MCU Movie Timeline:
One thing that has become pretty confusing with the growing number of films in the MCU is the timeline in which they all take place. It was all clear until Phase 2 as every film fit right into the continuity with less number of prequels and more of just growing sequels.
But the MCU stand out really came during Phase 3 where new franchises came in, and one particular moment in a film just ripped the continuity apart if you tried to make sense out of it!
Everything was going fine and then came in Sony who just had to do a major blunder coming into the Marvel Cinematic Universe! Spider-Man: Homecoming was a good movie without a doubt, but right at the beginning, the story of the film claimed that there is an 8-year gap between the first Avengers and Homecoming, which absolutely made no sense and people still used to debate about it until today!
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige did try to make a comment upon it without committing the fact that the timeline Homecoming presented was completely wrong. Here’s what he told Cinema Blend:
“All of that debate has made us go, ‘Okay, at some point, I’m not sure exactly when, we’re going to publish a timeline and see what it all is. It wasn’t meant to flummox anybody exactly, and I’m not sure I’d do it again the same way, but it does all connect to where we placed it.”
“Other than very particular instances where there’s a newspaper, or verbal reference to years, we never date the films. And I think there’s a presumption, ‘Well if the movie came out in November 2017, it must take place in November 2017’ — which is not the case.”
After him, Infinity War co-director Joe Russo outright confirmed the fact that placing Homecoming 8 years after The Avengers was a mistake made upon the film’s part. But thankfully, now we do know which film takes place when as according to ScreenRant, the soon-to-be-released Marvel: The First Ten Years sourcebook tells us the year in which each MCU film supposedly takes place, and with this we know it for a fact that the date that Spider-Man: Homecoming presented was just incorrect and one of the few mistakes that the MCU has made.
Here’s the list of almost every MCU movie arranged year wise:
- 1943-1945: Captain America: The First Avengers
- 2010: Iron Man
- 2011: Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor
- 2012: The Avengers: Iron Man 3
- 2013: Thor: The Dark World
- 2014: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- 2015: Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man
- 2016: Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming
- 2016-2017: Doctor Strange
- 2017: Black Panther, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War
This list does not include Ant-Man and the Wasp but since the film just took place 2-3 days before Infinity War, and ended right at the snap, so we know for a fact that Ant-Man and the Wasp also falls in the bracket of 2017. But with this out there, we could still point a couple of mistakes if you really think about it.
For starters, instead of placing Black Panther in 2017, it should come in before Homecoming as just after Civil War, the film portrays as if it took no time in crowning T’Challa as the new King of Wakanda. Homecoming still told its story 2 months post-Civil War, but the larger part of Black Panther must have taken place in 2016. It is just the post-credits scene with Bucky that should really come in around 2017.
Another mistake we can sense here is the timeline of Infinity War itself. According to the MCU, it has been stated that it has been 2 years since the Sokovia Accords came into the picture and there has been a 2-year gap between the Infinity War and Civil War.
But according to this timeline, the gap only stands around 1-1.5 years and not exactly 2. So it would be okay if we are to assume that it was almost a two-year gap and not the complete 24 months. Then everything would fall right in the place as it should have.
Also, this list doesn’t include TV shows in it, but we would really like if the timeline of Agents of SHIELD could come into place somewhere as that is the show that really references the movies. It referenced Thanos so we could assume that the last season ended in 2017. But we’re glad that at least we know the correct timeline of the films.
