Marvel announces a book to explain the MCU timeline

By Kieran Burt.

The Marvel Cinematic universe (MCU) timeline is a complex beast. What started out as a simple concept has grown more complex as the universe has expanded, and with time travel, multiverses and just plain old mistakes, it’s quite hard to keep track of everything. 

To help with this, Marvel has announced that it will be bringing out a book in September 2023 to explain the timeline of the MCU. Written by Anthony Breznican, Amy Ratcliffe, Rebecca Theodore-Vachon and a foreword by Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, this book will contain a guide to explain the full timeline.

The book will also include exclusive infographics, and stills from the films. 

The complexity of the Marvel timeline has been of increasing worry. In August 2022, She-Hulk: Attorney At Law writer and producer Jessica Gao revealed in an interview with The Direct that Marvel has hired someone to keep track of the MCU timeline.

Back whenSpider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts was promoting the 2017 film, he told Entertainment Weekly there was a scroll that had all the events of the MCU on it in timeline order, starting from the beginning of time. 

Spider-Man: Homecoming is the film that kicked off a large debate about the timeline in the MCU fandom, as a title card mistake said the events of the film took place eight years after The Avengers, instead of four. 

An official studio timeline was released in the 2018 book Marvel Studios: The First Ten Years but this new book will be the first title dedicated to the subject.

It’s unclear if the book will include the Netflix shows, Marvel’s Inhumans, Agent Carter, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. These projects are technically set in the MCU, but have long ignored more recent developments in the franchise. 

It’s also unclear how far forward the book will go. The timeline is likely to get much more complicated in the future, as the MCU gets deeper into The Multiverse Saga.

The next MCU film to hit cinemas is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and will release on February 17.