Whereas we could have considered the Phase 1 (+ Captain Marvel) movies the warp of the tapestry that is MCU, with its series of origin stories for the principle heroes - and their first coming together to form the Avengers - as the foundation of the MCU, the movies in Phases 2 & 3 should be considered the weft, filling in the story further, adding colour & texture (sometimes through further developing familiar character and places, others by introducing new ones), making the overall design more apparent, while of course each movie is still telling its own story. Each film is designed as its own thing, but woven into it are the threads that connect back to the larger cinematic universe.
With regards to the order of viewing, and wanting to keep it in chronological order within the MCU (as opposed to release date), it was a bit difficult to figure out which events took place before which others. Doing a bit of online research (a.k.a. Googling), I came upon a proposed order by AMC Theatres that makes a lot of sense to me, both in terms of organizing them chronologically and thematically. They propose going straight into the second Thor movie after the Avengers, as it directly takes up Thor and Loki's storylines. Then continuing with the two Guardians of the Galaxy films (the second is set mere months after the first), to continue with the cosmic side of the MCU, before coming back to Earth to look into the consequences of Avengers for the Earth-bound characters, leading into their next team-up.
So that means for part 2 I'm going with: Thor: The Dark World (2013), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Iron Man 3 (2013), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014); Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). This order brings a Phase 3 movie into the grouping (GotGvol.2), and pushes a Phase 2 movie (Ant Man) into Part 3. Although, to be honest, Ant Man should have always been considered a Phase 3 movie since it was released (and takes place) after Age of Ultron. Just saying... 😉 (that or you could consider it a coda to Phase 2, setting up a new plane - the quantum realm - for Phase 3)
Of course, SPOILERS BELOW!
With regards to the order of viewing, and wanting to keep it in chronological order within the MCU (as opposed to release date), it was a bit difficult to figure out which events took place before which others. Doing a bit of online research (a.k.a. Googling), I came upon a proposed order by AMC Theatres that makes a lot of sense to me, both in terms of organizing them chronologically and thematically. They propose going straight into the second Thor movie after the Avengers, as it directly takes up Thor and Loki's storylines. Then continuing with the two Guardians of the Galaxy films (the second is set mere months after the first), to continue with the cosmic side of the MCU, before coming back to Earth to look into the consequences of Avengers for the Earth-bound characters, leading into their next team-up.
So that means for part 2 I'm going with: Thor: The Dark World (2013), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Iron Man 3 (2013), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014); Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). This order brings a Phase 3 movie into the grouping (GotGvol.2), and pushes a Phase 2 movie (Ant Man) into Part 3. Although, to be honest, Ant Man should have always been considered a Phase 3 movie since it was released (and takes place) after Age of Ultron. Just saying... 😉 (that or you could consider it a coda to Phase 2, setting up a new plane - the quantum realm - for Phase 3)
Of course, SPOILERS BELOW!
