As part of the celebration of a decade’s worth of successful filmmaking, Titan has published the Marvel Studios: The First 10 Years sourcebook. Aside from photos, interviews, and other new detailing surrounding the franchise, the book also includes an official timeline for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While plotting has been mostly tight for the films, fans have noticed a few discrepancies – especially regarding Spider-Man: Homecoming- which the new timeline aims to resolve. Besides righting a few wrongs, such a timeline should also be very useful when piecing together the perfect chronological order in which to watch the movies and even the shows. 

The timeline in the sourcebook is rather extensive, detailing key events from the creation of the Marvel universe to the moment that Thanos blinked half of it out of existence, but the most important part for our purposes is the breakdown of which year each film takes place within the shared narrative. After all, viewers were left a little dumbstruck when Spider-Man: Homecoming claimed an eight year time jump after the events of The Avengers, which would have meant it took place even after Avengers: Infinity War.

Prepare to feast your eyes on the true chronology of the MCU, and don’t forget to point out any other instances of the timeline not lining up.

The one that started it all… Just a little later than you thought.

1943-45: Captain America: The First Avenger
2010: Iron Man
2011: Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor
2012: The Avengers, Iron Man 3
2013: Thor: The Dark World
2014: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
2015: Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Ant-Man
2016: Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming
2016 – 2017: Doctor Strange

2017: Black Panther, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War

Of course, this raises some new questions, such as why Iron Man takes place two years after it came out or why it took T’Challa a year after his father’s death to be officially named King. Plus Ant-Man and the Wasp was not officially included, but must take place concurrently with Avengers: Infinity War, which means we saw Scott only one year into his house arrest. But these thoughts aside, it’s nice to have a blueprint from which we can continue to build our headcanons about the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

What are your feelings on the timeline? Is it perfect, or do you want to tweak it further? Comment below to let us know!