Anna Daniels
The official timeline in the MCU has followed logic for the most part, other than a few exceptions. Some people might find it kind of odd the post-Endgame time in the upcoming Marvel/Disney+ shows all take place in 2023. Having them take place several years from where we are in reality does give a bit of a surreal predictory edge to them.
Trying to piece together Avengers events from our past, however, is still giving MCU fans headaches. One of the most confusing is the “eight years later” designation said at the beginning of 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming.
It confused fans so much, Kevin Feige was interrogated over it in some interviews. According to him, it all makes sense through a collective timeline.
Apparently ‘The Avengers’ events never took place in 2012
Much of the timeline arguments started through a recent Reddit thread when someone posted asking for genuine criticism of what the MCU did wrong. While the initial poster said Marvel making their TV shows non-canon was their biggest mistake, others saw further issues to gripe over.
One mention stood out: The “eight years later” problem in Homecoming. Many fans are still perplexed the movie said this when it has no logical way to line up with the events of 2012’s The Avengers.
Being literal with the timeline, though, is something Kevin Feige wants to make sure fans all know is never set in stone. In an interview he did with Cinema Blend back in 2017 during press junkets for Thor: Ragnarok, he was pressed by the interviewer (Eric Eisenberg) about the above timeline confusion.
He noted that what fans assume is a specific date for a certain Avengers event is not always considered canon. Case in point on this is the Battle of New York, which most thought took place in 2012 when it may not have.
The events of ‘The Avengers’ perhaps occurred before 2012
Feige made it clear in his above interview that when a MCU movie releases says nothing about the timeline of the events unfolding. The “eight years later” narrative might not even mean Homecoming events took place in 2017 either.
If they did, then all events in The Avengers had to have happened in 2010 rather than 2012. Not as if any of it really matters to casual fans. Yet, to the loyal fans who want everything to line up so they make sense, they still ponder whether this was a mistake by the writing team.
Is there any truth to the idea maybe the “eight years later” set up was a miscalculation not caught by the writers or Feige? What if they had to fill in afterward to cover for the error?
No doubt many would argue against this case considering how intricately plotted all the MCU films are. Fans immediately wanted to see what Feige promised: A grand-scale timeline representing when all MCU events occurred.
Where is that big MCU timeline?
During the above Cinema Blend interview, Feige said this:
“All of that debate has made us go, ‘Okay, at some point, I’m not sure exactly when, we’re going to publish a timeline and see what it all is.’ It wasn’t meant to flummox anybody exactly, and I’m not sure I’d do it again the same way, but it does all connect to where we placed it.”
A year after he promised this timeline, it finally appeared in a book called Marvel Studios: The First 10 Years. In the book, there is a complete rundown of years when certain Avengers events supposedly take place.
Maybe this was further cover-up for their mistake since various prior MCU movie events are moved up to years different from what was assumed before.
This may need some revision later with Black Widow being a flashback movie, plus The Eternals being much the same. Other future MCU movies may also look back, potentially clashing with the above dates and Reddit filling up with new threads basking in confusion.
Written by: Cheat
