Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline

[ToTheNines]

Been working on a Marvel timeline for a while now. It's really more of a viewing order, since there's so much flashing back to different decades, centuries and milleniums. Any way here goes.

2008 -

Iron Man

2011 -

Iron Man 2
Thor
The Incredible Hulk

2012 -

Captain America: The First Avenger
The Avengers
Iron Man 3

2013 -

Agents of SHIELD ep. 1-7
Thor: The Dark World
Agents of SHIELD ep. 8-16
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Agents of SHIELD ep. 17-22

2014 -

Agents of SHIELD S2 ep. 1-3
Guardians of The Galaxy
Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2
Daredevil

2015 -

Jessica Jones
Agents of SHIELD S2 ep. 4-19
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Agents of SHIELD S2 ep. 20-22
Ant-Man
Agents of SHIELD S3 ep. 1-10
Daredevil S2
Luke Cage

2016 -

Agents of SHIELD S3 ep.11-19
Captain America: Civil War
Agents of SHIELD S3 ep. 20-22
Black Panther
Iron Fist
Spider-Man: Homecoming
The Defenders
The Punisher

2017 -

Doctor Strange
Agents of SHIELD S4
Inhumans
Thor: Ragnarok
Runaways
Agents of SHIELD S5

2018

Avengers: Infinity War

Comic book tie-ins:

Captain America: First Vengeance (before, during and after the WWII scenes in The First Avenger)
Iron Man: Security Measures (concurrently with Iron Man)
Iron Man 2: Agents of SHIELD (Who Made Who and Fresh Off The Farm are immediately after Iron Man. Proximity is right before Iron Man 2)
Iron Man 2: Public Identity(1 year after Iron Man, 2 years before Iron Man 2)
Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week (weaves a story that ties IM2, Thor and Hulk together. A must-read)
Avengers Prelude: Black Widow Strikes (couple months before The Avengers)
Thor: The Dark World Prelude and Iron Man 3 Prelude (both take place before, during and after The Avengers)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier Infinite Comic (takes place before The Winter Soldier)
GotG Infinite Comic "Dangerous Prey" (right after Thor: The Dark World)
GotG Prelude (before GotG)
Jessica Jones #1 (free digital-only mini comic. Right before Jessica Jones ep. 1)
Age of Ultron Prelude: This Scepter'd Isle (spans from the end of Winter Soldier to just before Age of Ultron)
Ant-Man - Scott Lang: Small Time #1 (right before Ant-Man. Flashbacks are sometime in 2012)
Ant-Man Prelude (takes place in the mid 1980's)
Civil War Infinite Comic (before Civil War)
Dr. Strange Prelude and Dr. Strange Infinite Comic (both before Dr. Strange)

A title in bold indicates what I personally recommend as essential reading material for MCU fans. You don't get the full picture without them.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Maybe I missed it, but I don't see anything marked with an "*".

Are none of the comic tie-ins essential? :trazz:

[TheSkeletonMan939]

Learn to read, Cylon! Skimming does you no good.

Also, Spidey before Strange? Why?

I'd personally put Strange somewhere between Avengers and Winter Soldier.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Learn to read, Cylon! Skimming does you no good.

Also, Spidey before Strange? Why?

I'd personally put Strange somewhere between Avengers and Winter Soldier.

There they are. My bad.

Just like the little shrimp in "Finding Nemo", I am ashamed. :tsad:

[ToTheNines]

The timeline seems to get screwy with Doctor Strange and the 2017 flicks, here are some notes for each upcoming movie and their current placement.

Doctor Strange (spoilers, obviously) takes place over a longish period of time. His accident occurrs January 2016 (seen on his watch), he gets to Nepal in January 2017 (seen on his watch again), and trains for long enough for it to be snowing again in NY by the end. Also the mid credits scene could indicate a late 2017 time frame.

Guardians Vol. 2 was confirmed by James Gunn to take place 2 months after the events of the first one.

Homecoming definitely takes place in September (hence the title), could be either 2016 or 2017. Right now I'm leaning towards 2016 since peter was supposed to be 15 in Civil War and this is his Sophomore Homecoming, so that adds up. We also know he gets caught in class watching the airport fight on Youtube, so I'm assuming it's recently released footage and not a year and a half old video.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

Doctor Strange (spoilers, obviously) takes place over a longish period of time. His accident occurrs January 2016 (seen on his watch), he gets to Nepal in January 2017 (seen on his watch again), and trains for long enough for it to be snowing again in NY by the end. Also the mid credits scene could indicate a late 2017 time frame.

?? Then why is Strange name-dropped in 2014 by the bald Hydra agent in 'Winter Soldier'?

[ToTheNines]

Maybe I missed it, but I don't see anything marked with an "*".

Are none of the comic tie-ins essential? :trazz:

They are hard to see. Gonna embolden them instead.

?? Then why is Strange name-dropped in 2014 by the bald Hydra agent in 'Winter Soldier'?

Kevin Feige explained it: https://www.google.com/amp/comicbook.com/marvel/amp/2016/09/27/details-behind-doctor-stranges-captain-america-winter-soldier-ea/

I still feel that it was a pretty ham-fisted easter egg, especially naming him next to the freaking Hulk lol. But he did also list random, nameless people, and we see the algorithm target some dude mowing his grass right before it targets Avengers Tower haha.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

Well that's goofy. :P

I guess Marvel is for the most part trying to keep their films constantly "present day", even if it doesn't make total sense in-universe. Kind of like Rocky.

[ToTheNines]

Also, a couple notes about the tv shows...

Shield season 1 should definitely be watched weaving and and out of its related movies. After that, the gaps I placed are only there to show passage of time. Seasons 2 and 3 should just be watched straight through with Ultron and Civil War stuck in where they belong, respectively.

Season 4 might mess up the timeline if they make a Doctor Strange reference. It begins 6 months after Civil War/Season 3 finale, that's basically in present day. Hopefully they can refrain from doing so. I think they'll be fine though, considering they're currently riding on the coattails of Ghost Rider anyways.

[ToTheNines]

Updated.

Trailers confirm that Homecoming picks up right after Civil War.

Added Iron Fist and judging from snow in Defenders set photos, have a good idea where it falls.

Further review of Doctor Strange shows it starting in January 2016, and returning to NYC/Fighting Dormammu in February 2017. Also cleaned up some Agents of SHIELD placement.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

The First Avenger should be in 2011; his body was recovered in the same week that IM2, Thor, and Hulk took place.

[ToTheNines]

Not so. It was just a couple weeks before Avengers.

[Andrew NDB]

Are none of the comic tie-ins essential? :trazz:

Chances any of those won't be ignored, steamrolled over or retconned by future movies or TV shows? Zero.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

Rats, my bad. I misremembered the 'Fury's Big Week' comic. :sweatdro:

[ToTheNines]

Chances any of those won't be ignored, steamrolled over or retconned by future movies or TV shows? Zero.

Hasn't really happened yet.

Rats, my bad. I misremembered the 'Fury's Big Week' comic. :sweatdro:

Yeah, I just read it again a few weeks ago. They find a Hydra plane during all that, but no Cap. Then the epilogue is "one year later" when he does turn up.

And I know you hated Whedon's Avengers, but if you ever watch again, it's pretty clear that he's been recently thawed out.

[sdp]

Is Agents of Shield specifically tied to all the movies? I plan to eventually watch everything before Avengers 3 It's going to be a mess if I have to watch Agents of shield like that. And man so many hours, I'm almost dreading Avengers 3 coming out. When the MCU started I used to re-watch every movie leading up to it, that like with Star Wars cannot happen anymore since there's just too many movies now, kind of sad actually.

[Andrew NDB]

Is Agents of Shield specifically tied to all the movies?

Yeah, way more so than anything on Netflix. Every time there's a new movie there's always some kind of nod on SHIELD. Samuel L. Jackson showed up at one point, Lady Sif in two episodes. Season 1 dealt with a lot of the Extremis stuff from Iron Man 3, and the second half was a direct continuation of Winter Soldier. And where season 4 ends (in space), I can kind of see how they might try and tie season 5 into Infinity War.

Agents of SHIELD rocks.

[ToTheNines]

Agents of SHIELD rocks.

Seconded!

@spd If you're doing a full MCU watch through... might as well start now lol.

The Netflix stuff is great, but really has nothing to do with the movies. They constantly make reference to Avengers 1, but that's it. Might as well skip them for now if you're feeling overwhelmed.

I'd say absolutely watch the first 2 seasons of Agents of SHIELD. Season one gets off to a bumby start, but eventually gets great. The Winter Soldier tie in is brilliant. Season 2 also leads you right into Age of Ultron, and is pretty solid throughout.

After that you can stop watching if you want, as all the following movie intertwining becomes anywhere from superficial to nonexistent. But you'd be doing yourself a disservice as seasons 3 & 4 are easily even better than the first two. And like Andrew said, season 5 might lead directly into Avengers 3 (and possibly Black Panther on the way).

[sdp]

I'm one of those people that have to see everything that's in continuity even if there aren't strong connections.

It's cool what Agents of Shield is doing but at the same time, it's going to be a mess to have a checklist every time I want to watch something. I think I can start my marathon in 2018 and still finish on time for Avengers 3. I haven't watched anything after Iron Man 3 so most of it will be new to me.

[Andrew NDB]

Season 3 is my favorite so far of SHIELD. We see a lot of the rebuilding and ultimate tearing down of Hydra. And learn a lot about its origins... and visit an alien world. And run into some Kree. The season finale was super powerful for me. Very poignant. Season 3 also sort of parallels Agent Carter season 2... what begins in Carter pays off in SHIELD.

Netflix, a lot of missed opportunities to make logical connections from the films. All they do is occasionally parrot off about "the incident."

[ToTheNines]

I'm one of those people that have to see everything that's in continuity even if there aren't strong connections.

It's cool what Agents of Shield is doing but at the same time, it's going to be a mess to have a checklist every time I want to watch something. I think I can start my marathon in 2018 and still finish on time for Avengers 3. I haven't watched anything after Iron Man 3 so most of it will be new to me.

If you say so. The movies will be a breeze, but if you're gonna watch all five seasons of Shield (110 episodes), Agent Carter (18 episodes), Inhumans (8 ) and all the Netflix stuff (by May 2018 will be... Jesus Christ 99 episodes), I'd start yesterday.

Agent Carter season 2, though... gag me. Total camp. Huge misstep after a rock solid first season. You can save 9 hours of your life by skipping that.

Season 3 is my favorite so far of SHIELD. We see a lot of the rebuilding and ultimate tearing down of Hydra. And learn a lot about its origins... and visit an alien world. And run into some Kree. The season finale was super powerful for me. Very poignant. Season 3 also sort of parallels Agent Carter season 2... what begins in Carter pays off in SHIELD.

Yup. When people ask about AOS I tell them come for the movie tie-ins (s1 and s2), stay for the excellent television (s3 and s4).

Although, Powers Boothe reprises his Avengers role in 3, and it was awesome.


Netflix, a lot of missed opportunities to make logical connections from the films. All they do is occasionally parrot off about "the incident."

I'm glad they finally started getting away from that with Iron Fist. It was getting so obnoxious.

[ToTheNines]

Updated. Defenders is Fall 2016, and interviews and footage have made it clear that Black Panther will be mere days after Civil War.

[ProphetofGanja]

So then based on what I've heard about the Infinity War trailer, Thor: Ragnarok will be the most current movie when it comes out

[ToTheNines]

So then based on what I've heard about the Infinity War trailer, Thor: Ragnarok will be the most current movie when it comes out

Correct. At least pretty close. Multiple interviews have corroborated the fact that Hulk has been on Sakaar for 2 years, which jives with Age of Ultron being in 2015.