“Your patronage and trust are of utmost importance to us. We know you come to theaters expecting the very best experience possible and we pride ourselves in being the provider of that experience. We are aware that the recent showing of 'The Thing; wasn't shown in its original aspect ratio and the disappointment it caused. Wednesday's scheduled event will be shown in the proper aspect ratio, so you can see the film in theaters, as it was meant to be seen."

Unfortunately… Wednesday’s screenings weren’t exactly problem-free, either.

IGN’s own Tom Jorgensen attended the Wednesday screening, hoping to see The Thing in its original form. Unfortunately, the screening was completely canceled at the last minute.

“I just got out of the second scheduled screening, the one Fathom promised would go off without a hitch... and a half-hour after it was supposed to start, the manager walks in and tells us the screening is canceled,” he said.

It’s unclear whether Fathom events will take another run at the screening, but despite an impressive box office haul, The Thing has remained out of reach for many viewers.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.