The Marvel timeline is about to get even tougher to follow. Avengers: Doomsday sees multiverses colliding, and promises you'll need to know at least most of the 38 MCU movies and dozen-plus shows before this December.
But don't get lost in Marvel Studios' grand design. Over the years, we've watched every single movie and TV show produced by Marvel Studios and categorized it into one comprehensive timeline down below. Our guide below is up to date with everything, up to and including Spider-Man: Brand New Day. We've also recently had some insight into where Marvel's next project VisionQuest falls, which we detail below.
So, for all you need to know, read on for our complete guide to the Marvel timeline. For more, check out our guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order, or see our roundup of all the upcoming Marvel movies.
Marvel timeline: 1931-1995
- Captain America: The First Avenger (1943-45)
- One Shot: Agent Carter (1944)
- Agent Carter season 1 (1946)
- Agent Carter season 2 (1947)
- Fantastic Four: First Steps (Earth-828, 1960s)
- Captain Marvel (1995)
The early parts of the Marvel timeline are relatively simple. The tale of Steve Rogers does, admittedly, take place partly in 2011 thanks to the First Avenger's post-credits scene. Yet the vast majority of the story takes place during World War 2 in 1943-1945, so we've included it here for clarity's sake (this will become a running theme). It appears that's a period we'll also revisit if the first Avengers: Doomsday trailer is any indication.
Both seasons of Agent Carter take place after that. Then, some 50 years later, Captain Marvel crashes into Blockbuster and meets Nick Fury. After that, there’s a big time gap until Iron Man shows up.
And what about Fantastic Four: First Steps? We know it takes place on Earth-828, but its date is never made clear. Given the '60s look throughout, we can safely assume it took place in that decade. Disney Plus has it at the end of the MCU timeline but, for now, we're leaving it off the list to avoid confusion.
Eyes of Wakanda also goes further back in the Marvel timeline with several plot beats set from 1260 BC to 1896 AD, meaning it's one of the earliest projects chronologically alongside the early exploits of the Eternals.
Marvel timeline: 2008-2012
- Iron Man (2008)
- Iron Man 2 (2010)
- The Incredible Hulk (2010)
- One Shot: The Consultant (2010)
- One Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer (2010)
- Thor (2010)
- Avengers (2012)
- One Shot: Item 47 (2012)
This is where things in the Marvel timeline begin to ramp up a bit. Iron Man, takes place in 2008, and Iron Man comes two years later. The sequel, plus The Incredible Hulk and Thor take place that same week.
Tucked in-between the Jade Giant’s solo movie and Thor’s arrival on Earth, however, are a pair of One Shots (which were very in vogue at Marvel during the early 2010s and meant to be an added incentive for fans to buy the DVDs). Of course, Avengers tops it all off with the Battle of New York in 2012.
Marvel timeline: 2013-2015
- Iron Man 3 (2013)
- One Shot: All Hail the King (2013)
- Thor: The Dark World (2013)
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
- Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (2014)
- I Am Groot (2014)
- Daredevil season 1 (2014)
- Jessica Jones season 1 (2015)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
- Ant-Man (2015)
- Daredevil season 2 (2015)
- Luke Cage season 1 (2015)
Are you sitting comfortably? The All Hail the King One Shot comes several months after the events of Iron Man 3, firmly placing it in 2013.
Guardians of the Galaxy and its sequel, Vol. 2, take place in 2014, immediately after each other. Meanwhile, Daredevil season 1 also takes place that year.
From there, it’s a fairly straightforward run to the end of the 2015: Ant-Man, Jessica Jones season 1, Daredevil season 2, Luke Cage season 1.
Marvel timeline: 2016
- Captain America: Civil War (2016)
- Iron Fist season 1 (2016)
- The Defenders (2016)
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (2016)
- The Punisher season 1 (2016)
- Black Widow (2016)
- Doctor Strange (2016-2017)
As you can tell, 2016 was quite a wild ride in the Marvel universe. The Marvel timeline, though, is pretty easy to follow.
Spider-Man: Homecoming did its level best to mess up the MCU timeline, but it’s definitely in 2016, as explained by the director.
On the Marvel Netflix side of things, meanwhile, Iron Fist season 1 introduces the last of the Defenders, who then team up later that year in The Defenders. The Punisher season 1 takes place after all of those street-level shenanigans have concluded. Doctor Strange, of course, isn’t bound by time. His story starts in 2016 and continues into 2017. Speaking of which…
Marvel timeline: 2017-2018
- Black Panther (2017)
- Jessica Jones season 2 (2017)
- Luke Cage season 2 (2017)
- Iron Fist season 2 (2017)
- Daredevil season 3 (2017)
- The Punisher season 2 (2017)
- Jessica Jones season 3 (2017)
- Thor: Ragnarok (2017-2018)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
- Avengers: Infinity War (2017-2018)
This is it. The year of the Snap.
The Marvel Netflix shows are much of a muchness at this point, though Luke Cage season 2 definitely comes before Iron Fist season 3, and Daredevil season 3 landing a little later on the timeline makes a bit more sense thematically.
The Black Widow movie may be part of Marvel Phase 4, but it's actually tucked in-between Civil War and Infinity War on the timeline. As the third Avengers movie ends in 2018, it's a safe guess to predict that Natasha Romanoff's standalone movie takes place in 2017.
Black Panther is perhaps the hardest to place. The death of T'Challa's father in Civil War is still raw by the time his movie rolls around but, according to Marvel's own official timeline to mark the ten-year anniversary of the MCU, Black Panther is set in 2017, not 2016. Send your complaints to Kevin Feige.
Finally, when it comes to Ant-Man and the Wasp and Thor: Ragnarok, both take place immediately before Infinity War, so can be watched in either order. Ant-Man and the Wasp’s post-credits scene, though, runs simultaneously alongside Thanos’ Snap, while Ragnarok’s post-credits only take us to the beginning of Infinity War. Yes, that’s confusing. Thor: Ragnarok before Ant-Man and the Wasp is probably your best bet.
Marvel timeline: 2018-2028
- Avengers: Endgame (2018-2023)
- WandaVision (2023)
- Loki (Sort of 2023, sort of 2012)
- Loki season 2 (sort of 2023)
- Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings (2024)
- Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2024)
- Spider-Man: Far From Home (2024)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (2024)
- Eternals (2024)
- Hawkeye (2024)
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2024)
- Moon Knight (2025)
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2025)
- Echo (2025)
- She-Hulk (2025)
- Ms. Marvel (2025)
- The Marvels (2025)
- Thor: Love and Thunder (2025)
- Ironheart (2025)
- Werewolf By Night (2025)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (Christmas 2025)
- Wonder Man (2025-2027)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2026)
- Guardians of the Galaxy 3 (2026)
- Secret Invasion (2026)
- Agatha All Along (2026)
- Daredevil Born Again: Season 1 (2026-27)
- Captain America: Brave New World (2026-27)
- Thunderbolts* (2027)
- The Punisher: One Last Kill (2027)
- Daredevil: Born Again season 2 (2027)
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2028)
- VisionQuest (2028)
Avengers: Endgame has a clear five-year-jump after the Snap (dubbed "the Blip" in Far From Home), meaning much of the movie takes place in 2023, five years after the end of Infinity War. WandaVision sees Scarlet Witch trap an entire town in a force field following the death of Vision. Despite the sitcom antics taking place seemingly in multiple time periods, this all happens post-Endgame.
Loki, meanwhile, takes place outside of our conception of time. The primary Loki Variant of the show is technically snatched from 2012. But theorists hold that Kang the Conqueror witnesses the timeline being broken – therefore unleashing the multiverse – just as Wanda looks into the Darkhold during the WandaVision finale. Loki really is a confusing one – but if you're tackling the MCU, this is probably the place it makes sense to watch, otherwise you'll be waiting years for more multiverse shenanigans. Loki season 2 follows on immediately from the end of season 1, but, again, it's all outside of time.
From here, the Marvel timeline is a confusing mess of hearsay, director's quotes muddying things up, and Marvel Studios trying to rectify the mess it put itself in.
Ms. Marvel definitely takes place after Endgame, but beyond that specifics are hard to pin down, though Disney Plus puts it post-Moon Knight. Meanwhile, She-Hulk head writer Jessica Gao previously said that the show takes place shortly after Shang-Chi, so that puts the legal comedy in 2023, but the show goes on to reference No Way Home, placing it later than that. The official Disney Plus timeline has it as after Moon Knight but before Ms. Marvel, so we'll stick to that for now. See? It's confusing.
Then we have Deadpool and Wolverine, which is full of separate timelines as we bring the Fox films into the MCU with Hugh Jackman leading the charge. If you watched all the X-Men movies in order, then you know that this film has to before Logan in 2029. We also know that before Deadpool starts jumping through time and space, the movie begins in March 2024 – after the events of Endgame but before Spider-Man: Far From Home.
As for Thor: Love and Thunder, we know that the movie takes place eight years after Thor and Jane broke up. The breakup was referenced in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok, so we can estimate that Love and Thunder is, therefore, set around 2025 or 2026. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, meanwhile, takes place at the same time as Love and Thunder and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The movie is set six years after Nakia left Wakanda, following Thanos' arrival in Infinity War. Nakia most likely spent some time deliberating her departure and considering Love and Thunder, we can put Wakanda Forever in 2025, along with Quantumania.
There's some slight confusion with Quantumania, however, as Cassie Lang mentions being six when Yellowjacket attacked her, as seen in the first Ant-Man movie. That would make her only 16 in Quantumania, which doesn't seem to be the case, so we can assume this is either a small retcon or an oversight, leaving Ant-Man 3 in 2026.
Then there are two more Marvel specials, which seemingly take place in 2025. Firstly, there's Werewolf By Night, which may be emulating some of the best monster movies of the 1920s and 1930s but actually takes place in modern times – at least, as far as we can tell. The key bit of evidence is a carafe of coffee seen in the background of one scene, which looks modern.
Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is set after the Holiday Special, which would place it somewhere in (very) late 2025 or in 2026. On Twitter, James Gunn indicated there are probably "a couple years" between Endgame and the third Guardians movie. Since Endgame finishes in 2023, that lines up with our own placement.
Secret Invasion, meanwhile, is set after She-Hulk, as confirmed by Marvel's vice president of production and development, Jonathan Schwartz: "It's present-day MCU, is what we're calling it. So, it exists along the timeline that the shows come out in. So, post-She-Hulk, post-Blip, right at this exact present day in the MCU." (H/T The Direct) That would place Secret Invasion in 2025, but the official Disney Plus timeline has it post-Guardians 3, so the show could potentially take place in 2026, too.
Agatha All Along, also takes place in 2026, with a Westview resident confirming to the titular witch that she's been trapped in the Scarlet Witch's illusion for the last three years. At the end of WandaVision, which takes place in 2023, Wanda puts a spell on Agatha that causes her to think she actually is nosy neighbor Agnes O'Connor – though she breaks free of the glamour in Agatha All Along episode 1. This is more or less confirmed when a now 16-year-old Billy mentions in episode 4 that a lot happened to him when he was 13. That would mean Agatha gathers up a coven and attempts to walk the Witches' Road in 2026.
Captain America: Brave New World takes place two years after the events of Falcon and the Winter Soldier, meaning it begins in 2026. However, given it skips five months ahead after Ross' election, we suspect the bulk of the action may actually take place in 2027.
Daredevil: Born Again is one of Disney Plus' latest series and has been confirmed to be a follow-up chronologically from the last Phase 5 story. It seems that the show's prologue begins around 2025 when Daredevil is still active, before skipping ahead a year to 2026. It's at this point that Wilson Fisk becomes mayor of New York, welcoming crowds on New Year's Eve, which is presumably on the eve of 2027. So yeah, Daredevil's timeline is largely in late 2026 and mainly in 2027.
Thunderbolts* picks up after Captain America: Brave New World, which we know thanks to a reference to Red Hulk and Sam Wilson building the new Avengers. That puts the movie in 2027, too.
Ironheart, meanwhile, steps back in time slightly to not long after the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in 2025. Riri's standalone story in Chicago takes place likely months after unwittingly being brought into a Wakandan conflict.
Wonder Man takes place beginning in late 2025 with the initial Wonder Man auditions before, presumably, taking around a year of production before Wonder Man's premiere in 2026/2027. Daredevil: Born Again season 2 also takes place in 2027, if you're keeping track, with one-off special The Punisher: One Last Kill occurring "before and during" the events of that season.
Then, most recently, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is set 4 years after the events of No Way Home, putting it furthest along the Marvel timeline in 2028. By the end of the movie, no major time jumps seemingly happen. The Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credit scene does show Spider-Man in a new location, but no timeframe was given. It was recently revealed that VisionQuest takes place around the same time as Brand New Day. We don't know what happens in the show yet, so we'll have to see if it fills in any blanks before Doomsday.
As for Agents of Shield, which is maddeningly obtuse in its divergence from the Marvel timeline, they pretty much gave up on any semblance of being in the same universe as the MCU movies. Season 7 goes on a mad trip through time, heading back into the '40s, '50s, and '60s. The team then pop back into 2018, and it appears the finale ends in 2019, one year after the events of the sixth season (a time they're eventually able to return to). This all happens, seemingly, on a different timeline, one where Thanos never fully invaded Earth.
Some fans have reasoned that this could mean the non-Disney Plus TV shows happen on a completely different Marvel timeline to the movies – which is probably the easiest way of looking at it.
What about the Spider-Man movies?
Thanks to Spider-Man: No Way Home, the Spider-Man universe of movies are connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's films do not, however, take place on the same Marvel timeline as the main MCU. They are stories told across the multiverse, and therefore do not fit into the core MCU timeline. If you do want a working order to watch those films, then check out our guide to how to watch the Spider-Man movies in order.
Equally, the Spider-Verse movies also exist outside of the main MCU timeline too, which is why we haven't included them here. On that note, the 2026 series Spider-Noir is another example of this. The Sony Pictures TV and Amazon MGM co-production may take place in the 1930s, but that isn't the 1930s of this universe.
What about What If...?
What If...? is difficult to pin down, mainly because, like the non-Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, it's set in the multiverse, and each episode takes a different Marvel movie as its jumping-off point. It gets its own section of the timeline for that reason, and the first season has ranged from an alternate version of Captain America: The First Avenger up to the Avengers: Infinity War era. This is also true with its recent spin-off, Marvel Zombies, which recently got its own series after a What If...? episode. Both shows are alternate timelines to the main Marvel canon.
What about Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man?
Animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man takes place on an alternate timeline, with the show not being considered MCU canon. We therefore haven't included it in the above MCU timeline for that very reason. But if you are interested in when it takes place, it follows Peter Parker as he is bitten by a spider gaining his superpowers, then finding his feet as Spider-Man as he fights crime on the street. Instead of Tony Stark, it is Norman Osborn who becomes Peter's mentor here which puts a new twist on the classic tale.
What about Eyes of Wakanda?
It's pretty easy to pin down where Eyes of Wakanda falls on the Marvel timeline, but the issue is that it takes us way back in time. 3,000 years ago, in fact. The show follows Wakandan spies known as the Hatut Zaraze as they carry out covert missions across the world throughout history. Episode 1 kicks off the action in 1260 BC, during the Bronze Age, then we fast forward to the Trojan War in 1200 BC. Episode 3 jumps forward over 2,000 years to the year 1400 AD, before episode 4 takes us forward to the Italo-Ethiopian War in 1896. The very end of episode 4 takes place (almost) in the present day, tying all the events together and linking the show back to the wider MCU timeline.
What about X-Men '97?
Though X-Men '97 is produced by Marvel Studios, it sits outside of the sacred timeline as it is a continuation of the 90s animated series, which abruptly wrapped up in 1997. So don't expect the mutants of Marvel's ongoing animated series to cross over into live-action at any point, as many already have live-action counterparts (most notably, Hugh Jackman's irreplaceable Wolverine). Though with Marvel establishing a multiverse back in 2016's Doctor Strange, it's not a stretch to think of X-Men '97 unfolding on its own timeline in the Marvel multiverse. X-Men '97 season 2 actually makes things even more complicated in this respect by unfolding across three distinct time periods in past, present and future. Our heads hurt just thinking about it.
For more superhero goodness, check out our piece on all the new superhero movies coming to cinemas and streaming over the next few years.
