Avengers: Infinity War
TheMarvel Cinematic Universetimeline is collapse - that much is certain . And while Marvel Studios say they ’re going to fix it , is that even potential at this point?There ’s never been an official MCU timeline , but from entropy in the films , buff have been able to construct intricate and seemingly exact translation . However , that ’s all begun to return asunder in Phase 3 . First , Vision suggestedCaptain America : Civil Wartook place eight old age afterIron Man- true in veridical time but flawed in - universe due to shifts in the other films ( it ’s actually seven ) . ThenDoctor Strangespanned yearswith seeming neglect to the wide-eyed Avenger antics ( somethingGuardians of the Galaxy Vol . 2continued ) . The whole thing was finally ball up open bySpider - Man : Homecoming , where a textbook card stated it was set eight geezerhood afterThe Avengers , despite abide by on fromCivil Warand thus presumably being a mere four .
lost yet ? You should be . As we outlined at the time , there ’s no simple way to consolidate the timeline without accepting either a great bargain of contradictory retconning or thatHomecomingmade a knowing change just toallow their teenage role be old enoughto have properly grow up with Earth ’s Mightiest Heroes in the limelight . But it go like Marvel are actually going to address it .
talk withScreen Rant , Kevin Feige said he ’s aware of the problems we and other were raising and thatMarvel are cultivate on loose an official timelineto iron out any egress . That ’s all well and good , but what actually can their solution be ? Let ’s use everything we know to adjudicate and snap the case .
Kevin Feige is Wrong - The Timeline Is Seriously Broken
First things first , it ’s deserving responding to what Feige ’s said about fan sensing of the timeline . In his conversation with us and other web site , the producer has arrogate the muddiness stems from an erroneous impression the movies take plaza middling in real time . As he puts it , " I recall multitude wear that whenever the movie is release is when is when the movie is taking position , and that is not the case . "
Now that is a common assumption by sports fan , although it is n’t as baseless as the producer makes it sound ; in fact , it ’s what Marvel has repeatedly said . Scarlett Johansson once stated thatThe Winter Soldiertook shoes two years afterThe Avengersand the Russo brothers thatCivil Warwas two year after that . Feige himself even played into this , confirmingGuardians of the Galaxy Vol . 2(set in 2014 ) hasa four - twelvemonth col beforeAvengers : Infinity War(placing that film in its release twelvemonth ) . As far as we ’re concern , the official line from Marvel has been that , unless a detail requires a date shift ( such asIron Man 3 , released in May but taking place over Christmas ) , a moving-picture show is set around its meter of release .
But even if that was n’t the character , the geological dating croak beyond what ’s suppose in the tangible macrocosm . When we constructed our timeline to highlight theHomecomingplot hole , we did so entirely off in - flick context ; whether it ’s personal credit line or easter egg , the motion-picture show are connected in an intricate World Wide Web with minuscule allowance . Listing every motion-picture show is cunning , but for the sake of Spider - Man literary argument , Homecomingis set a few month afterCivil War , which is a yr afterAge of Ultron , itself a twelvemonth on fromThe Winter Soldier . There ’s nothing in - motion picture to sayCaptain America 2is explicitly two years afterThe Avengers , but to not have that leaves a monolithic gap afterThor : The Dark Worldand further complicates theGuardians / Infinity Warplacement . In short , Feige ’s movies contradict what Feige is now saying .
Of course , the degree Feige ’s trying to make in a less academic way , and indeed has been when discuss thatInfinity Warconnection , is that Marvel does n’t haunt too much over the minutiae and aims to keep focal point onstrong , individual stories ; the micro - persistence that made Phase 1 so thrilling is needless in the sprawling mega - existence they ’re now working with . That ’s somewhat satisfactory if the resulting movies are good but will make furbish up the timeline tricky . Allow us to show just how much .
What Will Marvel’s “Fixed” Timeline Actually Be?
Jon Watts said around the time ofHomecoming ’s release thatMarvel Studios actually had a full timeline scroll . While there ’s no reason to doubt him , the fact his movie acquaint a major bungle to suppose timeline suggest it ’s perhaps not as airtight as one would hope . So , while it ’s possible that when the official timeline is released it will be a simple translation of whatever already exists , due to so many underlying contradiction we ’re disposed to evoke instead that Marvel will construct a retconned version that subvert a variety of former plot holes and produce a new , overridden translation .
That ’s how the movies already tend to operate : the most late , open instance of events is the truth . For deterrent example , while there was an Infinity Gauntlet in Odin ’s vault inThor , that ’s been superseded in - continuity by Thanos get his own gilt glove from a different placement inAvengers : Age of Ultron . This is reasonably similar to the funnies ' sliding timeline , where up until 2015 all Marvel continuity from 1962 onwards was read to have occurred in " the last ten years " . There it was mainly maintained by shift case - Iron Man was originally the intersection of Vietnam , now Tony Stark was wound in Afghanistan - but the pic have been undecipherable about specific and , because time seems to pass normally , it ’s laborious to quantify where things adjust . This imply any result will be a squint one - it makes sense only if you do n’t overthink it - and the nidus is on thebigpicture .
Our Proposed Fixed Timeline
With that ethos in mind , we ’ve hear to collapse what this fresh , new timeline could look like :
IM : Most of Iron Man
IM+1 : End of Iron Man ( early ) , Iron Man 2 , The Incredible Hulk , Thor ( mediate ) , The Avengers ( end )
IM+2 : Iron Man 3 ( Christmas )
IM+3 : Thor : The Dark World
IM+6 : Guardians of the Galaxy ( early ) , Guardians of the Galaxy Vol . 2 ( late )
IM+7 : Captain America : The Winter Soldier , Doctor Strange ( start )
IM+8 : avenger : Age of Ultron , Ant - Man
IM+9 : Captain America : Civil War , Spider - Man : Homecoming , Doctor Strange ( end )
IM+10 : Thor : Ragnarok , Avengers : Infinity War
And now our working . The only way to get around theCivil War / Iron ManandHomecoming / Avengersplot muddle ( both sets are aver to be eight old age aside , the major contradiction propel a timeline restructure ) is to push the entirety of Phase 1 as early as possible and have the end ofIron Man , Fury ’s Big WeekandThe Avengersall occur in the same twelvemonth , with Cap vs. Iron Man and Spidey vs. Vulture both occur around about eight years after that . From there , you placeAge of UltronandWinter Soldierleading up to that , and as a belt - on effectThor : Ragnarokslots in after . To keep the already stretched timeline short , you wantInfinity Warsoon - ish afterCivil War , although that could be pushed further depending on events inRagnarok / Black Panther . From there you haveGuardiansand the rest of Phase 2 filling the col .
The terminal result squeezes Phase 1 into a short blank of fourth dimension and acquaint a prominent gap in Phase 2 , but speech most of the key plot headache Phase 3 has raised . HavingIron Manso early is plainly strange , the route toThe Avengersis rush , and there ’s an unfortunate disruption where nothing major go down , but from a present perspective , this work . you may shiftThor 2to any point in time , andWinter SoldierandAge of Ultroncan be a little earlier ( if you do n’t bear in mind stretch lineament ’s lines in movies ) , think of that things a little more spread out , but this is overall the best fit .
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Of naturally , we ’ve still arbitrarily choose to brush off once firmly - fast timeline factors in movies . And that ’s why we have to resolve that , while it ’s practiced that Marvel are going to address the timeline emergence , it ’s unlikely they ’ll be able-bodied to do it in a wholly satisfactory manner ; for every recent big plot maw you deflect , another is created in the past .
Perhaps the solution is less about slotting the be films into topographic point than it is change the puzzle . The MCU has never had a special edition , but perhaps it ’d be just bare to correct that " Eight Years Later " title card ?
