Marvel will release an official timeline for MCU after Spider-Man: Homecoming fiasco

Remember when Spider-Man: Homecoming came out this summer and a few people (Polygon included) pointed out that the film broke the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) timeline?

So does Marvel Studios chief, Kevin Feige. Feige told CinemaBlend that after people kept pointing out the believed inaccuracies with the current MCU timeline, he wanted to set the record straight. Feige reiterated, as he’s done in past interviews, that with the exception of specific movies like the Guardians of the Galaxy films, which are dated in a precise manner, Marvel tries to keep timeline details scarce.

“I think there's a presumption, 'Well if the movie came out in November 2017, it must take place in November 2017' — which is not the case,” Feige said.

Feige compared what Marvel is about to do to what Lucasfilm did for Star Wars. Everything is centered around the Battle of Yavin in Star Wars: Episode IV, meaning that in the timeline, things exist either before or after that moment. For Marvel, the Battle of Yavin moment is when Tony Stark announces to the world that he’s Iron Man in Iron Man.

“Everything will be years after that, years before that — to the Big Bang, which is where it starts,” Feige said. “It will look very cool and complex like Doc Brown on a chalkboard by the time it's published.”

This isn’t the first time that Marvel is going to release an official timeline, either. Just before The Avengers was released in 2012, Marvel issued a photo correcting a popular thought thread that suggested Iron Man, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2 and The Avengers all took place in the same year.

Marvel

That wasn’t the case. Iron Man had been retconned to take place in 2010, making it the starting point for the series, while Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk and Captain America: The First Avenger were confirmed to all take place in 2011. The event was known as “Nick Fury’s Big Week.” The Avengers is believed by all to take place in the year it was released, 2012.

Feige didn’t expand on when the timeline would be released or just how detailed it would get, but we’ll finally get an answer to the age old question: what year, exactly, does Spider-Man: Homecoming take place in?

Marvel’s next movie, Thor: Ragnarok, will be released on Nov. 3, 2017. The film takes place two years after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron.