Avengers
Infinity War
Film · 2018 · 149 minutes · Phase Three
Thanos already possesses the Power Stone as the film opens; he attacks the Asgardian refugee ship to seize the Space Stone, killing Loki in the process, while sending his Black Order to Knowhere to take the Reality Stone from the Collector. The Avengers, fractured since their civil war, reunite with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and the armies of Wakanda to stop him from completing the set, fighting Thanos on Titan over the Time Stone and in Wakanda over the Mind Stone, while on Vormir Thanos obtains the Soul Stone by sacrificing his adopted daughter Gamora. Having gathered all six stones in Wakanda, Thanos teleports to a remote garden world and snaps his fingers, instantly erasing half of all living creatures in the universe, including many of the heroes themselves.
Follows on from
- Avengers: Age of Ultrondirect-sequel — Direct continuation of the core Avengers team and roster established after Age of Ultron, including Vision (created from the Mind Stone) and Wanda Maximoff, both central to this film's plot.
- Captain America: Civil Warcrossover — Picks up the Avengers still fractured by the Sokovia Accords split, and continues Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes, Tony Stark, Vision, and Wanda Maximoff's relationship and status quo directly from the civil war's fallout.
- Thor: Ragnarokdirect-sequel — Opens moments after Ragnarok's ending, with Thanos's ship attacking the Asgardian refugee vessel; continues Thor, Loki, Hulk/Banner, and the loss of Asgard and the Tesseract.
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2crossover — The Guardians of the Galaxy team, established and developed across the first two films, join the fight against Thanos, who is also Gamora's adoptive father.
- Doctor Strangecrossover — Stephen Strange and the Time Stone he guards, both introduced here, are central to the film's plot and its ending.
- Black Panthercrossover — Wakanda, opened to the world at the end of Black Panther, becomes the site of the film's climactic battle, with T'Challa, Shuri, Okoye, and Wakanda's armies and technology playing a major role.
- Spider-Man: Homecomingcrossover — Continues Peter Parker's arc and his mentor relationship with Tony Stark, who recruits him for the fight against Thanos's forces.
Leads to
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Season 5crossover · optional — The final four episodes take place during Avengers: Infinity War, and Thanos's coming invasion motivates Talbot's turn into Graviton. A motivation nod, not a prerequisite.
- Avengers: Endgamedirect-sequel — Picks up immediately after Thanos's Snap and follows the surviving Avengers' response to it.
- Previously On — S01E08flashback · optional — Flashbacks revisit Vision's death at the hands of Thanos during the Battle of Wakanda, the loss that later drives Wanda to unconsciously create the Hex.
- What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord? — S01E02timeline-branch · optional — The episode's climax reworks Thanos's Decimation plan as established in Infinity War: this variant T'Challa talks Thanos out of the Snap decades early, a twist that nods at Thanos's established genocidal plan for the universe, though the Watcher's narration supplies enough context to follow the episode on its own.
- What If... Zombies?! — S01E05crossover — Thanos and the Black Order's Infinity War-consistent invasion for the Infinity Stones collides with this already-diverged, zombie-ravaged timeline, culminating in a zombified Thanos claiming the stones at Wakanda.
- What If... Ultron Won? — S01E08timeline-branch · optional — Reimagines Infinity War's central conflict: this variant Thanos arrives seeking the Mind Stone and battles Ultron for the Infinity Stones, but is defeated and killed, letting the victorious Ultron claim all six stones himself — a substantial divergence from that film's story, not just a cameo.