In a market that has become a hugely saturated modern day with franchises that try to extend onwards forever, the superhero genre has become worthy of conversations about which franchises worked the best while ignoring their larger universes.
It can be difficult to tell self-contained stories in worlds where the overarching multiverse story must be prioritized, but some filmmakers and stars have managed to put together great arcs in trilogy format without sacrificing anything for the universes they live within. As Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania finishes another superhero movie trilogy, here are some of the best ever made.
8 The Iron Man Trilogy
The first of several MCU efforts, the Robert Downey Jr Iron Man trilogy is good enough that, simply put, the MCU wouldn’t exist if it hadn’t worked, or at least it would look very different. Iron Man was the first MCU film; it ended with Nick Fury arriving to talk about the Avengers initiative. The second film bled into the first Avengers, and the third dealt with the fallout.
The early MCU relied heavily on Tony Stark; it needed him and the rejuvenated star power of RDJ to help solidify what was a series of half-recognizable superheroes teaming together. Thus, just as much as the Avengers film, it was the Iron Man trilogy that kick-started the success of the MCU.
7 The East Rail #117 Trilogy
M. Night Shyamalan has made a lot of unusual movies over the years, including his most recent effort Knock at the Cabin. However, his superhero trilogy was unlike any other. Unbreakable, Split, and Glass were the three movies that made up this collection and featured a superhero, a supervillain, and their final showdown.
The films are looked at as an unusual thing, the black sheep of superhero trilogies, but they were well-made movies that had a lot to say about the realism behind having superpowers. Punctuated by great performances by the likes of Bruce Willis, James McAvoy, Samuel L Jackson and Anya Taylor-Joy, the East Rail #117 trilogy is a worthy superhero trilogy among today’s best.
6 Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man Trilogy
While rumors continue to persist about there being a potential fourth entry in this trilogy, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies featuring Tobey Maguire remain a great early example of superhero movies being linked together, just before the golden age of superhero movies truly began.
The memorable turn by Maguire was accentuated by brilliant villains in the likes of Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina. These characters and performances were so memorable that all three were brought back recently to star alongside Tom Holland in Spider-Man: No Way Home at the end of his own trilogy.
5 The Captain America Trilogy
Like Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr, Captain America and Chris Evans was one of the staples of the MCU until Avengers: Endgame opened the universe up to a multiverse and let the two of them rest. A man out of time, Endgame may have given the real perfect ending to Steve Rogers’ character, but his trilogy of movies remains a magnificent set, some of the MCU’s very best.
Whether it is the early MCU flair in The First Avenger, the outright genius of The Winter Soldier or one of the biggest “solo” movies we’ve seen in Civil War, the Captain America trilogy of movies was possibly the best trilogy the MCU has got, and the three films will likely go down in history as how to do a trilogy right for a character like this.
4 X-Men Trilogy
While the original trilogy of X-Men movies that culminated in The Last Stand has aged and has a fair share of problems, there is no denying that alongside Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies, it was one of the pinnacles that showed how the MCU could begin to work in the future.
Characters and great performances like Halle Berry as Storm, Patrick Stewart as Professor X and, of course, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, have gone down and stayed in history as some of the best. Jackman was so good in this trilogy that he still hasn’t actually finished playing the role in fact!
3 The Wolverine Trilogy
Hugh Jackman did so well that there were eventually three movies made just about his version of the character. Deadpool 3 may or may not extend the overarching story of Logan, but likely this trilogy will remain the definitive way of getting to know and learning the story of this great version of the Wolverine.
From his Origins: Wolverine film to his strangely memorable stand-alone film in Japan, and then all the way to Logan and his older age, this trilogy has every facet of Jackman’s character stored within it. The past, present, and future of Wolverine is an intriguing way to look at this trilogy, and the films are generally considered to just get better with each one.
2 The MCU Spider-Man Trilogy
One of the trilogies on this list that is least likely to remain a proper trilogy, a fourth Spider-Man movie is likely coming soon to the MCU slate, starring Tom Holland again. While there were significant changes to the character in the Avengers movies between these installments, the three movies show Peter Parker growing from a boy into a man and from a hero into a superhero.
It is difficult to see the full scope of the journey Peter went on until we see where he goes next, but the difficult choices made in No Way Home are reminiscent of the growth he went through over the trilogy, and seeing other adult versions of himself helped him become a well-rounded Spider-Man himself.
1 The Dark Knight Trilogy
Of course, no matter what else has happened on the Marvel side of movies, DC and Batman fans especially will always have The Dark Knight movies by Christopher Nolan to remind them of how amazing their characters can be. Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Heath Ledger, Liam Neeson, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, and any number of other excellent stars came together in this trilogy of grounded superhero movies to make something legendary.
All three films are considered great in their own right, but it is the central installment, The Dark Knight, which takes the cake and is still remembered as one of the greatest superhero films of all time.