Series Phase 3B — Civil War & Fallout (2016–2018)

Inhumans (Season 1)

Name: Inhumans (Season 1)
Released: 2017-09-29
Duration: 336 min
Cast: Anson Mount, Serinda Swan, Iwan Rheon, Isabelle Cornish, Ken Leung

Released September 29, 2017 5h 36m ○ Optional

After the Royal Family of Inhumans is splintered by a military coup, they barely escape to Hawaii where their surprising interactions with the lush world and humanity around them may prove to not only save them, but Earth itself.

Watch note

Largely disowned by Marvel. No Doomsday connection.

Why It Matters in the MCU

Shane Black's entry in the Iron Man series is the most tonally distinctive — built around the buddy dynamic between Stark and a ten-year-old kid in Tennessee and structured as a deconstruction of the superhero's relationship with his armor. The Mandarin twist — in which a culturally menacing villain is revealed as a PR construct — remains the most debated creative choice in Phase 2, alienating some audiences while rewarding those willing to read it as commentary on geopolitical fear-mongering. It is the only Iron Man film to treat Tony Stark's anxiety and PTSD as its actual subject, anticipating the post-Avengers fallout that Age of Ultron would dramatise less successfully.

Where It Fits in the MCU

Inhumans (Season 1) sits at position 58 of 133 in the MCU's story-chronological order, placing it within the Phase 3B — Civil War & Fallout (2016–2018) era. It is rated Optional — can be skipped without losing the main thread. Watching in story-chronological order provides the most coherent character development experience — individual arcs build naturally toward the franchise's major crossover events, with each film's post-credits scenes carrying forward into what follows.