DIrishB
The Timeline Guy
But that then invalidates the hard dates given in Civil War, which I'm not willing to ignore for Homecoming since Homecoming itself invalidates its own timeline mentions several times.
Marvel Cinematic Universe - Timeline
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But that then invalidates the hard dates given in Civil War, which I'm not willing to ignore for Homecoming since Homecoming itself invalidates its own timeline mentions several times.
Dallas Kinard
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Yes, those are official. Also, I added "Midtown News Final Segment" - place right before movie and "Mr. Harrington Lessons In Love" - Place right after movie. To me, those are the only canon scenes I found on the Blu Ray.
DIrishB
The Timeline Guy
But if they're deleted/altered scenes, they're not necessarily canon.
Having just seen Thor Ragnarok (live in the UK) I can confirm it takes place 2 years after Age of Ultron.
Spoiler free opinion - pace was too fast, big build ups resolved in no time at all ruins potential moments and character inconsistencies all over the place, completely different personalities. But... funny, great action, soundtrack, The Grandmaster was awesome and really shakes up things for the future
Spoiler free opinion - pace was too fast, big build ups resolved in no time at all ruins potential moments and character inconsistencies all over the place, completely different personalities. But... funny, great action, soundtrack, The Grandmaster was awesome and really shakes up things for the future
Civil War and Homecoming were 2016. 2 years after Ultron would make it 2017, which lines up with the 2017 placement of Doctor Strange.
DIrishB
The Timeline Guy
Not surprising, there will be a prelude comic for Avengers - Infinity War. I'll add that in tentatively with next update.
Cool, so it continues the alignment of year of release with internal setting.
Cool, so it continues the alignment of year of release with internal setting.
So when we watch Spider-Man Homecoming, we are supposed to now mentally change the "8 years later" tag to "4 years later", and the "2 months later" becomes "6 months later". Sorry if I missed it, but is there any reason why Civil War can't take place in August instead of April, so that the two months later tag still works? I noticed the NBA finals things are about two months after Civil War, that doesn't have anything to do with Civil War's placement, does it? Has it actually been stated that the NBA clips are canon?
Not much can be done about explaining the 8 years later tag, I know. In Iron Man 2, the "6 months later" is now explained away as being a couple of years, THEN 6 months after that, correct? Speaking of Iron Man 2, the kid that's supposed to be young Peter Parker, I think works better with him being 5 years older (2011 - 2016) in Homecoming. He looks to be about 10 years old. Not sure why Sony/ Marvel thought Peter couldn't be a 15 year old kid in 10th grade only 4 years after Avengers. Did they think we'd wonder why an 11 year old who eventually becomes Spidey didn't join the battle? Also, Liz's drawing in the opening could have easily been done by her 11 year old self.
As far as the dialogue, how did they expect us to think that Happy's "I've had this ring since 2008" (Iron Man, which was about 8 years ago) and Toomes' "They've left us alone for 8 years" (Avengers), to both "fit in"? Is there any "in universe" explanation for Toomes' "8 years" comment? Everything else, including "..you quit band 6 weeks ago" seems to fit just fine with our October, 2016 date.
Not much can be done about explaining the 8 years later tag, I know. In Iron Man 2, the "6 months later" is now explained away as being a couple of years, THEN 6 months after that, correct? Speaking of Iron Man 2, the kid that's supposed to be young Peter Parker, I think works better with him being 5 years older (2011 - 2016) in Homecoming. He looks to be about 10 years old. Not sure why Sony/ Marvel thought Peter couldn't be a 15 year old kid in 10th grade only 4 years after Avengers. Did they think we'd wonder why an 11 year old who eventually becomes Spidey didn't join the battle? Also, Liz's drawing in the opening could have easily been done by her 11 year old self.
As far as the dialogue, how did they expect us to think that Happy's "I've had this ring since 2008" (Iron Man, which was about 8 years ago) and Toomes' "They've left us alone for 8 years" (Avengers), to both "fit in"? Is there any "in universe" explanation for Toomes' "8 years" comment? Everything else, including "..you quit band 6 weeks ago" seems to fit just fine with our October, 2016 date.
The dates in the paper in Lagos and the date on the Fedex Box at the end gives us the dates to work with for Civil War
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DIrishB
The Timeline Guy
Basically. We'll see how the official timeline thats supposed to be released treats it all.
As Zpdedoda mentioned, there are specific dates utilized in Civil War, one on newspaper towards beginning showing the film begins in late March, 2016 (the scenes set in Lagos), and ends in mid April, 2016 (based on the date shown on the Fedex package Cap sent to Tony).
No, those are just set when the NBA Finals occurred, since thats part of the plot of those shorts. Its not known if they're officially canon, but since they got RDJ, Favreau, and Holland to all reprise their roles and nothing in it conflicts with the established canon, its included.
Yes, we created our own retcon to explain the timeline/years passed between Iron Man 1 and 2 to make sense of the timeline mentions in the films. Idea is it took Vanko a couple years or so to build his Whiplash suit, which is logical given he doesn't have ready access to the funds, materials, tools, and advanced tech Tony did once he returned and built the second Iron Man suit (after building first one in the cave), thus it took him longer. If the official timeline gives us specific years once its released, I'll do everything possible to conform this one to it.
Yeah, basically.
This is how I rationalized it as well. It's also possible Liz is slightly younger than Peter (even by just a few months) meaning she might've even been 10 years old during events of Avengers, in terms of the drawing (could see a 10 year old doing that).
There really isn't a way to make the tags or dialogue fit, short of retconning placement of Avengers to 2010, which creates a number of problems on the TV side of the universe, specifically Agents of SHIELD.
selfishmisery
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They should have left that out, or had a line from her father about how Liz was never the best artist even at age 13. He could still admire the drawing since his daughter drew it.
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I'll play devil's advocate for a moment regarding the timeline.
Most timeline information given in dialogue in the movies can be assumed to be rounded to the nearest fifth or tenth:
-In Iron Man 2, Tony says his parents have been dead for almost 20 years. This can be anywhere between 18 and 20 years (meaning the film takes place somewhere between 2009 and 2011).
-In The Winter Soldier, Cap says he's 95 years old. This can be anywhere between 93 and 97 years (meaning the film takes place somewhere between 2011 and 2015/2016).
-In Homecoming, Cap says he was frozen for 65 years. This can be anywhere between 63 and 67 years (meaning the first Captain America movie's present-day scenes take place somewhere between 2008 and 2012).
These lines aren't necessarily estimations of years in the context of the individual movies, but the people making the official timeline could potentially handwave errors by saying the characters rounded up the years. Cap being 95 may be more precise though, depending on whether he's been keeping track of his actual, chronological age.
The dates given in props may also be subject to being ignored or retconned for the official timeline, since unlike dialogue or onscreen timestamps saying what year it is, props are mostly just background details that are unlikely to be noticed by audiences, and can therefore be more easily ignored if the filmmakers are going with a sliding timescale.
The reason I'm saying this is because most of the movies don't actually have an explicit confirmation of what year they are set in.
Captain America: The First Avenger has timestamps showing it takes place in the 1940s, Iron Man 3 is 13 years after New Year's 1999/2000 and both Guardians movies have timestamps saying "26 years after 1988/34 years after 1980", giving them the precise setting of 2014.
But in the other movies?
-Ant-Man: The prologue is set in 1989. Then it cuts to "Present Day", but it doesn't say if it's 2015/26 years later.
-Civil War: The prologue is set in 1991. Then it cuts to "Present Day", but it doesn't say if it's 2016/25 years later.
All "Present Day" really means is that the movie doesn't take place too far in the past nor too far into the future.
Unless you're actively searching for background details/props that are only seen for a split second, most people aren't really going to notice if, say, The Avengers or Civil War are retconned to take place in any other year than 2012 or 2016, since there isn't anything in those movies, in big letters on the foreground, saying what year they are set in.
On the other hand, if Guardians 1 and 2 are retconned to take place in any other year than 2014, it's more likely to be noticed, since the movies explicitly show timestamps telling us it's 2014.
In conclusion, really, "8 years later" doesn't actually contradict much of anything in the movies, besides it being both 8 years after Iron Man and after The Avengers. Props showing the year are rarely shown onscreen in the movies either, or at least in a really noticeable way.
The only problem is Agents of SHIELD giving explicit years for whenever it (or The Avengers) is set, due to a lack of communication between the people working on the movies and the people working on the TV shows. If it wasn't for that, there would really be no problem with having a sliding timescale for the movies.
Most timeline information given in dialogue in the movies can be assumed to be rounded to the nearest fifth or tenth:
-In Iron Man 2, Tony says his parents have been dead for almost 20 years. This can be anywhere between 18 and 20 years (meaning the film takes place somewhere between 2009 and 2011).
-In The Winter Soldier, Cap says he's 95 years old. This can be anywhere between 93 and 97 years (meaning the film takes place somewhere between 2011 and 2015/2016).
-In Homecoming, Cap says he was frozen for 65 years. This can be anywhere between 63 and 67 years (meaning the first Captain America movie's present-day scenes take place somewhere between 2008 and 2012).
These lines aren't necessarily estimations of years in the context of the individual movies, but the people making the official timeline could potentially handwave errors by saying the characters rounded up the years. Cap being 95 may be more precise though, depending on whether he's been keeping track of his actual, chronological age.
The dates given in props may also be subject to being ignored or retconned for the official timeline, since unlike dialogue or onscreen timestamps saying what year it is, props are mostly just background details that are unlikely to be noticed by audiences, and can therefore be more easily ignored if the filmmakers are going with a sliding timescale.
The reason I'm saying this is because most of the movies don't actually have an explicit confirmation of what year they are set in.
Captain America: The First Avenger has timestamps showing it takes place in the 1940s, Iron Man 3 is 13 years after New Year's 1999/2000 and both Guardians movies have timestamps saying "26 years after 1988/34 years after 1980", giving them the precise setting of 2014.
But in the other movies?
-Ant-Man: The prologue is set in 1989. Then it cuts to "Present Day", but it doesn't say if it's 2015/26 years later.
-Civil War: The prologue is set in 1991. Then it cuts to "Present Day", but it doesn't say if it's 2016/25 years later.
All "Present Day" really means is that the movie doesn't take place too far in the past nor too far into the future.
Unless you're actively searching for background details/props that are only seen for a split second, most people aren't really going to notice if, say, The Avengers or Civil War are retconned to take place in any other year than 2012 or 2016, since there isn't anything in those movies, in big letters on the foreground, saying what year they are set in.
On the other hand, if Guardians 1 and 2 are retconned to take place in any other year than 2014, it's more likely to be noticed, since the movies explicitly show timestamps telling us it's 2014.
In conclusion, really, "8 years later" doesn't actually contradict much of anything in the movies, besides it being both 8 years after Iron Man and after The Avengers. Props showing the year are rarely shown onscreen in the movies either, or at least in a really noticeable way.
The only problem is Agents of SHIELD giving explicit years for whenever it (or The Avengers) is set, due to a lack of communication between the people working on the movies and the people working on the TV shows. If it wasn't for that, there would really be no problem with having a sliding timescale for the movies.
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DIrishB
The Timeline Guy
Yup. Its just a matter of waiting to see how the official timeline works out. If they ever do release it I'll follow it and make adjustments as necessary.
Even SHIELD wised up to not setting dates down in the last series when the flashbacks with Eli were just listed as something like "A while ago"
DIrishB
The Timeline Guy
Yeah, this is true, least in regards to the flashbacks, but the show very specifically dated when present day events of Season 4 occur due to reference to age of Mack's daughter/her birthday.
DIrishB
The Timeline Guy
Updated for Inhumans 1x06 and Thor - Ragnarok Prelude #3-4 (which adapted Thor - The Dark World), so timeline is completely up to date until next week's episode of Inhumans airs.
DIrishB
The Timeline Guy
The fact Thor - Ragnarok occurs two years after AoU is again reiterated in this interview with Waikiti (discussing the Hulk's growing intelligence):
He's obviously referring to Banner staying in Hulk form for a majority or entirety of the two years between Age of Ultron and Thor - Ragnarok.
Dallas Kinard
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Can anyone who's seen Thor 3 tell us how the film lines up with GOTG Vol 2 and Doctor Strange?
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RocketRacoon
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Well the film states that Age of Ultron was 2 years ago so that puts it in 2017 (assuming that Age of Ultron is in 2015). GOTG Vol. 2 is in 2014 so Ragnarok is 3 years after that. There is no reference to GOTG Vol. 2, however. We see that Doctor Strange's powers have improved quite a bit and that he's made it his task to track beings of interest in the cosmos which shows he's been busy. There are no references that say how long it has been since Doctor Strange's film, however.
It's best to just assume that Ragnarok takes place in November 2017 until we get evidence later on that suggests otherwise.
It's best to just assume that Ragnarok takes place in November 2017 until we get evidence later on that suggests otherwise.
