MCU Timeline+Confusions

[smallville fan]

So having walked out of Spider-Man: Homecoming, the time period of when the Battle of New York happened confused me. Can someone clarify it?

Pretty sure the Battle of New York didn't happen [blackout]8 years ago[/blackout]?

 

[AlluAllu]

It appears that Marvel has retconned it's timeline. I believe it goes something like this now:

2008 - Iron Man
2009 - Iron Man 2, The Avengers
2013 - The Winter Soldier
2015 - Age of Ultron
2017 - Civil War, Homecoming

If one ignores visible on-screen dates, that seems to mesh well enough with spoken dialoque. Homecoming taking place 8 years after the Avengers, Avengers operating without supervision for 4 years (Ross's comment in Civil War) and Vision saying in Civil War that it's been 8 years since Stark's announcement. Weak link in this timeline is that Iron Man 3 probably happens shortly after the Avengers because of Tony's PTSD and it's pretty well fixed to 2013. Another version could be:

2011 - Iron Man
2012 - Iron Man 2, The Avengers
2013 - Iron Man 3
2016 - The Winter Soldier
2020 - Civil War, Homecoming

But I'm not sure I like events happening that far in the future.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

I swear... Ya'll really have no experience reading these characters as comic books?

 

[AlluAllu]

Good point.

 

[Mike Murdock]

It appears that Marvel has retconned it's timeline. I believe it goes something like this now:

2008 - Iron Man
2009 - Iron Man 2, The Avengers
2013 - The Winter Soldier
2015 - Age of Ultron
2017 - Civil War, Homecoming

That seems roughly right. Iron Man 2, Thor, and the Incredible Hulk all happen roughly around the same time. But that doesn't preclude a big jump in time to catch up to modern times. Given that, it works quite well.

IIRC, Doctor Strange spans a very long time period (six months to a year) and may end up ending past the events of Homecoming, but I haven't seen Homecoming and can't really say if would affect my understanding.

 

[NealKenneth]

Weak link in this timeline is that Iron Man 3 probably happens shortly after the Avengers because of Tony's PTSD and it's pretty well fixed to 2013.

Every time Marvel retcons it discredits IM3 just a little more and that brings joy to my heart

 

[ImSGirl95]

So, haven't seen the movie, but just heard about the "8 years later since The Avengers" thing ... what's up with that? Why would they even do that?

 

[NotNickFury]

Well, Deadpool DID say these timelines can be confusing.

 

[StormC]

The text on the screen saying how many years it was isn't even necessary. They could have easily edited it out and nothing would change. But it's becoming funny how much Marvel has messed around with the timeline now. They were fine when they first caught up to 2010 and then had them come out linearly. Oh well.

Did Iron Man 3 explicitly date itself as 2013? Because it takes place during Christmas so it would be at the tail end of whatever year it is. Could it be in 2012?

 

[AlluAllu]

If I remember correctly, Tony and Maya joke about a 12/13 year old kid who would have been conceived at the new year's party in 1999-to-2000.

 

[smallville fan]

Agents of Shield and Netflix shows place The Battle of New York in 2012 though?

 

[NHawk19]

The way Marvel references the battle of NY I'd say Avengers is a pinned date. In doing that Caps movies are pretty much pinned as well because of the age stuff. Since Dr. Strange starts in 2016 it may also mean that it takes place over a longer time. Also they said it wasn't Rhodes injury in Dr. Strange so it could be AoU was after Dr. Strange started.

2020 is looking like a real possibility. With IFW2 coming out in 2019, It may be the route they go then the whole battle takes place 2020/2021 something like that.

Especially since you're not losing really anything by sliding the Phase 1 stuff up a little, and pushing out AoU, Ant-Man, Civil War & Homecoming a little further.

Where it could hurt is 6 years between GotG 2 & IFW.

 

[dax]

The text on the screen saying how many years it was isn't even necessary. They could have easily edited it out and nothing would change. But it's becoming funny how much Marvel has messed around with the timeline now. They were fine when they first caught up to 2010 and then had them come out linearly. Oh well.

Did Iron Man 3 explicitly date itself as 2013? Because it takes place during Christmas so it would be at the tail end of whatever year it is. Could it be in 2012?

It is definitely set in 2012 because Iron Man 3 begins on New Year's eve 1999 while the rest of the film shows Tony still recovering from the events of the Avengers. Another thing that is confusing is the following:

-It is stated that Iron Man 2, Thor, and the Incredible Hulk are all set at the same time in 2011 but the beginning of Iron Man 2 says that the Stark Expo is held on 2010.

-In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve says he's 95 years old but the movie is set in 2014 and it says he was born in 1918. He should be 96 at that point.

-Vision says in Civil War that it has been 8 years since Tony announced himself as Iron Man but he should've said it's 6 years if we are to believe that the 1st Iron Man film was set in 2010.

-Thunderbolt Ross says the Avengers have been operating without supervision for 4 years but he meant to say it's been 2 years since that is the amount of time that passed between the Winter Soldier and Civil War. Plus, SHIELD didn't collapse on itself until after the events of the Winter Soldier in 2014.

and

-Spider-Man: Homecoming should've said that it's "4 years later" considering that the Avengers is in 2012 while Spider-Man coincides with the events of Captain America: Civil War, which is set in 2016.

 

[Ninjablade]

It is definitely set in 2012 because Iron Man 3 begins on New Year's eve 1999 while the rest of the film shows Tony still recovering from the events of the Avengers. Another thing that is confusing is the following:

-It is stated that Iron Man 2, Thor, and the Incredible Hulk are all set at the same time in 2011 but the beginning of Iron Man 2 says that the Stark Expo is held on 2010.

-In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve says he's 95 years old but the movie is set in 2014 and it says he was born in 1918. He should be 96 at that point.

-Vision says in Civil War that it has been 8 years since Tony announced himself as Iron Man but he should've said it's 6 years if we are to believe that the 1st Iron Man film was set in 2010.

-Thunderbolt Ross says the Avengers have been operating without supervision for 4 years but he meant to say it's been 2 years since that is the amount of time that passed between the Winter Soldier and Civil War. Plus, SHIELD didn't collapse on itself until after the events of the Winter Soldier in 2014.

and

-Spider-Man: Homecoming should've said that it's "4 years later" considering that the Avengers is in 2012 while Spider-Man coincides with the events of Captain America: Civil War, which is set in 2016.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier could've easily just taken place before Steve's birthday. Other than that you bring up some great points.

This timeline just seems to get more confusing as time goes on. I know it's like that I'm the comics, but I feel with the movies they'd at least be able to streamline it and keep it simple.

 

[NealKenneth]

If I were Marvel I would have avoided specific years at all or any sentence of dialogue that mentions specific lengths of time. Thunderbolt didn't need to say four, Homecoming didn't need to say eight etc.

 

[Drizzle]

Yeah, while this is nowhere near as head-spinning as the X-Men movie continuity, the "Eight Years Later" thing is pretty confusing when up to now, the MCU has been fairly neat and tidy about their continuity.

I blame Sony.

 

[ripse]

The Avengers (2012) and Spider-Man Homecoming (2017)

So 2017-2012 = 5 Years, why 8 years not 5 years, is so very confusing...marvel studios and sony must explained this...problem..

 

[NealKenneth]

​

Yeah, while this is nowhere near as head-spinning as the X-Men movie continuity

And that's the real truth of the matter...these minor contradictions aren't going to bother anyone who isn't looking for problems.

Here's my guess

2009: Iron Man
2010: The Avengers
2014: The Winter Soldier
2016: Age of Ultron
2018: Civil War, Homecoming

Apparently 2018 for Homecoming has also been confirmed by a prop used in the film. What's a bit exciting about that to me is that I think that would be the first time they've planned a date ahead like that in the MCU. That tells me they are planning ahead to make sure Homecoming 2 and IW don't feel confusing in regards to timing.

 

[AlluAllu]

One major benefit in this new timeline is that now Zemo has more time to go through Hydra files and formulate his plan.

 

[Mike Murdock]

​

And that's the real truth of the matter...these minor contradictions aren't going to bother anyone who isn't looking for problems.

Here's my guess

2009: Iron Man
2010: The Avengers
2014: The Winter Soldier
2016: Age of Ultron
2018: Civil War, Homecoming

Apparently 2018 for Homecoming has also been confirmed by a prop used in the film. What's a bit exciting about that to me is that I think that would be the first time they've planned a date ahead like that in the MCU. That tells me they are planning ahead to make sure Homecoming 2 and IW don't feel confusing in regards to timing.

I think that's plausible, but I wouldn't discount 2017 as Homecoming. If we went by dates on props the whole thing is screwed up because I'm pretty sure there are some other movies that will have inconsistent props.

The one thing I'd like to give some thought for is Agents of SHIELD. I know that's not a focus, but I'm pretty sure the reason I registered here is so I could give a detailed timeline on how the events of End of the Beginning and next few episodes matched up with Captain America: The Winter Soldier (my theory is the Hub actually fell a day before Triskelion fell around the same time Nick Fury was attacked).

I would have to rewatch all of Agents of SHIELD to know for certain, which I'm not going to do, but the only real concrete timeframe I remember was the time jump between the end of season three and the post-credits equivalent right before the season ended. Other than that, I do think there's some awkwardness with Coulson's return at the beginning of season one, which feels like it would have to have been recent and the events of Winter Soldier at the end of the season. I don't think we know how long the events of the first season were, but I doubt they were three years. But that strikes me as relatively minor overall. Certainly something you can squint your eyes at and be OK with.

 

[Best]

The Avengers has been pinned to 2012 by Iron Man 3, Civil War, preludes and the TV shows. It just has.

As I said in the Homecoming thread, we need to just write off [Homecoming] as a continuity error.

Iron Man = 2008

Iron Man 2, Thor & The Incredible Hulk = 2009 (the Stark Expo thing saying 2010 is normal for conventions like that... or something... correct me as you please)

Fury's Big Week or something said it took 2 years to find Cap on ice and Nick also said "you've been asleep for almost 70 years" since 1945, so he would have been found in 2011 or 2012

As I said, Avengers = 2012. There's just no way to pull it backwards or forward. Iron Man 3 takes place in Christmas of the same year

Winter Soldier & The Dark World = 2013-2014

Age of Ultron = 2015

Civil War = 2016

Homecoming = 2016/2017

As I've also said in the Homceoming forum... I think the writers were just so fixated on 2008 that they messed/mixed it up with the events of The Avengers. They were probably thinking hard on Happy's "2008" line at the end, and maybe even Vision's "in the 8 years" line from Civil War.

 

[Mike Murdock]

The only thing I didn't follow from your post is why Iron Man 3 has to take place in 2012. Can you help me out there?

 

[Best]

The only thing I didn't follow from your post is why Iron Man 3 has to take place in 2012. Can you help me out there?

The flashbacks to 1999 flash forward "13 years later". Although since it was New Years 2000 I think it was actually "12 years later". Need to check. Either way yeah, it's been pointed out before, one or the other.

 

[Mike Murdock]

So there's some irreconcilable dating error. Doesn't mean that Spider-Man would have to be the one that changes, but that's unfortunate.

 

[That Guy]

Yeah regardless of how you try to change the dates of when the movies take place the math still doesn't add up. I seriously doubt that the 8 years later thing was just a mistake. Someone would have had to have caught that, so I'm pretty sure the timeline has been altered on purpose. I wonder for what reason though?