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Spider-Man: Homecoming answers a lot of questions fans may have over the character’s involvement in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but one question remains stubbornly open.
[Warning: The following will contain a small spoiler for Spider-Man: Homecoming.]
The crux of the problem Homecoming presents — we’ll keep vague on the details until closer to the movie’s release date as a way of not spoiling too much — is about its timeline. We’ve been debating it for quite some time in Polygon’s office, but a new interview with Sony producer Amy Pascal and director Jon Watts with Coming Soon has cleared a few things up.
Homecoming ends with Peter Parker in his sophomore year and, according to Watts, the sequel to the film will pick up right where Avengers 4 leaves off. That means that while quite a few years will have passed between the release date of Homecoming and its sequel, the events of the story will take place shortly after.
Just how soon will Avengers 4 pick up after Homecoming? According to Pascal, mere minutes.
“What I think we should focus on is this Spider-Man who started in Civil War and then has this movie, and then will be in the Avengers movie,” Pascal said. “And we are starting now the next one which will start a few minutes after Avengers 4 wraps as a story.”
All of which theoretically means that Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4 should take place right after the events of Homecoming — and Homecoming’s sequel will take place right after that. This is where it gets confusing, however, because of timeline updates that were seemingly introduced in Homecoming. When you compare dates given in the movie, and what is generally supposed about the timeline of Spider-Man’s appearance in Captain America: Civil War, Homecoming is three years out of sync with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline. Polygon has reached out to Sony and Marvel for clarification and will update when we get more information.
Spider-Man: Homecoming will be released on July 7. Homecoming’s sequel will be released in 2019.
