Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline

The fictional timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise is the continuity of events for several feature films, television series, television specials, short films, and the I Am Groot shorts, which are produced by Marvel Studios, and the group of Netflix series produced by Marvel Television.

While the early films of Phase One and Phase Two of the franchise followed each other in the timeline similar to their release order, Phase Three saw many of the films overlapping with each other in the timeline, while also introducing the first prequel property, Captain Marvel (2019). The Phase Three film Avengers: Endgame (2019) featured characters traveling into the past and introduced a five-year time jump, with many subsequent releases in Phase Four and Phase Five set after Endgame's events in the timeline. The television series Loki and What If...? were the first properties to occur outside of the main timeline and explore alternative timelines and universes.

There have been numerous attempts by Marvel Studios and others to codify the events of the MCU, which have been subject to perceived continuity errors, resulting in Marvel Studios releasing an official timeline book in 2023 for their first four phases that were designated as part of their "Sacred Timeline". This book did not feature projects produced by other companies, such as Marvel Television's series which all had been loosely connected to the films, though it was noted all of these outside projects were part of the larger Marvel canon. In early 2024, Marvel Studios formally integrated Marvel Television's group of Netflix series into their Disney+ timeline.

As of the Phase Five television series Secret Invasion (2023) and the film The Marvels (2023), the "present day" in the MCU is 2026. The following covers and discusses MCU media released by Marvel Studios and the Netflix series by Marvel Television.

Overview

During Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Marvel Studios lined up some of their films' stories with references to one another, though they had no long-term plan for the shared universe's timeline at that point. In October 2008, Marvel Studios hired executive Brad Winderbaum, who had previously served as Louis D'Esposito's assistant on Iron Man (2008). One of his initial jobs was to create an official timeline for the MCU, which resulted in him creating the universe's zero point to be Tony Stark revealing he is Iron Man and realizing some events in Phase One overlapped, which he called "Fury's Big Week". This would be further expanded upon by writers Christopher Yost and Eric Pearson with the official canon tie-in comic titled Fury's Big Week. After being presented the timeline, Yost and Pearson tried to follow the logic of each films' timeline when plotting the comic and received "the seal of approval" from producer Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios on the final timeline. Marvel released an official infographic detailing this timeline in May 2012 in its The Art of Marvel's The Avengers book. Wanting to simplify the in-universe timeline, the Phase Two films were set roughly in real time relating to The Avengers (2012). For Phase Three, directors the Russo brothers continued the use of real time between films' releases. Winderbaum said the Phase Three films would actually "happen on top of each other" while being less "interlocked" as the Phase One films were.

When Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) was being developed, director and co-writer Jon Watts was shown a scroll detailing the MCU timeline that was created by co-producer Eric Carroll when he first began working for Marvel Studios. Watts said the scroll included both where the continuity of the films lined up and did not line up, and when fully unfurled it extended beyond the length of a long conference table. This scroll was used as the basis to weave the continuity of Homecoming into the previous films, such as The Avengers. A title card in the film states that eight years pass between the end of The Avengers and the events of Captain America: Civil War (2016), which was widely criticized as a continuity error that broke the established MCU timeline, in which only four years should have passed. Additionally, dialogue in Civil War indicates that eight years pass between the end of Iron Man (2008) and the events of that film, despite the established continuity being closer to five or six years. Avengers: Infinity War (2018) co-director Joe Russo described the Homecoming eight years time jump as "very incorrect", and the mistake was ignored in Infinity War, which specified that its events were taking place only six years after The Avengers. The public response to the Homecoming mistake inspired Marvel Studios to release a new timeline for all three phases, and in November 2018 a timeline, specifying dates for the events in each film released to that point, was included as part of the sourcebook Marvel Studios: The First 10 Years, celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the MCU. Following Infinity War, the Russo brothers said future films would not necessarily be set according to real time as there are "a lot of very inventive ways of where the story can go from here".

With Phase Four, Marvel Studios expanded into television series, which have greater interconnectivity with the MCU feature films than the series from Marvel Television. In October 2020, the Marvel section of Disney+ was restructured to include groupings of the films by phase, as well as a grouping that put the films in timeline order. By August 2022, Marvel Studios had hired an individual to keep track of the placement of the studio's projects in the MCU timeline. DK released a book titled The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline on October 24, 2023. The book, written by journalists Anthony Breznican, Amy Ratcliffe, and ReBecca Theodore-Vachon, was made in collaboration with Marvel Studios to provide an updated timeline of the MCU. Winderbaum said the book was the first time the studio was "officially laying out the timeline". The book covers Marvel Studios' projects in their first four phases as part of their "Sacred Timeline" on Earth-616, and addresses several perceived continuity errors, such as the timeline of Homecoming. In January 2024, during Echo's press tour, Winderbaum acknowledged that Marvel Studios had previously been "a little bit cagey" about what was part of their Sacred Timeline, noting how there had been the corporate divide between what Marvel Studios created and what Marvel Television created, despite the two companies being in communication and aware of what each other were doing. He continued that Marvel Studios had begun to see "how well integrated the [Marvel Television] stories are" and personally felt confident in saying Marvel's Netflix television series Daredevil (2015–2018) was part of the Sacred Timeline. Shortly after Winderbaum's comments, Daredevil and the remaining Netflix series were added to the Disney+ timeline, primarily alongside the MCU's Phase Two content. They were added to Disney+ "fairly quickly" after Winderbaum realized during the press tour of Echo that the Netflix series' place in the MCU timeline was "not just assumed" and audiences wanted it to be confirmed. Winderbaum added that Disney+ was Marvel Studios' "medium to define the canon now".

Depictions

Within the MCU

The Infinity Saga

Iron Man 2 is set six months after the events of Iron Man, and around the same time as Thor according to comments made by Nick Fury. Several of the Marvel One-Shots short films also occur around the events of Phase One films, including The Consultant (set after the events of Iron Man 2 and The Incredible Hulk), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer (set before the events of Thor), Item 47 (set after The Avengers), and Agent Carter (set one year after the events of Captain America: The First Avenger). Iron Man 3 takes place about six months after The Avengers, during Christmas; Thor: The Dark World is set one year later; and Captain America: The Winter Soldier is two years after. Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man ended the phase in 2015, with several months passing between those films in-universe as in real life. The One-Shot All Hail the King is set after the events of Iron Man 3.

Captain America: Civil War begins a year after Age of Ultron, with Avengers: Infinity War set two years after that. Black Panther and Spider-Man: Homecoming respectively beginning a week and several months after Civil War; Thor: Ragnarok beginning four years after The Dark World and two years after Age of Ultron, around the same time as Civil War and Homecoming; Doctor Strange taking place over a whole year and ending in late 2016, "up to date with the rest of the MCU"; Ant-Man and the Wasp also set two years after Civil War and shortly before Infinity War; and both Guardians of the Galaxy and its sequel Vol. 2 being explicitly set in 2014, which Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige believed would create a four-year gap between Vol. 2 and Infinity War, though the other MCU films up to that point do not specify years onscreen.

Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel are set earlier in the timeline; the latter is set in 1995. Avengers: Endgame begins shortly after Infinity War and ends in 2023 after a five-year time jump. It confirms dates for several of the other films, including The Avengers in 2012, Thor: The Dark World in 2013, Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014, Doctor Strange around 2017, and Ant-Man and the Wasp in 2018 before Infinity War. Spider-Man: Far From Home begins eight months after Endgame in 2024.

The Multiverse Saga

Many of the properties in Phase Four are set after the events of Avengers: Endgame. WandaVision is set three weeks after the events of that film, and directly sets up Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness; The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is set six months after Endgame. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is also set after Endgame during the days leading to the Qingming Festival in early April, with She-Hulk: Attorney at Law set "a relatively short amount of time" after Shang-Chi. Eternals takes place around the same time as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Spider-Man: Far From Home, six to eight months after Endgame in 2024, while Spider-Man: No Way Home begins immediately after Far From Home, and continues over late 2024. Hawkeye takes place one year after the events of Endgame during the 2024 Christmas season.

Moon Knight is set after Hawkeye in early 2025, while Multiverse of Madness is set after Spider-Man: No Way Home. Ms. Marvel is set after Moon Knight, one to two years after Endgame. Thor: Love and Thunder is set after Endgame, eight and a half years after Thor broke up with Jane Foster, which had occurred by Ragnarok, and "a few weeks" since Thor joined the Guardians of the Galaxy. According to producer Nate Moore, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set after No Way Home and Eternals, "potentially concurrent" with Love and Thunder and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, though it was placed earlier in the timeline between Moon Knight and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law with its addition to Disney+. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is set "a fairly long time" after the events of Love and Thunder and before the events of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

The first season of Loki continues from the 2012 events seen in Endgame, but much of the series exists outside of time and space given the introduction of the Time Variance Authority. What If...? is set after Loki's first-season finale, exploring the various branching timelines of the newly created multiverse in which major moments from the MCU films occur differently. The second season of Loki begins immediately after the first-season finale, taking place outside of time and space while some events occur between the past, present, and future. Black Widow is set between Civil War and Infinity War, mostly taking place between the main plot of Civil War and its final scene. The first I Am Groot short is set between the end of Guardians of the Galaxy and the start of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, with the remaining shorts set between the end of Vol. 2 and its mid-credits scene. The special Werewolf by Night exists within the MCU but does not state "when, how or why". The director Michael Giacchino has "a very specific idea" of how the special fits into the MCU that had not been discussed with Marvel Studios.

In Phase Five, Echo is set five months after Hawkeye, in May 2025. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is set in 2026, around the same time as the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and the beginning of Ms. Marvel. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is set after the Holiday Special. Secret Invasion is set in the "present day" of the MCU, thirty years after the events of Captain Marvel around 2026, after the events of Far From Home and Wakanda Forever. The Marvels is set in 2026, after Secret Invasion and Ms. Marvel.

Codifying attempts

Phase One infographic (May 2012)

Marvel released an official infographic timeline for their Phase One films and One-Shots in May 2012 in its The Art of Marvel's The Avengers book; some of this information had previously been revealed in the official canon tie-in comic Fury's Big Week, which had confirmed that The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, and Thor all took place within a week, a year before The Avengers. The infographic timeline's scale is shown in relation to Tony Stark revealing he is Iron Man at the end of Iron Man, with events set "BIM" (Before Iron Man) and "AIM" (After Iron Man).

Marvel Studios: The First 10 Years timeline (November 2018)

In November 2018, a timeline specifying dates for the events in each film released to that point was included as part of the sourcebook Marvel Studios: The First 10 Years, celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the MCU. This timeline ignores the two "eight-year" continuity errors as seen in Homecoming, but also contradicts the events of Black Panther and Infinity War by placing them in 2017. The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Ant-Man and the Wasp are discussed in the sourcebook, but their events are not included in the timeline.

Disney+ timeline (October 2020–present)

The initial Disney+ timeline order in October 2020 was Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man 3, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Spider-Man: Far From Home were excluded at this time since Disney did not have their distribution rights.

In June 2022, Homecoming became available on Disney+ in the United Kingdom and Australia, while Far From Home became available on Disney+ in Japan the following month; both were added to the Disney+ timeline in those territories. By August 2022, The Incredible Hulk was added to the Disney+ timeline in territories it was available in such as Spain and Japan. Homecoming became available in the United States and was added to the timeline in May 2023. Marvel Studios regained the distribution rights to The Incredible Hulk in June 2023, with it subsequently made available in the United States on Disney+. Far From Home became available in the United States in November 2023.

To coincide with Echo's release in January 2024, all of Marvel's Netflix television series–including Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher–were added to the Disney+ timeline, after they were made available on the platform in 2022. The series' placements were initially based on when their first seasons took place, with each season taking place on the timeline around the same time of their release. The first season of Daredevil is set after the events of The Avengers, and was placed after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and I Am Groot and before Age of Ultron on the timeline. Jessica Jones's first season is set after that and is placed before Age of Ultron and Ant-Man. The second season of Daredevil takes place around six months after its first season, either around or shortly after the events of Ant-Man. The first season of Luke Cage picks up a few months after Jessica Jones, and part of the season takes place simultaneously with the events of Daredevil season 2. It was placed after Ant-Man on the timeline, and is followed shortly after by Iron Fist's first season, which references the events of Daredevil season 2 throughout the season, and was placed between Ant-Man and Civil War. These were followed by the events of the crossover series The Defenders, which takes place a few months after Daredevil's second season, and a month after Iron Fist season one, while being placed before Civil War on the timeline. The Defenders sets up elements of the second season of Jessica Jones, but it does not have a clear placement in the timeline, while Luke Cage season 2, Iron Fist season 2, Daredevil's third season, and Jessica Jones's third season are also set after The Defenders. The Punisher begins after the events of Daredevil season 2 before jumping ahead six months later, and was described as a stand-alone series, outside of the series leading up to The Defenders. Its first season also depicts some events from before the second season of Daredevil, which The Punisher star Jon Bernthal described as being "loose with chronology", and it was placed in-between Homecoming and Doctor Strange on the timeline.

In early February 2024, the Disney+ timeline was updated to include the placement of each season of Marvel Studios' series and the Netflix series along with the creation of a new timeline featuring just the MCU films.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline (October 2023)

In the book The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline, released in October 2023, the timeline for the first four phases of the MCU is detailed, presenting the timeline for content that occurs in the "Sacred Timeline" of Earth-616, the main timeline and universe of the MCU, but does not include the Netflix series as they were not yet officially considered part of the Sacred Timeline up to that point. The book addresses several continuity errors through messages from Miss Minutes, the mascot of the Time Variance Authority (TVA), and was written with an in-universe perspective as if it was a TVA guidebook. These included placing Homecoming as occurring in late 2016 while noting that the eight years timeframe in the film was incorrect and confirming that four years had passed in-universe from The Avengers. It also places Iron Man in early 2008, the same as its year of release; Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, and Thor as occurring around the same time in early 2010; Iron Man 3 from December 22–25, 2013, before ending in early 2014; Doctor Strange as starting in late 2016 after Homecoming and occurring through 2017 before Thor: Ragnarok, contradicting the film's co-writer C. Robert Cargill's statement on its timeline; Black Panther in mid-2016, starting after Black Widow and before Civil War's ending; Ant-Man and the Wasp and Infinity War in early 2018; Endgame primarily in late 2023 with WandaVision set shortly after; Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in early 2024 in between WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the latter of which is placed from early-to-mid-2024; Far From Home and the start of No Way Home in mid-2024 during The Falcon and the Winter Soldier; She-Hulk starting in late 2024, before Eternals, which takes place during No Way Home, which is primarily followed by Multiverse of Madness, also in late 2024; No Way Home ending in December 2024, right before Hawkeye, also placed in that month; She-Hulk primarily occurring through early 2025, before Moon Knight and Wakanda Forever, and until late 2025; Ms. Marvel and Love and Thunder following in late 2025; and dates Werewolf by Night after them in late 2025, which was noted as seemingly being accurate but that "magical influences" made determining its placement uncertain.

Timeline

The following diagram represents the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline for media released by Marvel Studios as well as the Netflix series by Marvel Television. A project's placement on the timeline is determined by explicit date references within it or another project through dialogue (for example, Tony Stark says "Thanos has been inside my head for six years. Since he sent an army to New York..." placing Avengers: Infinity War in 2018) or title cards (for example, Guardians of the Galaxy set in 2014, while Avengers: Endgame dates Thor: The Dark World as being in 2013), with The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline then used to determine placement, followed by the Disney+ timeline if needed. Its placement is meant to represent when the majority of the project occurs.

Loki and What If...? are excluded from the diagram because they occur outside of the main timeline. Werewolf by Night is also excluded given the special explicitly does not indicate where it takes place in the MCU. Disney+'s timeline order places the first seasons of Loki and What If...? between Avengers: Endgame and WandaVision, their second seasons after The Marvels, and Werewolf by Night after Love and Thunder; Werewolf by Night is also placed here in The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline.

Commentary

Thomas Bacon of Screen Rant described the Marvel Studios: The First 10 Years timeline as "the closest Marvel has yet come to making an official statement on just when the different MCU events are set", bringing "some sense of balance to the MCU continuity", despite some mistakes still present in this timeline. Regarding the initial Disney+ timeline, Bacon felt the placement of Thor: The Dark World between The Avengers and Iron Man 3 and Black Panther after Captain America: Civil War in this timeline corrected "previous issues" with their placement in the First 10 Years timeline, and was glad Disney and Marvel "recognize[d] it's possible to watch these movies in anything other than release order", "legitimiz[ing]" this viewing experience. Julia Alexander at The Verge agreed with Bacon that it "seems like Disney finally understands how [some viewers] want to watch Marvel movies".

With the release of Thor: Love and Thunder on Disney+ in September 2022, Bacon and his colleague Molly Jae Weinstein noted how the film's placement in the timeline order section on the platform seemed incorrect, with Bacon saying it made "no sense" given dialogue and events in the film that contradicted this placement, and also pointing out how Shang-Chi and Moon Knight's placements also ignored dating information given in each. Bacon said, "The MCU's timeline is now complicated by the sheer volume of Marvel films and TV shows currently in production, because even Marvel's key decision-makers don't really know quite what order things will be released." Unlike the earlier phases where each new project was the next chronological title in the timeline, Phase Four "has hopped around the timeline with impunity", which in turn made it "rather messy". Bacon added how viewers have noted the Disney+ timeline was "deeply flawed" with "numerous contradictions". With the release of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Bacon believed its placement on the Disney+ timeline "fixed" Love and Thunder's placement, thinking that film should be placed in late 2024 on the timeline. He also pointed out how new projects typically get added to the end of the Disney+ timeline, "even when such placements can't possibly be right". In November 2022, Bacon noted how Far From Home's appearance in the Disney+ timeline between The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Shang-Chi could not be correct given story points in each of those projects indicating where they fell in the timeline, and hoped Marvel would correct these mistakes as it had done previously with Black Widow and Black Panther.

To coincide with the release of The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline in October 2023, Disney+ adjusted its placement of Shang-Chi on the timeline to be between WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which Aaron Perine of ComicBook.com felt made "a lot of sense" given the prior determinations of the film's timeline. He said it corrected the prior "mistake" in its placement, which he noted had sparked "[a] lot of debate" among fans, calling it a "clerical error" that was "easily rectified by changing some code" on the platform rather than Marvel changing when the film took place in-universe. Alexander Valentino of Screen Rant said that before the timeline book's release, the Disney+ timeline order "was the closest thing to a definitive order of events" while noting it had also been unclear given the franchises's use of flashbacks, time travel, and the multiverse. He said the platform's order was "shockingly accurate" compared to Marvel's official timeline as detailed in the book, noting that Disney+ conceded to change its placement of Shang-Chi in accordance with the timeline book, which he called a "definitive map" of the MCU's chronology and an "important keystone" to understand the franchise's timeline, and that it resolved debates surrounding the timeline placements and canon status of several Marvel properties. Joshua Lapin-Bertone from Popverse enjoyed An Official Timeline featuring Miss Minutes and the TVA when addressing past discrepancies, as it provided "a sense of personality and fun to the book". Collider's Jeffrey Harris appreciated Marvel Studios acknowledging its continuity errors such as Homecoming with "an appropriate, self-deprecating sense of humor" through Miss Minutes, that he likened to Marvel Comics' Marvel No-Prize. He added that the book's authors "do their best to offer an in-universe, canonical explanation... [t]hat is probably the best explanation that fans can hope for".

After all of Marvel Television's Netflix series were added to the Disney+ timeline in January 2024, commentators noted that this extended the total runtime of the MCU by a significant amount, as the Netflix series totaled 161 hours of content. Rotem Rusak at Nerdist noted that the series' canon status in the MCU had been a subject of debate for several years, and called it a "pretty big deal" that all of the series were added to the franchise's official timeline. She believed this was definitive and sent a "pretty clear message" that the series were canon to the MCU, and that this alleviated concerns that only certain aspects of the series would be carried over into the franchise. IGN's Ryan Dinsdale said this was "the first time" the series were listed as part of the official MCU timeline, and noted this came at a time when the MCU was considered to be bloated after the total runtime of content in Phase Four lasted around 54 hours compared to Phase One's runtime of slightly over 12 hours. Richard Fink and Jack Deegan at MovieWeb considered the Netflix series' timeline easy to follow as it was the same as their release order, which he noted was the same timeline order used by Disney+. Andy Behbakht of Screen Rant felt the series' addition to the timeline was a "change of heart" behind-the-scenes and that it was likely to inspire hope to see other Marvel series officially acknowledged as part of the timeline.

Notes

References

External links

• Marvel Movies and Shows | Disney+ – Marvel Cinematic Universe Timeline Order
• Every Marvel Movie and TV Show in Order on Disney+ on Marvel.com (Archived January 12, 2024, at the Wayback Machine)
• New MCU Timelines Arrive on Disney+ on Marvel.com (Archived February 9, 2024, at the Wayback Machine)
• Here's How To Watch the Marvel Movies in Order (By Release Date and the MCU Timeline) (Archived August 7, 2023, at the Wayback Machine)
• Timeline on Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki, an external wiki