Avengers: Endgame Directors Confirm When the Film Takes Place, How it Affects Spider-Man: Far From Home

If you were confused by the events of Avengers: Endgame, it's safe to say you're not the only one. Between all of the talk of time travel, alternate dimensions, and splinter universes, it's easy to get lost in all of the junk science. And then you factor in the snap of the Infinity Gauntlet, and it gets even murkier.

But the directors have clarified one key detail about when Avengers: Endgame takes place and how it affects the future, offering some new insight into the next Marvel Studios movie Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Warning: Spoilers for Avengers: Endgame below.

The movie begins right after the end of Avengers: Infinity War, which took place in 2018. After regrouping and recruiting Captain Marvel, the heroes decide to take the fight to Thanos and retrieve the Infinity Stones themselves to undo the snap. But the Mad Titan destroyed them, is promptly killed by Thor, and then the film jumps five years into the future.

From there, the Avengers' adventure takes place over a short amount of time, especially with all of the time-jumping shenanigans, before they bring everyone back and force the past version of Thanos to attack Earth with all of his forces. The heroes win, the people who were snapped have returned — only they now live in the year 2023.

Director Joe Russo confirmed to USA TODAY that those people "lost out on those five years."

He added, "So now there are stories to tell moving forward about how they all interact with each other."

We caught a glimpse of how Peter Parker will be affected in Spider-Man: Far From Home. While all of the students were shuffling into their classes, Peter runs into his best friend Ned in the hallway, and both seem bemused by the major change in their lives.

"People they knew are older and have graduated," Joe said. "So it's a moment of relief and joy for those two to see each other and also the complication of what is their life moving forward."

We'll see how the students pick up the pieces when Spider-Man: Far From Home premieres on July 5th.

Avengers: Endgame is now playing in theaters. You can catch our own Q&A with the director next week, when Game Over: An Evening With Joe Russo airs on Facebook Live on Monday, May 6th.

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