MCU Timeline Issues
Findings:
The harder you look, the more messed up it is. It’s not entirely Homecoming’s fault, although it certainly didn’t help. If you go all the way to the bottom, you’ll see what I believe is the best we can get to an official timeline.
Analysis:
First, let’s assume each movie takes place in the year it came out. Which movies can that be backed up by concrete textual evidence (meaning that year - and ONLY that year - appears on screen)?
- Iron Man definitely takes place in 2008. There’s a Wired magazine cover dated January 2008, the Mad Money episode is dated May 4, 2008, and Happy says he’s been carrying the ring since 2008 in Homecoming.
- The Avengers has a SHIELD computer screen with the date “12.02.2012”. (We’ll come back to this one.)
- Iron Man 3 shows a newspaper dated December 23, 2013, and shows a file from earlier dated 2/31/13. (We’ll also come back to this one.)
- Thor: The Dark World shows Selvig being signed out of the hospital on November 4, 2013.
- Guardians of the Galaxy doesn’t show the date specifically, but it shows 1988 and then the rest of the movie happens 26 years later.
- Doctor Strange has an Excellence in Spinal Fusion Surgery award that says 2016, and his watch says February 2, 2016, when he first puts it on.
- Spider-Man: Homecoming has a birthdate for Aaron Davis of 4/15/1984 and Karen says he’s 33. (We’ll come back to this one too.)
Surprisingly not that many. And three of those seven have asterisks. Ok, so what about implicit evidence? Evidence in the movies that the same amount of time has passed between the events of the movies as the movies themselves?
- Thor is said to happen a year before The Avengers and two years before Thor: The Dark World
- Iron Man 3 treats the Battle of New York as recent.
- Thor: The Dark World says The Avengers happened in the two years between Thor and it, and interviews say it happened the year before.
- Winter Soldier has to take place somewhere between July 4, 2013, and July 4, 2014, because Cap says he’s 95 (he was born in 1918).
- Age of Ultron has to take place post-2014 (with 2015 the best candidate) because it counts the Orb among the Infinity Stones that have been revealed.
- Ant-Man also treats Sokovia as recent events (it’s still in the news), and Hank has medicine with an expiration date of 5/17/16
- Civil War says the Avengers have existed for four years, Iron Man has been around for eight years, Cap and Falcon searched for Bucky for two years, and Zemo has thought about revenge for Sokovia for a year. It also calls Winter Soldier and Iron Man 3 “a few years ago”. Black Widow also says it took the world 70 years to find the Winter Soldier.
- Thor: Ragnarok says two years have passed since Age of Ultron.
- And let’s go ahead and add right here that Captain America is during WWII, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 is also during 2014 (1980 + 34 years), and Black Panther specifically starts one week after the events of Captain America: Civil War.
Now we’re getting somewhere. That brings us up to 16 out of 18. And since we can show that Iron Man 2 takes place in May 2009 (May because of the Monaco Grand Prix, 2009 because it says Tony and Christine met “last year”, and that would be six months after Whiplash finishes his arc reactor - which occurs in early December 2008 because he has a TIME Person of the Year cover featuring Iron Man), and we can show that Incredible Hulk takes place around the same time as Iron Man 2, that wraps up all 18, right? Easy as pie.
Wrong. Because then the discrepancies come into play. And they start, strangely, at the very beginning.
- Iron Man shows that Tony has a 2010 R8 in his garage. How is this possible if the movie takes place in 2008? He was only in captivity for three months, in the first half of the year (the Mad Money episode from May 4 happens after he gets back). We also know that Coulson and Tony agree at Pepper’s party to meet on the 24th and then that meeting occurs near the end of the movie, so I assume the post Afghanistan portion of the movie doesn’t take more than a month (or two at most). I’ll chalk it up to owning a prototype or something and move on.
- Then there’s Incredible Hulk. Ross says Banner has been Hulk for five years. We see security footage of Hulk from April 2004, so the latest the movie could take place is 2009. Luckily, that’s when it officially takes place. Unfortunately, documents show that he was last seen “five months ago”, aka October 2006, and then we cut to Banner having gone 158 days without an incident. That implies the 158 days are those five months, which would put the movie in March 2007. But we can also assume the two facts are just a coincidence and it’s not an issue. (I’ll also note here that the final scene with Banner takes place 31 days after the rest of the movie, which isn’t a discrepancy but is important information for later.)
- Iron Man 2 has Justin Hammer say “for the last six months” in the hearing, implying Tony has only been active six months. That can't be the case given the evidence presented in the movie. It also has an LA Times article list Whiplash “dying” in prison as happening in December 24, which also can’t be the case (since that happened after the May-occurring Grand Prix). Interestingly, the movie says Howard Stark has been dead for “almost 20 years”, which would apply as late as May 2011. I’ll also note that, according to the "Days Remaining” counter for the Stark Expo, the movie takes place over 22 days, and Fury and Stark meet about the Avengers Initiative a week after that, which means Fury’s Big Week can’t be canon. (It does, however, mean the ~29 days the movie covers fit nicely into the 31 day gap at the end of Incredible Hulk.)
- Thor takes place at the same time as Iron Man 2 (Coulson leaves in the middle to go to New Mexico), which places it in 2009. But that contradicts the “last year” statement in The Avengers and “two years ago” statement in Dark World, which would place it in 2011. (An interesting side note is that Donald Blake’s license is good through November 2011.)
- The Avengers, likewise, has the same issue. Everything places it in 2012, but it should be in 2010 if it’s a year after the events of Iron Man 2/Thor. That also makes the comment that Banner has been “more than a year” without an incident make more sense. Although, to be fair, we know that Banner can’t always control the Hulk even when he can control it, so that’s not much to go on.
- Iron Man 3 is a doozy. It has those dates that set it in 2013, and those are corroborated by Tony and Maya’s exchange about his having a 12-year-old son (“13, actually”). On the other hand, several points - including a title card - say it’s been 13 years since the 1999 Bern conference, and 1999 + 13 is 2012. (Also, at one point Tony calls the Bern conference “almost 20 years ago”, which is a stretch.) And either way, this movie treats the Battle of New York as a recent thing, when it seems to have possibly happened two or three years ago.
- In Winter Soldier, footage of Batroc’s interrogation is said to be live and dated “2013.10.12”, yet everything else places the movie in 2014.
- In Age of Ultron, Cap says he went into the ice 75 years ago, which would place the movie in 2020. I assume he’s just greatly rounding.
- Homecoming is also a doozy. It says it takes place 8 years after the Avengers, but only 2 months after Civil War. But Civil War takes place 8 years after Iron Man. And we know there are 2-4 years between Iron Man and The Avengers. It just can’t work out. Furthermore, the movie can’t decide if the Academic Decathlon takes place on September 14 or October 13-15 (and the real one takes place in April anyhow). And although Aaron Davis’s information puts it in 2017, the “two months later” card should put it in 2016, as do the stickers on the white truck in the ferry scene. And then Flash’s car is a 2017 model, which could go either way. Although speaking of Civil War, if this movie is two months after that one, that one happened during the summer; but Peter mentions schoolwork in that movie and the dates I could find in it put it in March/April. (I feel like this movie was written with it happening at the end of the year with prom, but it was switched to Homecoming to get the pun. A lot of stuff makes more sense when you view it that way.)
With all that in mind, here is what I consider the best version of the timeline to be (and let me just say I know this won’t please everybody, especially the placement of Iron Man 2, but I think the way I’ve done it makes the most information the most correct; I’d rather have one wrong placement than several):
May 2008: Iron Man
Early 2009: The Incredible Hulk (stinger happens in 2011)
May 2011: Iron Man 2 and Thor
2012: The Avengers
December 2012: Iron Man 3
November 2013: Thor: The Dark World
March 2014: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2014: Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2
May 2015: Avengers: Age of Ultron
2015: Ant-Man
July 2016: Captain America: Civil War
August 2016: Black Panther
September 2016: Spider-Man: Homecoming
Late 2016/early 2017: Doctor Strange
2017: Thor: Ragnarok (stinger happens in 2018)
2018: Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and the pre-titles of Endgame
October 2023: Avengers: Endgame
3 weeks later (still October 2023): WandaVision
March 2024: The Falcon & The Winter Soldier
The harder you look, the more messed up it is. It’s not entirely Homecoming’s fault, although it certainly didn’t help. If you go all the way to the bottom, you’ll see what I believe is the best we can get to an official timeline.
Analysis:
First, let’s assume each movie takes place in the year it came out. Which movies can that be backed up by concrete textual evidence (meaning that year - and ONLY that year - appears on screen)?
- Iron Man definitely takes place in 2008. There’s a Wired magazine cover dated January 2008, the Mad Money episode is dated May 4, 2008, and Happy says he’s been carrying the ring since 2008 in Homecoming.
- The Avengers has a SHIELD computer screen with the date “12.02.2012”. (We’ll come back to this one.)
- Iron Man 3 shows a newspaper dated December 23, 2013, and shows a file from earlier dated 2/31/13. (We’ll also come back to this one.)
- Thor: The Dark World shows Selvig being signed out of the hospital on November 4, 2013.
- Guardians of the Galaxy doesn’t show the date specifically, but it shows 1988 and then the rest of the movie happens 26 years later.
- Doctor Strange has an Excellence in Spinal Fusion Surgery award that says 2016, and his watch says February 2, 2016, when he first puts it on.
- Spider-Man: Homecoming has a birthdate for Aaron Davis of 4/15/1984 and Karen says he’s 33. (We’ll come back to this one too.)
Surprisingly not that many. And three of those seven have asterisks. Ok, so what about implicit evidence? Evidence in the movies that the same amount of time has passed between the events of the movies as the movies themselves?
- Thor is said to happen a year before The Avengers and two years before Thor: The Dark World
- Iron Man 3 treats the Battle of New York as recent.
- Thor: The Dark World says The Avengers happened in the two years between Thor and it, and interviews say it happened the year before.
- Winter Soldier has to take place somewhere between July 4, 2013, and July 4, 2014, because Cap says he’s 95 (he was born in 1918).
- Age of Ultron has to take place post-2014 (with 2015 the best candidate) because it counts the Orb among the Infinity Stones that have been revealed.
- Ant-Man also treats Sokovia as recent events (it’s still in the news), and Hank has medicine with an expiration date of 5/17/16
- Civil War says the Avengers have existed for four years, Iron Man has been around for eight years, Cap and Falcon searched for Bucky for two years, and Zemo has thought about revenge for Sokovia for a year. It also calls Winter Soldier and Iron Man 3 “a few years ago”. Black Widow also says it took the world 70 years to find the Winter Soldier.
- Thor: Ragnarok says two years have passed since Age of Ultron.
- And let’s go ahead and add right here that Captain America is during WWII, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 is also during 2014 (1980 + 34 years), and Black Panther specifically starts one week after the events of Captain America: Civil War.
Now we’re getting somewhere. That brings us up to 16 out of 18. And since we can show that Iron Man 2 takes place in May 2009 (May because of the Monaco Grand Prix, 2009 because it says Tony and Christine met “last year”, and that would be six months after Whiplash finishes his arc reactor - which occurs in early December 2008 because he has a TIME Person of the Year cover featuring Iron Man), and we can show that Incredible Hulk takes place around the same time as Iron Man 2, that wraps up all 18, right? Easy as pie.
Wrong. Because then the discrepancies come into play. And they start, strangely, at the very beginning.
- Iron Man shows that Tony has a 2010 R8 in his garage. How is this possible if the movie takes place in 2008? He was only in captivity for three months, in the first half of the year (the Mad Money episode from May 4 happens after he gets back). We also know that Coulson and Tony agree at Pepper’s party to meet on the 24th and then that meeting occurs near the end of the movie, so I assume the post Afghanistan portion of the movie doesn’t take more than a month (or two at most). I’ll chalk it up to owning a prototype or something and move on.
- Then there’s Incredible Hulk. Ross says Banner has been Hulk for five years. We see security footage of Hulk from April 2004, so the latest the movie could take place is 2009. Luckily, that’s when it officially takes place. Unfortunately, documents show that he was last seen “five months ago”, aka October 2006, and then we cut to Banner having gone 158 days without an incident. That implies the 158 days are those five months, which would put the movie in March 2007. But we can also assume the two facts are just a coincidence and it’s not an issue. (I’ll also note here that the final scene with Banner takes place 31 days after the rest of the movie, which isn’t a discrepancy but is important information for later.)
- Iron Man 2 has Justin Hammer say “for the last six months” in the hearing, implying Tony has only been active six months. That can't be the case given the evidence presented in the movie. It also has an LA Times article list Whiplash “dying” in prison as happening in December 24, which also can’t be the case (since that happened after the May-occurring Grand Prix). Interestingly, the movie says Howard Stark has been dead for “almost 20 years”, which would apply as late as May 2011. I’ll also note that, according to the "Days Remaining” counter for the Stark Expo, the movie takes place over 22 days, and Fury and Stark meet about the Avengers Initiative a week after that, which means Fury’s Big Week can’t be canon. (It does, however, mean the ~29 days the movie covers fit nicely into the 31 day gap at the end of Incredible Hulk.)
- Thor takes place at the same time as Iron Man 2 (Coulson leaves in the middle to go to New Mexico), which places it in 2009. But that contradicts the “last year” statement in The Avengers and “two years ago” statement in Dark World, which would place it in 2011. (An interesting side note is that Donald Blake’s license is good through November 2011.)
- The Avengers, likewise, has the same issue. Everything places it in 2012, but it should be in 2010 if it’s a year after the events of Iron Man 2/Thor. That also makes the comment that Banner has been “more than a year” without an incident make more sense. Although, to be fair, we know that Banner can’t always control the Hulk even when he can control it, so that’s not much to go on.
- Iron Man 3 is a doozy. It has those dates that set it in 2013, and those are corroborated by Tony and Maya’s exchange about his having a 12-year-old son (“13, actually”). On the other hand, several points - including a title card - say it’s been 13 years since the 1999 Bern conference, and 1999 + 13 is 2012. (Also, at one point Tony calls the Bern conference “almost 20 years ago”, which is a stretch.) And either way, this movie treats the Battle of New York as a recent thing, when it seems to have possibly happened two or three years ago.
- In Winter Soldier, footage of Batroc’s interrogation is said to be live and dated “2013.10.12”, yet everything else places the movie in 2014.
- In Age of Ultron, Cap says he went into the ice 75 years ago, which would place the movie in 2020. I assume he’s just greatly rounding.
- Homecoming is also a doozy. It says it takes place 8 years after the Avengers, but only 2 months after Civil War. But Civil War takes place 8 years after Iron Man. And we know there are 2-4 years between Iron Man and The Avengers. It just can’t work out. Furthermore, the movie can’t decide if the Academic Decathlon takes place on September 14 or October 13-15 (and the real one takes place in April anyhow). And although Aaron Davis’s information puts it in 2017, the “two months later” card should put it in 2016, as do the stickers on the white truck in the ferry scene. And then Flash’s car is a 2017 model, which could go either way. Although speaking of Civil War, if this movie is two months after that one, that one happened during the summer; but Peter mentions schoolwork in that movie and the dates I could find in it put it in March/April. (I feel like this movie was written with it happening at the end of the year with prom, but it was switched to Homecoming to get the pun. A lot of stuff makes more sense when you view it that way.)
With all that in mind, here is what I consider the best version of the timeline to be (and let me just say I know this won’t please everybody, especially the placement of Iron Man 2, but I think the way I’ve done it makes the most information the most correct; I’d rather have one wrong placement than several):
May 2008: Iron Man
Early 2009: The Incredible Hulk (stinger happens in 2011)
May 2011: Iron Man 2 and Thor
2012: The Avengers
December 2012: Iron Man 3
November 2013: Thor: The Dark World
March 2014: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2014: Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2
May 2015: Avengers: Age of Ultron
2015: Ant-Man
July 2016: Captain America: Civil War
August 2016: Black Panther
September 2016: Spider-Man: Homecoming
Late 2016/early 2017: Doctor Strange
2017: Thor: Ragnarok (stinger happens in 2018)
2018: Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and the pre-titles of Endgame
October 2023: Avengers: Endgame
3 weeks later (still October 2023): WandaVision
March 2024: The Falcon & The Winter Soldier
Summer 2024: Spider-Man: Far From Home
These are color-coded by how supported they are. Green = 3 or more net positive pieces of evidence, Yellow = 1-2 net positive pieces of evidence, red = 0 or less net positive pieces of evidence. Matching the year it came out counts as one piece of evidence. Note: this is strictly a measure of amount of evidence, not strength of evidence; sometimes one is all you need, if it's good enough.
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