Black Panther
Marvel has released anofficial MCU timeline . It ’s just a pity that it ’s still broken . Over the past ten year , Marvel Studios has crafted an unprecedented share macrocosm , with 20 moving picture ( and multiple less - connected goggle box shows and tie - in strip ) telling an epic and intimate narration of Avengers , Guardians , Titans and giant emmet . It ’s a virtuoso patchwork of cinematic storytelling - as long as you do n’t count too nearly .
While the MCU moving-picture show flow somewhat well into each other -Spider - Man : Homecoming , Black PantherandAnt - Man and the Waspare all directly influenced byCaptain America : Civil War , for instance - if you test and construct a cohesive timeline of the films , it draw a bite tricky . It used to be that Marvel movies were set in the yr they exhaust , flow adventureCaptain America : The First Avengernotwithstanding . However , as effect stacked , movies released years apart are read to happen around the same sentence . In take this variety , though , Marvel did n’t make any major considerations for , say , a 2018 smash hit being set in 2016 . Because of that light flow and a bevy of wider - reaching Easter eggs , slowly the MCU timeline begin to - on a micro , obsessional gumption - not make sense .
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This is n’t needfully a job for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a smash hit force , specially weigh that its character - focused narrative make the when of it all a moot plot stop , but for a franchise that ’s congratulate itself on interconnectivity , it ’s a rather miss approach to continuity .
To combat this , Marvel Studios president Kevin Feigepromised an official timeline that would deal the mounting continuity takings . Now , thanks to Titan’sMarvel Studios : The First 10 Years , we have an endorsed timeline . regrettably , it does n’t fix the biggest of the Marvel canyon breaking problems , and produce a lot more of its own .
What The Marvel Timeline Gets Right
Before breaking down the trouble maintained and created by the newfangled MCU timeline , it ’s deserving highlight that it gets a lot correct . Indeed , Phases 1 - 2 , the first 13 motion picture in the shared macrocosm , are right where they should be .
Phase 1 of the MCU consists of six movies secrete between 2008 and 2012 , but in Marvel time that ’s truncated : 2008’sThe Incredible Hulk , 2010’sIron Man 2and 2011’sThorall take station in the same week ( dub by fan as " Fury ’s Big Week " ) , revealed by surprisingly coherent Easter eggs . FromThe Avengersbeing go down in 2012 , this has been set to have occur in 2011 , withIron Mana year earlier . This can be tracked using quotes in the film , and is reaffirm by the MCU timeline .
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MCU Phase 2 was even simpler : nearly every movie was localize in the yr it relinquish . The only exception isIron Man 3 , which is set at Christmas 2012 , not Summer 2013 . Again , the MCU timeline assert this , withGuardians of the Galaxy Vol . 2also taking spot in 2014 mere month after the first .
What The Marvel Timeline Improves
On top of cop Phase 1 - 2 , the MCU timeline also provides a match of wise betterment to how we view the persistence . The with child is an official go steady ofDoctor Strange . The mystical origin tale was always an odd one in the timeline due to the sheer length of time it spans ; from Stephen Strange ’s previous animation as an chesty doctor to taking up occupier in New York ’s Sanctum Sanctorum could be as tenacious as four age , although director Scott Derrikson later confirm it was just one . Still , with an Avengers Tower Easter bollock , that means it ’s been in the background of Phase 2 all along orset in the future(something late appearances disprove ) . The timeline place it as happening in 2016 to 2017 , presumably come down to Fall . This is the dear fit proposed for Doctor Strange , and also allows for a nerveless Captain America : Civil War reference book to be taken as canyon .
Aside from date stamp flick , the timeline also furnish key information on various central issue in the MCU ’s past . Perhaps the most cohesive is the creation of S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1949 , lining up with various cue dropped inAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Page 2 of 3:What The MCU Timeline Gets Wrong & Makes Worse
MCU Problems The Marvel Timeline Doesn’t Fix
But none of the timeline trouble really came from Phases 1 - 2 , andDoctor Strangewas so removed from events it could slot in anywhere without much issue ( Avengers Tower had been in existence since 2012 , after all ) . The problem come with Phase 3 , although less from the event of the picture show themselves but thrown-away short letter to the past .
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First , inCaptain America : Civil War , Vision claimed it had been eight years since Tony revealed himself as Iron Man . Then , Spider - Man : Homecomingexplicitly date itself as eight years afterThe Avengers . There was no way to consolidate this per accept continuity : succeed threads from the first twoAvengersmovies , Civil Wartakes shoes six year afterIron Man ; by similar logic , Homecoming , place in the calendar month followingCaptain America 3 , is only four years afterThe Avengers . There ’s not even the argument of an undependable squealer ; Vision is the end the MCU has to an Earth - based God , whileHomecoming ’s date was part of the motion-picture show . The only explanation is that the filmmakers were cultivate off the veridical - world passage of meter , massaging events to ameliorate the story at hired man ( Homecomingespecially benefits from being further afterThe Avengers ) .
The MCU timeline makes no feat to address either of these concerns , leaving them major unusual person in the franchise . That should n’t be too surprising , though , consider that Marvel has since begun treat them as mistakes . Joe Russo said theHomecomingreference was " very incorrect " andAvengers : Infinity War(which he co - directed with chum Anthony ) correctly stated it was arrange six years afterThe Avengers , essentially retconning both of these mistakes away . However , that only works if the residue of the timeline stays atmospheric static …
MCU Problems The Marvel Timeline Creates
And so we come to substantial problem with the new MCU timeline . As already stated , form 3 is interesting because it ’s been told entirely out of edict . Spider - Man : Homecoming , Black PantherandAnt - Man and the Waspall survive in the tail ofCaptain America : Civil War , with the former two picking up directly where it left off . This would dictate they are set in 2016 . However , the MCU timeline putsBlack Pantherin 2017 , for no clear reason . The plastic film picks up in the weeks after the summer - setCivil War , and while it tells an larger-than-life Wakandan narration , it ’s not one that pass over into the new year . This alteration is a bizarre one , perhaps the most egregiously amiss of the whole MCU timeline .
The moving-picture show may have been wobble not because of its beginning , but its ending . Black Panther ’s mid - reference scenesees T’Challa open Wakanda ’s border to the mankind , unwrap the technological marvels that lie within . This directly beelines intoAvengers : Infinity War , where that invitation make for Team Cap , Vision ’s Mind Stone , and an USA of outrider . But there ’s the other job : the MCU timeline putsInfinity Warin 2017 too , presumably to tie intoThor : Ragnarok ’s mid - recognition scenestarting Thanos ' attack on New Asgard . Again , this is a major fault for a plurality of reasonableness : evidence in bothAvengers : Infinity WarandAnt - Man and the Wasp(which is not on the timeline but take place alongside the team - up ) say it ’s two years afterCaptain America : Civil War , while theDoctor Strangeredating intend that movie would terminate afterInfinity War .
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Both of these moves -Black Pantherforward a year andAvengers : Infinity Warback one - seems to be done to fix perceive way out in tightly connected post - credits scenes , but in doing so they negate everything else in the films themselves .
Page 3:Our Fix Of The MCU Timeline
Why Marvel Can’t Fix The MCU Timeline
Marvel could craft 14,000,605 timeline , and not even one would be really correct . The MCU is , at this point , too scrambled to work . The fundamental problems are theCaptain America : Civil WarandSpider - Man : Homecoming"eight years " claims that twist and stretchability perceptions , but things run profoundly . There are too many reference to date or preceding upshot across the movies that do n’t quite describe up leaving weird logic gaps .
Even more than that , though , the persistence simply is n’t as crocked as many believe it to be . broadly speaking , the MCU timeline can only ever fall on a macro floor ; the bit you start exploring micro - continuity , it accrue apart . Iron Man ’s arc , from hedonistic billionaire to showboating superhero to self - sacrifice to PSTD sick person to terrible defender to father physique to majestic protector to whereverAvengers 4takes him is very exonerated across Tony Stark ’s nine movie appearances so far , yet if you try and nail the pace along the elbow room , it ’s murkier waters ; Tony blows up his suits at the end ofIron Man 3 , yet inAvengers : Age of Ultronis back at it with an even more dangerous automated army . It ca n’t cut through , and that ’s because Marvel moving-picture show tend to hone in on their in - the - moment stories over build the world , outside of very obvious grownup picture hints ( and even those do n’t always make signified : see theInfinity Gauntlet in Odin ’s burial vault ) .
In fact , the new MCU timeline highlights that a mickle more aptly than perhaps intended . In trying to connect plot of ground thread fromBlack PantherandThor : Ragnarok ’s credit sequences to their influence ofAvengers : Infinity War , all Marvel ’s proposed root does is undo the individual movie ’s other persistence clew .
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As always , though , this should n’t mull over severely on Marvel . In fact , it ’s one of the most underrated scene of their formula ; for all the ailment in the mainstream about the amount of required knowledge to see an event likeAvengers : Infinity War , each motion picture is plan as a first movie . The individual report comes first , with any connections the sprinkles on top for those who care to notice . When that ’s the case , of line some things are n’t going to line up ( this is only aggravate when there are a half - dozenMarvel movies in developmentat any one time ) .
The Best-Fit MCU Timeline
But we ’re not just perish to pick aside the late MCU timeline and not indicate a sound solution . ignore the two " eight class " flubs and taking the select dating of a movie ( so where it is in relation to others rather than what a background newspaper may say ) , this is thebest - primed timeline for the MCU :
Hopefully , Marvel will take they ca n’t make everything work and choose for a manakin like this going forward . There really is no other manner , and given the succeeder everywhere else in the storytelling , a consolidation like this would set up thing up nicely for the futurity That is , of course , assume thatAvengers 4 ’s time traveldoesn’t totally reset the MCU timeline !
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