AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR Director Says SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING's "8 Years Later" Time Jump Was Incorrect

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR Director Says SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING's "8 Years Later" Time Jump Was Incorrect

Spider-Man: Homecoming kicked off with a flashback to The Avengers before jumping eight years into the present day. Now, Joe Russo has addressed that apparent timeline inconsistency in the MCU...

News
By JoshWilding - Apr 22, 2018 12:04 AM EST
Filed Under: Avengers: Infinity War
Spider-Man: Homecoming kicked off with a flashback to Adrian Toomes and his crew cleaning up New York shortly after the Chitauri attack in The Avengers. After being fired by the government courtesy of Tony Stark's decision to form Damage Control, we then caught up with the character when he'd become The Vulture in the present day "8 Years Later." Fans quickly noticed the error made there. 

After all, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is supposed to play out in real-time and that would mean that Spider-Man: Homecoming took place in 2020 rather than 2017. During a recent interview/trivia session to promote Avengers: Infinity War (which you can check out in the player below), Joe Russo was asked, "What was the time gap between the events of Avengers and Spider-Man: Homecoming?" 
 
"Oh, it was eight years, I believe," he replied. "And it was quite controversial," the interview noted before Russo added: "Yes, it was a very incorrect eight years." The filmmaker doesn't elaborate on how much time really passed and he fails to address how the mistake will be dealt with (it probably won't) but it's clear now that even those working for Marvel realised they dropped the ball here.

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Kyos
Kyos - 4/22/2018, 1:05 AM
It still seems pretty much unthinkable that something so blatant would pass through every level of Marvel Studios scrutiny.
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 4/22/2018, 1:26 AM
@Kyos - similar to James breaking continuity. Maybe getting cocky or its the creative control feige allowing?
Origame
Origame - 4/22/2018, 4:55 AM
@Kyos - Every company makes mistakes. Wouldn't even say this is the worst example.
Matador
Matador - 4/22/2018, 7:14 AM
@Origame - Exactly,when I watched it it went over my head and enjoyed it for what it was; a comic book movie.
Origame
Origame - 4/22/2018, 8:01 AM
@Cayde6 - I know right? That's the whole issue with the cinematic universe model. It makes people focus more on what it means for the grander universe than what it is as it's own thing. A movie should ALWAYS be able to stand on it's own. Even when it's intended to be part of a much larger story. That's why Lord of the Rings worked so well as a trilogy and why the Hobbit failed utterly. One managed to make all 3 movies meaningful in their own right while telling parts of the bigger story while the other stretched one very short story out into a 3 part epic that none of the parts could act as their own thing.
PBIRD
PBIRD - 4/22/2018, 8:04 AM
@Kyos - it was such a dumb mistake
RocknRolla
RocknRolla - 4/22/2018, 10:17 AM
@PBIRD - not if Iron Man 1 Iron Man 2 an Avengers took place in 2008 then it makes sense
JonC
JonC - 4/22/2018, 10:34 AM
@Kyos - the fact that they acknowledge it was a mistake now makes it ok. at least the fans aren't trying to figure out how that 8 year gap would fit in thinking it wasn't intended as a mistake.
PBIRD
PBIRD - 4/22/2018, 3:31 PM
@RocknRolla - agreed, just read that brilliant break down from @ac1
cant deny that he's on to something
Luminus
Luminus - 4/23/2018, 2:27 AM
@Kyos - Every level of Marvel Studios scrutiny is still every level of HUMAN scrutiny.
kukurik
kukurik - 4/22/2018, 1:18 AM
So it should have been 5 years later? Outrageous!! *Rips up pile of Infinity War tickets :D
xinstituto
xinstituto - 4/22/2018, 5:52 AM
@kukurik - Actually 4 years from Avengers to Civil War and then the movie runs durring the second half of 2016.
Saga
Saga - 4/22/2018, 1:22 AM
What I want to know is the asgardian age thing. Thor was already known in legend before the first film and Odin clearly died of old age but what constitutes old age? If they age very slowly does that mean that child Thor was like 100 years old? If Loki is a frost giant why did he age as slowly as an asgardian? If they have advanced medical tech does that mean that asgardians only die by aging or severe physical trauma?


All the things I just asked are as stupid and pointless as getting upset over a small continuity error. Its just a movie, move on
Kyos
Kyos - 4/22/2018, 1:29 AM
@Saga - Asgardians age, and they die.
Floke
Floke - 4/22/2018, 1:35 AM
@Saga - you posted this while I was writing the sane time. Lol

That is such a minor thing, but still buggs me because it was such a bad choise. Why they did not have the frostgiant invasion to be the cause of last ice age is something I will never understand.
Floke
Floke - 4/22/2018, 1:38 AM
@Kyos - That is also weird. Bor was the first Aesir king... So Asgard came to be only about 10.000 years ago?
Kyos
Kyos - 4/22/2018, 1:43 AM
@Floke - I believe the first king was Buri, the father of Bor. But yeah, the Asgardian contributions to the timeline can be a tiny bit fishy.
Floke
Floke - 4/22/2018, 1:25 AM
Biggest time line error imo - 965 A.D.

The year the frostgiants battle Asgard on Earth and Odin finds Loki as an infant and Thor is still just a child.

At that time, the Norse mythology had already existed for hundreds of years, and Thor was already worshipped by norse and germanic tribes as a red bearded thundergod, and Loki did already exist in the mythos.. hundreds of years before they were born...?
WarnerBrother
WarnerBrother - 4/22/2018, 2:38 AM
@Floke -

The natural explanation would be Norse mythology existed on our Earth much further back in history
but in the MCU where Norse Gods actually exist, they existed later in the timeline.
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 4/22/2018, 2:52 AM
@WarnerBrother - That does work. It's not super satisfying, but it does work.
JacuzziJoe
JacuzziJoe - 4/22/2018, 6:21 AM
@Spock0Clock - Yeah, arguing the continuity of God's is like questioning aliens.

Avengers couldn't have happened because in the real world we don't learn about the Chitauri for another 4000 years.
TheAmazingSpiderDumb
TheAmazingSpiderDumb - 4/22/2018, 8:46 AM
@Floke - Ragnarok cycle. Same mumbo jumbo that comics use. Hahaha
JonC
JonC - 4/22/2018, 10:38 AM
@WarnerBrother - or with time, there are more thor's. just like in the comics.
AC1
AC1 - 4/22/2018, 1:27 AM
I still don't really see why you can't balance the scales by just saying some of the Phase 1 films take place earlier than we thought.

So, for example, Iron Man is set in 2008 (which is when it was released) and Iron Man 2 follows on immediately after, meaning it's also 2008 (Happy says he's been carrying Tony's engagement ring since 2008, which is when he and Pepper first became an item, so that fits). We also know the events of Thor occur around half way through Iron Man 2 as Coulson leaves Stark for New Mexico, meaning that's also 2008.

In Avengers, Nick Fury says the Phase 2 weapons were created "Because of [Thor]. Last year, Earth had a visit from another planet that had a grudge match that leveled a small town." so from that we can infer that The Avengers takes place in 2009. So based on that, the 'eight years later' time jump would place Spider-Man Homecoming in 2017, which is correct.

All you'd say is that the rest of the films take place pretty much when released, unless otherwise stated such as GOTG Vol 2 taking place in 2014 as it directly follows the first one, or Black Panther being set between 2016-2017 due to it directly following Civil War.

The only potential inconsistency this leaves is Iron Man 3, as the Bern prologue is clearly set in 1999/2000 and Killian says he offered Tony a place in AIM "13 years ago", meaning there's potentially a 4 year gap between the events of Avengers and Iron Man 3, which seems like a long time between adventures. Then again, it does give time for Tony to build his 35 new Iron Man armours, the "Mandarin" threat to be established in the media (as is suggested when the film starts), War Machine to be upgraded and then rebranded, etc. You could even potentially argue that the events of The Winter Soldier could fill some of that time gap (unless they specify the date in that movie, I haven't gotten back to it in my pre-Infinity War MCU marathon yet), as the downfall of SHIELD during that time would even explain their lack of involvement in the events of Iron Man 3.

Plus, the Avengers first assembling in 2009 means there's a nice symmetry in that Avengers 4, presumably the last appearance of a number of founding members, takes place exactly a decade after in 2019.

So, if I had to guess, I'd say the new timeline would be something like:
1940s - Captain America
1990s - Captain Marvel
2008 - Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Incredible Hulk, Thor
2009 - Avengers
2010 - Thor 2 (it's stated in the movie that the New York invasion happened "last year")
2013 - Iron Man 3
2014 - GOTG, GOTG Vol 2, Captain America 2 (I'll leave it here for now)
2015 - Avengers 2, Ant-Man
2016 - Civil War, Black Panther, Dr Strange
2017 - Spider-Man Homecoming, Thor Ragnarok, Ant-Man 2 (heard it might be a prequel to Infinity War set closer to Civil War)
2018 - Infinity War
2019 - Avengers 4
AC1
AC1 - 4/22/2018, 1:29 AM
@AC1 - nerd.
tb86
tb86 - 4/22/2018, 2:43 AM
@AC1 - Thor: The Dark World is set after Iron Man 3. Iron Man 3 introduces extremis and in the first episode of Agents of Shield's first season they mentioned extremis coming on the market. A few episodes in I think like episode 7, 8 or 9 there is an episode that takes place right after Thor: The Dark World where they go to London after the aftermath of Malekith's invasion.
BaronZemo
BaronZemo - 4/22/2018, 2:56 AM
@AC1 - At the beggining of Iron Man 2, it says "One year and a half later" after a scene of Ivan Vanko watching the "I am Iron Man" reveal on TV
Eghan6
Eghan6 - 4/22/2018, 5:21 AM
@BaronZemo - It actually says 6 months later, which could still allow for 2008 but more likely 2009.
Eghan6
Eghan6 - 4/22/2018, 5:32 AM
@AC1 - I kind of agree with your timeline. Especially since Black Widow tells Banner in Avengers that 'you haven't had an incident in over a year, I don't think you want to break that streak'.

So, ideally that would put 'The Avengers' in 2009 at the earliest and the events of Civil War in 2017 (at the earliest). The 8 year time jump in Homecoming includes Spidey's trip to Europe (assuming that sequence with the Vulture 'changing with the times' and Spidey's home video are at least concurrent.

I've also read that Infinity War might be a few years past the events of Civil War.
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