Thor

When do the characters work out what these are? Piecemeal, over five years. Thor: The Dark World (film, 2013) is where the term "Infinity Stones" is first spoken aloud. Guardians of the Galaxy (film, 2014) is where the Collector explains them properly and demonstrates that one Stone can wipe out a civilisation — the Power Stone would kill any normal being who touched it. Age of Ultron (film, 2015) is where Thor's vision makes him realise someone is deliberately collecting them. And Infinity War (film, 2018) confirms the endpoint: all six in one gauntlet is literal omnipotence. One gesture, any outcome you can imagine.

There's also a working rule the Asgardians follow: never keep two Stones in one place. That's why, at the end of Thor: The Dark World, the Aether (Reality) is handed to the Collector rather than stored in Odin's vault — the Tesseract (Space) was already there.

Odin and his firstborn, Hela, conquered the Nine Realms in a campaign of extraordinary brutality. When Odin decided to stop and rule peacefully, Hela refused. He imprisoned her, erased her from the official history, and rewrote Asgard's founding myth as one of peace. He then had two more children: Thor, and — adopted from the Frost Giants of Jotunheim after a war — Loki.

Thor: Thor's arrogance restarts a war with the Frost Giants. Odin banishes him to Earth, stripped of power. He lands in New Mexico, meets astrophysicist Jane Foster, learns humility, and earns Mjolnir back. Meanwhile Loki discovers he was adopted — taken as an infant from Jotunheim — and, in a spiral of resentment, seizes the throne and tries to destroy his birth people to prove his worth. He loses, and lets go of the Bifröst into the void.

The team — Stark, Rogers (thawed from the ice a year earlier), Thor, Banner, Romanoff, Barton — spend most of the film failing to cooperate. Agent Phil Coulson is killed by Loki, and Fury uses his death (and some doctored trading cards) to bond them.

Jane Foster is infected by the Aether (the Reality Stone). Malekith the Dark Elf wakes to claim it. Frigga, Thor's mother, is killed. Thor and Loki reluctantly ally; Loki fakes his own death, then secretly deposes Odin and rules Asgard disguised as him.

How Vision is actually created, and why. Ultron wants a body of organic-synthetic tissue — vibranium plus a regeneration "cradle" — so he can be indestructible. The Avengers steal it mid-upload. Stark and Banner want to put J.A.R.V.I.S. in it; Rogers objects violently, having just watched them create Ultron by exactly this method. Thor settles the argument by striking the cradle with lightning.

What emerges is neither Ultron nor J.A.R.V.I.S. but a new being: Vision, with the Mind Stone in his forehead. The proof he's trustworthy is that he casually picks up Mjolnir and hands it to Thor mid-conversation.

The team splinters. Thor leaves to investigate the Stones. Stark steps back. Rogers and Romanoff train a new roster: Wilson, Rhodes, Wanda, Vision.

Hulk flies a Quinjet into deep space to remove himself as a threat, crashes on Sakaar, and spends two years there as a gladiator, never once turning back into Banner. He's next seen in Thor: Ragnarok (film, 2017). He misses the Accords entirely.

Odin dies, releasing Hela, Goddess of Death — his firstborn, and the truth about Asgard's violent founding. She shatters Mjolnir and takes Asgard. Thor is stranded on the junk planet Sakaar, ruled by the Grandmaster, where he's forced to fight Hulk, who has been there two years as a gladiator.

How does she destroy Mjolnir? Thor throws it at her. She catches it one-handed — which nothing else in the franchise had managed — holds it, and closes her fist until it shatters.

"Worthiness" is Odin's enchantment, and Hela predates and outranks it. It's also where Thor learns his power was never in the hammer.

He didn't capture Hulk; Hulk crashed there, was found, and became reigning champion, which the Grandmaster adores. Thor is captured on arrival by Valkyrie, a scrapper who sells fighters to him.

Thor escapes with Hulk, Loki, and Valkyrie — the last of Odin's elite guard, an alcoholic in exile after Hela slaughtered her sisters. They realise Hela draws her power from Asgard itself, so the only way to beat her is to destroy Asgard. Thor releases the fire demon Surtur and lets the realm burn. Asgard is a people, not a place.

Thor loses an eye and gains a throne.

Why does Loki take the Tesseract, and why does he come back? He takes it from Odin's vault opportunistically — Thor sent him to fetch Surtur's crown, and he grabs the Tesseract on the way out because it's leverage and because he can.

He returns with a stolen ship to evacuate the Asgardian refugees. It's the first genuinely selfless act of his arc, and Thor's reaction — surprised, then quietly moved — is the payoff of five films.

The prophecy is Ragnarok itself: Asgard's foretold destruction by the fire demon Surtur. Thor's realisation is that it isn't a disaster to prevent but the only way to kill Hela, since her power comes from Asgard. So he deliberately triggers it.

Thanos, with the Black Order, collects the Stones. He already has Power (taken from Xandar, offscreen). He takes Space from Loki — and kills Loki, and Heimdall. Thor is left drifting; Hulk is beaten so badly that Banner cannot summon him again for the rest of the film.

The survivors are: Rogers, Stark, Thor, Banner, Romanoff, Barton, Rhodey, Nebula, Rocket, Carol Danvers, Okoye, Pepper Potts, M'Baku, Wong, Happy Hogan — and Scott Lang, stranded and unaccounted for.

Twenty-three days after the Snap, Danvers locates Thanos on a remote planet. He has already used the Stones a second time to destroy the Stones, so there is nothing to undo. Thor beheads him with Stormbreaker, on the spot, in about three seconds. It accomplishes nothing, and the guilt of not aiming for the head the first time is what breaks him for five years. The film jumps forward.

The world in 2023 is grief. Rogers runs support groups. Romanoff runs what's left of the Avengers alone. Stark has married Pepper Potts and has a daughter, Morgan, and refuses to help because helping means risking losing her. Thor has retreated into alcoholism and depression in New Asgard. Banner has merged his two selves into "Smart Hulk." Barton, having lost his entire family, has become a mass-murdering vigilante called Ronin.

Thor: Love and Thunder later shows Asgardians travelling via a Bifröst opened by Stormbreaker — so travel is possible, but tied to Thor's axe rather than to a place.

• 2012 Rogers does not know. He thinks he's fighting a Loki illusion. Present-Rogers wins the fight by saying "Bucky is alive," which stuns him
• Howard Stark (1970) does not know. Tony introduces himself as "Howard Potts." Howard finds him oddly familiar and nothing more
• Frigga (2013) does know, instantly. She's a witch; she tells Thor she can see he's from the future and doesn't care
• The Ancient One (2012) knows, because Banner is holding the Time Stone and she can see the branch forming
• 2014 Thanos learns everything, which is the disaster

Key events: Rogers fights his 2012 self; Stark meets his father in 1970 and gets the conversation he never had; Thor speaks to Frigga on the day she dies and gets absolution; Banner obtains the Time Stone from the Ancient One by explaining what's at stake. On Vormir, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton fight over which of them will die for the Soul Stone. Natasha wins the argument by losing the fight, and dies.

Didn't Thor already kill Thanos? Two different Thanoses. Thor killed the 2018 Thanos permanently at the start of the film. The one in the final battle is the 2014 version, pulled forward by Nebula's neural link — he has never snapped, never held the Stones, and is arguably more dangerous for it.

Thor abdicates, names Valkyrie king of New Asgard, and leaves with the Guardians — briefly "the Asgardians of the Galaxy."

He leaves them early in Thor: Love and Thunder after a short power struggle with Quill over who's in charge.

Thor: Love and Thunder (FILM, 2022) — Gorr the God Butcher loses his daughter in a desert while his god laughs at his prayers, finds the god-killing Necrosword, and begins murdering gods across the cosmos. Jane Foster, dying of stage IV cancer, is called by the reforged Mjolnir and becomes the Mighty Thor — but every transformation burns away the strength her chemotherapy is trying to build. She chooses to fight anyway and dies. Gorr, given a wish, asks for his daughter back; Thor raises her as Love. Thor's line in the Doomsday trailer about being given a child suggests Love matters.

Three different "Voids", none related, since the word keeps recurring: the deep space Loki falls into off the Bifröst in Thor (2011); the junkyard at the end of time where the TVA dumps pruned timelines, guarded by Alioth (Loki, Deadpool & Wolverine); and this one, the shadow manifestation of Bob's depression — a psychological entity, not a place.

Returning MCU: Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Chris Evans (Steve Rogers), Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang), Kathryn Newton (Cassie Lang), Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Danny Ramirez (Joaquín Torres)

Tier 5 — not required FILMS: Iron Man 1–3 · Thor 1–3 · First Avenger · Guardians 1–3 · Ant-Man 1–2 · Captain Marvel · Eternals SERIES: Ms. Marvel · She-Hulk · Secret Invasion · Echo · Ironheart · Moon Knight · Wonder Man

Phase One (2008–2012): Iron Man · The Incredible Hulk · Iron Man 2 · Thor · Captain America: The First Avenger · The Avengers

Phase Two (2013–2015): Iron Man 3 · Thor: The Dark World · Captain America: The Winter Soldier · Guardians of the Galaxy · Avengers: Age of Ultron · Ant-Man

Phase Three (2016–2019): Civil War · Doctor Strange · Guardians Vol. 2 · Spider-Man: Homecoming · Thor: Ragnarok · Black Panther · Infinity War · Ant-Man and the Wasp · Captain Marvel · Endgame · Far From Home