I am so excited!
Background: I came into the MCU very late. I had, over the years, seen one or two Iron Man movies and GotG, but somehow never got into the MCU at large. Then some friends invited me to see Thor: Love and Thunder with them in the theater when it was released. I decided to watch the other Thor movies ahead of time and got hooked. I then watched all the MCU movies in release order. I watched Infinity War and Endgame by myself on my home TV. An incredible, but solitary experience. I have subsequently watched the entire MCU in timeline order as well. So I'm a fan, even though I didn't get to experience the agonizing year long wait between Infinity War and Endgame with most of you, and those movies were not without spoilers for me since I watched them years after their release.
Fast forward to earlier this year and my 10 year old son woke up late in the evening one night while I was watching Spiderman: No Way Home and he must have heard the movie playing. He came downstairs, laid down on his bean bag and started watching. He has younger siblings so my wife and I have generally kept the movies we watch with them to PG. He's come downstairs before while I was watching not-age-appropriate movies and I have always escorted him back upstairs to bed. But I could sense a fun core memory opportunity and so I didn't acknowledge that he was up way past bedtime and silently let him watch the whole movie. He didn't say a thing either but I could tell he was surprised I let him stay. A couple weeks later he kind of spontaneously said "I really liked watching spiderman, that was so cool." I knew I had made a good decision.
His 8 year old younger brother has always responded very maturely to media (not being scared or having nightmares after watching spooky shows, etc), so I thought I'd test the waters and see how they both did watching Thor...
Well... They. Loved. It.
The three of us have been watching the movies in the Infinity Saga mostly in release order since. My wife and my 8 year old daughter have even joined us for Ant Man 1 & 2 (generally they are not interested in the MCU movies, but who could dislike those Paul Rudd performances). A few weeks ago I realized that with Endgame being rereleased there was an amazing opportunity. So we have been watching 2 or more MCU movies a weekend, but we are on track for my ultimate plan. We are going to watch all the Infinity Saga movies (including Ant Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel sans the mid credit scenes) ending with Thor: Ragnarok Sept 20th. Then we are going to watch Infinity War on Sep 25th. Now, I do believe my boys are vaguely familiar with the "Thanos Snap," much like I was when I watched this film. But I don't think they really know what it entails. I am going to give them a heads up that some sad stuff is upcoming, but I think they are really going to experience this movie in the best way possible. Luckily for their mental health (Spiderman's blip will be rough for us), we'll be seeing Endgame on the big screen the very next day!!
I can't wait to see their reaction when Scott comes back from quantum purgatory with an idea, when the time machine and Banner's snap both work, and the final battle scenes play out and all their favorite characters come together. They were really into when Cap was able to nudge Thor's hammer in Age of Ultron, so I can't wait for them to see the Cap/Hammer scene in Endgame! And I'll be there with them when Tony says his iconic line and his final goodbyes.
I hope my description of this plan inspires a little bit of that spark of excitement and joy you had when seeing these movies for the first time. Thanks for letting me share. It's going to be a fun ride for me and my boys these next two weeks!