After waiting nearly a decade for an official timeline of sorts, it appears fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are getting their wish — an official timeline from Marvel Studios is on the way.
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The soon-to-be-released Marvel: The First Ten Years sourcebook details the year each of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films takes place. The reported timeline does clear up some confusion and, in fact, does confirm the controversial title card in Spider-Man: Homecoming was inaccurate.
The current MCU movies, and the years in which they take place, are as follows:
- 1943-1945: Captain America: The First Avenger
- 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
The first thing fans will notice is the complete absence of any Marvel Cinematic Universe shows from the timeline, even when shows like Agents of SHIELD reference the events of Avengers: Infinity War in the closing episode of season five.
Another notable absence is that of Ant-Man and the Wasp, which presumably takes place in 2017 alongside Black Panther and Thor: Ragnarok. Another point of conversation among fans will be the confirmation that Spider-Man: Homecoming takes place in 2016, only four years after the events of The Avengers. This is a stark contrast from the infamous “8 Years Later” title card at the beginning of Homecoming.
In the wake of the Homecoming fiasco, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige went on record to say the studio would be releasing an official timeline at some point in order to avoid any sort of confusion in the future.
“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,’” Feige told CinemaBlend. “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.”
Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp are now available on digital platforms, DVD, and Blu-ray. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019; the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019; and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5, 2019.
