The recent release of the book "Marvel Studios' The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline" requires a lot of analysis. Members of WikiProject:Timeline team are working on editing pages in response to the information revealed in the book. If you wish to contribute, please do not immediately edit these pages, and instead visit the Timeline Discussion.
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The specific order and/or accurate dates presented in this article has never been confirmed by Marvel Studios.
They have been inferred by fans and therefore they can be inaccurate, incomplete, or biased.
"Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same... and now, it's here."
Groot is now approaching the maturity and attitude of a human teenager, as he continues to grow up.[1][2][3]
Groot in his adolescence
Quill enters Groot's room in the Benatar and complains that he needs to tidy up after himself and stop wasting his time playing video games. Groot rudely tells him to go away, and Quill takes a moment to feel sorry for Yondu Udonta, who diedalmost 4 years earlier, realizing what Yondu had to put up with when raising him.[2][1][3]
With his HYDRA conditioning activated, Glenn Talbot mutters to himself confusedly that he has to complete his programmed mission.[2][9]
Talbot goes to disable security feeds, thus allowing him to roam the Lighthouse without hindrance. Alphonso Mackenzie catches him and questions what he is doing, but Talbot explains that he is simply confused from his 6 months imprisoned by Hale, and Mackenzie shows him sympathy, letting him go.[2][9]
Ruby Hale continues to threaten Jemma Simmons's life to motivate Leo Fitz, having spent several hours working on fixing the Particle Infusion Chamber, but not yet sorted the problem. Fitz is stressed, worried for Simmons and yet wanting to stall the chamber's completion. He requests that Hale let Simmons go, stating that he needs her help. Releasing Simmons, Hale admires their relationship, and Fitz responds to remind her that everyone she loves will die if they go ahead with making her the Destroyer of Worlds. Ruby shows little care for this, remarking that there are not many people left who she cares about. Werner von Strucker returns to the room, having found Anton Ivanov's dead body, which gives Fitz and Simmons some hope that Yo-Yo Rodriguez escaped. They tell Hale that the remainder of the process will take some time, but Hale simply threatens that if they do not hurry, she will begin to dismember them, like she did to Rodriguez.[2][9]
10th
Having stumbled through the night in agony from her uncalibrated prosthetic arms, Rodriguez finally reaches the Quinjet as morning arrives in Herefordshire. She stumbles on-board for protection from the Sleeper Mechs hunting her.[2][9]
Phil Coulson tries to talk to Melinda May about her confession of love for him the day before, but she rejects the conversation, walking away.[2][9]
Daisy Johnson tells the agents the plan to fly to General Hale's base in the Appalachian Mountains. Coulson praises her leadership in his absence.[2][9]
Candice Lee informs General Hale that Ivanov is dead. When Hale asks if Carl Creel's state has improved, Lee informs her that in actuality, Creel has worsened significantly.[2][9]
With morning arriving at the Appalachian Mountain base, Hale goes to see Creel and finds him losing control, unable to deal with the arguing of Franklin Hall and Ian Quinn's consciousnesses within the gravitonium he absorbed. Creel goes so far as to use his abilities to turn his skin into cement then proceed to bang his head against the wall, hoping to rid himself of the voices.[2][9]
Coulson and Mackenzie talk with Deke Shaw. Mackenzie mentions that Shaw admitted his feelings for Johnson the night before when on painkillers. When Shaw denies these feelings, Coulson adds that Shaw has made it all-too-obvious, and they are all aware. Shaw asks for advice in showing his feelings, but both agents point out their current relationship issues. He then decides his best option is "lemons", confusing the agents. Seeing this, he explains how, in the future, people would leave lemons on the bed of the person they fancy to express their feelings. Asking if this is something people also did in 2018, the other two lie, saying it is, looking forward to seeing his actions.[2][9]
Talbot enters Robin Hinton's empty room, looking to examine her drawings for HYDRA while under conditioning. He finds the drawings and begins to look through.[2][9]
Johnson and May enter a Containment Module as the Zephyr One passes over the Appalachian Mountains. They have Agent Thomas fire a missile down to the HYDRA Preparatory Academy as their Containment Module is jettisoned. Moments after the missile blows a hole in the base's ceiling, the Module lowers through the hole and into the building.[2][9]
As May and Johnson go to accost General Hale, they are surprised when Hale hands herself over. At first, they do not trust Hale's willingness, but Hale explains that she wants to go with them to save Ruby, scared that her daughter will make a reckless decision.[2][9]
Meanwhile, in England, Ruby Hale and Werner von Strucker continue to threaten Fitz and Simmons to hurry with fixing the Particle Infusion Chamber.[2][9]
Realising he has to stop Polly Hinton from reporting his intrusion, Talbot panics and attacks her. He chokes Polly until she passes out, and tells Robin to come with him. Robin replies that she already saw this was going to happen.[2][9]
Johnson, May, and General Hale land in Herefordshire, England, to apprehend Ruby Hale and Werner von Strucker. General Hale asks Johnson to refrain from attacking her daughter if at all possible, and Johnson agrees. Despite this, Johnson takes the opportunity to criticize Hale's parenting, blaming her for the way Ruby turned out.[2][9]
Von Strucker tells Ruby Hale that a S.H.I.E.L.D. plane has just landed nearby. Hale goes to start dismembering Fitz and Simmons to hurry their final modifications, but Fitz quickly tells her that they have finished the machine, and she need not attack them. While they claim they have no way of transferring the gravitonium into the machine, von Strucker uses a tube and tap to move it over into the chamber.[2][9]
Deke Shaw goes to talk to Alphonso Mackenzie and Phil Coulson as they monitor the security feeds. As he arrives, they notice the security feed of the Hintons' room has been paused. Reactivating it, they see that the Hintons' door has been left open.[2][9]
Arriving at the Hintons' room, they find Polly Hinton on the floor. Coulson goes over to her and checks her breathing, finding that she is only unconscious. Mackenzie recalls his encounter with Glenn Talbot at the security feeds several hours prior, and realizes that Talbot must have paused the feed to allow him to go after Robin. Coulson also comes to the realization that this makes sense, with General Hale having had plenty of time during her 6 months with Talbot in her custody to have conditioned him.[2][9]
With S.H.I.E.L.D. moments away from stopping her, Ruby Hale hurries to enter the Particle Infusion Chamber and become the Destroyer of Worlds. She kisses von Strucker, the chamber closes, and the gravitonium-infusion begins. While happy at first, as the process continues, she begins to scream.[2][9]
S.H.I.E.L.D. and General Hale, now inside the HYDRA Herefordshire Facility, hear Ruby's screams, and Hale runs to get to her daughter before it is too late. She orders Leo Fitz to shut down the machine, and von Strucker lowers his gun, allowing Fitz to do so. The process is stopped at only 8% infusion, and the chamber opens. Ruby leaves the machine floating from the gravitonium in her body.[2][9]
Ruby Hale struggles to deal with the voices in her head from the gravitonium. Werner von Strucker crouches to comfort her, but without control over her powers, Hale accidentally uses the gravitonium to crush his skill, killing him. On seeing what she has done, she begins to further lose control.[2][9]
Coulson and Mackenzie find Talbot at the Lighthouse's hangar door, with Robin Hinton by his side. They confront him, and Talbot becomes confused, trying to distinguish between his actual thoughts and conditioning. Deciding he is unsafe, he holds his gun to his head, considering killing himself and ending the threat he poses.[2][9]
Ruby Hale continues to struggle with the voices, but Daisy Johnson begins to talk to her. She is kind and encouraging, trying to tell Hale that it is alright to not be comfortable with her powers yet.[2][9]
Melinda May arrives at the building as Yo-Yo Rodriguez also returns from the Quinjet. When Rodriguez sees May and hears the screams, she asks what is happening, but May simply replies that Johnson is handling the situation.[2][9]
Talbot tells Mackenzie and Coulson that he cannot trust his thoughts. While he holds the gun to his head, Mackenzie ushers Robin Hinton away from Talbot and to safety. Coulson resorts to using Talbot's trigger words to attempt to control him. Talbot manages to resist, so Coulson changes the orders to be more in line with HYDRA's motivations; he asks Talbot to turn the gun on him. As he does so, Mackenzie returns with an I.C.E.R. to quickly incapacitate Talbot, ending the risk.[2][9]
Ruby Hale begins to user her powers to crush Daisy Johnson. As she struggles to breathe, General Hale gets involved. Ruby tells her mother that she has always felt inadequate, and that she made her feel like she was a disappointment. General Hale is saddened to hear this, telling her daughter that all she ever wanted was for Ruby to meet her full potential.[2][9]
Just as Ruby Hale is beginning to calm down, Elena Rodriguez enters the room. She exclaims as she recognizes Hale as the person who sliced off her arms, and hearing this, Hale slips back into a distressed, frenzied, and dangerous state.[2][9]
Seeing the potential outcome of Ruby Hale losing control and becoming the Destroyer of Worlds, Rodriguez makes a quick decision. Using her super-speed, she runs and steals Ruby's Ring Blades, using them to then slice the teenager's throat and kill her. Returning to her position, everyone is left in shock as Ruby suddenly falls, her neck bleeding as she dies quickly.[2][9]
As they travel in the Asgardian ship, Thor and Loki discuss how the latter may be received when they return to Earth, considering the intentions of his last visit. Thor, however, assures him everything is going to be fine.[10]
Unbeknownst to them, a much larger ship has been following them. The ship suddenly appears before the Asgardians', blocking its path.[10][5]
Thanos and the Black Order board the Asgardian ship, damaging it while slaughtering half its passengers including the gladiator Ejashi. Thor and Heimdall have already been subdued when the Hulk attacks Thanos, but is defeated. Heimdall uses the last of his strength to summon a Bifrost Bridge that transports Hulk back to Earth. Thanos asks about the Space Stone, and Thor says it was destroyed along with Asgard, but Loki reveals the Tesseract is in his possesion. After he delivers it to Thanos so he'd stop torturing Thor, the Titan breaks the Cube surrounding the gem and puts it into the Infinity Gauntlet. Loki pretends to offer his services to Thanos in order to strike him with a knife, but the Titan uses his new powers to block the blow, and then strangles Loki to death. Thanos then uses the stones to both warp away with the Black Order and destroy the Statesman, with Thor still inside.[5]
Just as Doctor Strange and Wong are about to leave the New York Sanctum, Bruce Banner crashes inside the place, having been brought there by Heimdall's bridge. After Banner tells what happened, Strange uses his powers to bring in Tony Stark, who was with Pepper Potts, discussing their future wedding.[5]
Once Stark is brought up to date about the Infinity Stones, he tells that Vision, who has the Mind Stone embedded in his head, is currently disappeared. After explaining to Banner about the Avengers Civil War, Banner still insists Captain America is the one that could discover Vision's whereabouts, but as Stark thinks about calling Rogers, they notice the Q-Ship has arrived.[5]
Black Order members Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian arrive outside the Sanctum Santorum and demand the Time Stone from Strange. He refuses, and a battle ensues, which Spider-Man joins but not the Hulk, in spite of Banner's intentions to transform. Cull Obsidian is teleported by Wong to the Arctic, losing a hand in the process, while Ebony Maw brings an immobilized Strange to the Q-Ship. Spider-Man and Iron Man give chase, and eventually board the ship. Wong returns to the Sanctum to become its master and protector in Strange's absence, while Banner picks up Stark's phone to call Captain Rogers.[5]
The Benatar answers the distress call sent by the Asgardian ship, but arrives to find it already destroyed, with Thor floating amid the wreckage. After the Asgardian is brought inside, Mantis awakens Thor.[5]
Thor explains what has occurred and tells the Guardians to check on the Reality Stone, currently in the possession of the Collector in Knowhere, while he gets a weapon that can kill Thanos from the Dwarf forge in Nidavellir. Interested in the weaponry, Rocket Raccoon decides to go with Thor in an escape pod, and brings Groot along.[5]
Vision and his partner Scarlet Witch, currently hidden in Edinburgh, are found by the other two Black Order members, Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight. During their fight that ends up in a railway station, Corvus Glaive injures Vision but is himself wounded once Captain America, Black Widow, and Falcon arrive. The Black Order runs away, promising to return soon.[5]
The Guardians arrive in the Collector's Museum and find Thanos beating up the Collector, who denies being in possession of the Reality Stone. They attack and Gamora stabs Thanos with a knife, which leads to the reveal that the situation was an illusion created by Thanos, who already destroyed the place to retrieve the Stone. He grabs Gamora, who years before he had assigned with finding the Soul Stone, and teleports away with her.[5]
The group goes to the New Avengers Facility, where James Rhodes hangs up on an angry Thaddeus Ross. While Vision insists that the Mind Stone should be destroyed, the others think it should just be removed, though Banner notes that it will not be an easy task given the Stone's complex connections to the android's neural network. Rogers and Barnes realize there is one place that might perform this extraction: Wakanda.[5]
As Ebony Maw tortures Strange trying to break the spell that binds the Time Stone to the Eye of Agamotto, Iron Man attacks him, distracting Ebony Maw long enough for Spider-Man to open a hole in the ship's hull, and the ensuing decompression sucks Ebony Maw into the vacuum.[5]
To force Gamora into revealing where the Soul Stone is, Thanos reveals he has captured her foster sister Nebula as she attempted to kill him some time before, and tortures her until Gamora says it is in Vormir. Thanos teleports away with her.[5]
On the way to Nidavellir, Rocket gives Thor a prosthetic eye.[5]
Once they arrive, the forge has been powered down and only a Dwarf remains, Eitri. Eitri explains that after the Gauntlet was forged for Thanos, he destroyed the place and killed everyone else, while also cutting Eitri's hands, and nothing can be done until the neutron star in the center of the forge is reignited.[5]
Shortly afterwards, Nebula knocks out the guard watching over her to escape imprisonment, on the way sending a message for Mantis to meet her in Titan.[5]
On Vormir, Thanos and Gamora meet the Stone's guardian for the last seven decades, the Red Skull. It is explained that the Stone can only be given to whoever sacrifices a beloved one, "a soul for another". Thanos tearfully throws Gamora, his favorite adoptive daughter, down a cliff, and is rewarded with the Soul Stone.[5]
New Timeline
With the help of Rocket, Thor restarts the forge, and Eitri proceeds to create the axe Stormbreaker, whose handle is provided by Groot from his own arms.[5]
T'Challa, his family, and Bucky Barnes welcome the Avengers to Wakanda's capital Golden City. While Shuri is assigned to remove the Mind Stone from Vision's head under Wanda's supervision, T'Challa gathers the rest of Wakanda's tribes to prepare for the Black Order's attack.[5]
Proxima Midnight and Cull Obsidian arrive outside the barrier that protects Wakanda, behind of which are the Wakandans and the Avengers, that now include Banner in the Hulkbuster armor. She sends in an army of aliens, some of whom break through the barrier before T'Challa orders it to be removed so the army will remain in front of the resistance (instead of trying to find another way to get to Vision). During the battle, where the resistance eventually gets the additions of Thor, Rocket, Groot, and Scarlet Witch, Cull Obsidian is defeated by Banner by being thrown into the barrier, while Proxima Midnight is thrown by Wanda onto a large war machine.[5]
Just as Shuri was about to remove the Mind Stone, Corvus Glaive takes advantage of Wanda's absence to invade the laboratory, forcing her to leave Vision and push the assailant out the window. In the jungle outside, Corvus Glaive impales Vision before engaging Captain America in a fight, which ends as Vision kills Corvus Glaive with his own blade.[5]
Strange, Stark and Parker crash-land the Q-Ship on Titan. Shortly afterwards, the Guardians of the Galaxy arrive, and after a brief confrontation everyone realizes they're on the same side, against Thanos. They proceed to concoct a plan to ambush Thanos and remove the Gauntlet from his hand.[5]
Once Thanos, now owning four Infinity Stones, arrives on Titan, the Earth heroes and the Guardians attack him, eventually being joined by Nebula once she crashes her Necrocraft on Thanos. Once Thanos was restrained and put on his knees, Mantis used her powers to put him in a trance, while Iron Man and Spider-Man attempted to remove the Infinity Gauntlet. Once Quill and Nebula conclude that Thanos has killed Gamora, an angry Quill hits Thanos in the face and accidentally breaks Mantis's grip, making Thanos regain consciousness just as the Gauntlet was leaving his fist.[5]
Thanos uses his powers to throw one of Titan's moons on the planet, forcing everyone to run for their lives. Eventually Thanos has Iron Man pinned down and is about to kill him, but Strange offers the Time Stone in exchange for letting Stark live. Holding all but one of the Stones, Thanos leaves for Earth.[5]
Thanos arrives in Wakanda, and the Avengers and Guardians do their best to keep him away from Vision. Wanda eventually uses her powers to destroy the Mind Stone, but Thanos uses the Time Stone to revert time and remove it from Vision's head, killing the android in the process.[5]
Thor arrives and attacks Thanos with all of his power, impaling him with Stormbreaker, but the still alive Titan uses the full powers of the Infinity Stones to warp away to his homeworld while also causing his intended endgame: the death of half the living beings in the universe. Soon many of the heroes disintegrate; only five of the original six Avengers, War Machine, Rocket, Okoye, Nebula, and M'Baku are shown having survived.[5]
In New York, Nick Fury and Maria Hill are driving when the destructive wave starts disintegrating random people, including the driver of the car in front of theirs, and a helicopter pilot whose aircraft crashes on a nearby building. Desperate, Fury activates an emergency communication beacon just as he and Hill crumble as well. Once the distress call is sent, the beacon shows the emblem of Captain Marvel.[14]
↑ 2.002.012.022.032.042.052.062.072.082.092.102.112.122.132.142.152.162.172.182.192.202.212.222.232.242.252.262.272.282.292.302.312.322.332.342.352.36In Avengers: Infinity War, Vision says, "Wanda, for 2 years, we've stolen these moments, trying to see if this could work." Later, Rhodey says to Captain America, Black Widow, and Falcon, "You guys really look like crap. Must've been a rough couple years." These both place the film roughly 2 years after the events of Captain America: Civil War in June 2016, so approximately mid-2018. Later, Tony says to Doctor Strange, "It's you who doesn't understand that Thanos has been inside my head for 6 years, since he sent an army to New York... and now he's back!" This would place the film 6 years after the events of Marvel's The Avengers in May 2012, so again, 2018. The film cannot take place later than mid-June 2018, as it has been confirmed that the events of Spider-Man 2will take place during Peter Parker's junior year, and with Parker's sophomore year beginning in September 2016 in Spider-Man: Homecoming, his junior year would end in June 2018 - specifically, June 26, 2018 (1, 2, 3). With Spider-Man 2set after Avengers 4, and Avengers 4 set after Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Infinity War can be no later than mid-June 2018. Kevin Feige confirmed that Avengers: Infinity War takes place 4 years after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which is set in October 2014, also suggesting a 2018 placement. A set visit claimed that the film is set 3 years after Avengers: Age of Ultron, placing it in 2018, and "years" after the mid-credits scene of Captain America: Civil War in July 2016, also placing it in at least 2018. Scarlett Johansson stated the film is "2 or 3 years" after Captain America: Civil War in June 2016, suggesting an approximate 2018-2019 placement, and with June 2018 being the latest possible, 2018. The Russo brothers stated the film is "roughly 2 years" after Captain America: Civil War, specifying that it is roughly the amount of time that has passed in the real world between the release dates of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, and with Captain America: Civil War in June 2016, this would again place the film in 2018. Chris Evans said it has been a "couple years" since Captain America: Civil War, further suggesting roughly 2018. 2018 is fully confirmed by the fact that scenes set on the same day as the second half of the film are shown in The Last Day with the subtitle "2018". Overall, the math weighing up this evidence places the film around Spring 2018, which matches the weather. However, in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Season 5, Episode 12 - The Real Deal, Yo-Yo's monitor shows the date to be "12-06-2017" - December 6, 2017. A short amount of time later, in Episode 13 - Principia, Coulson jokes about hoping for "tidings of comfort and joy", matching the December setting. Another short amount of time later is Episode 14 - The Devil Complex. In this episode, it is clearly very shortly after the last two episodes, as the agents are still dealing with the Fear Dimension rift as it reopens following their temporary fix in The Real Deal. While it is presented as merely days since The Real Deal, it has to at least be 4 weeks (1, 2) since Yo-Yo's arms were cut off and surgery was performed on her. This was 2 days before The Real Deal, on December 4, 2017, meaning it is at least January 1, 2018. Still, it cannot be much later, based on the way things are presented. The rest of the season plays out consecutively over 5 more days, with the last 2 of those days simultaneous to the events of Avengers: Infinity War. Snow also appears in the U.S.A. in Episode 14 - The Devil Complex, which supports the January setting, and Coulson also mentions in Episode 15 - Rise and Shine that it has been "months" since the agents disappeared in May 2017, again supporting it being no later than early 2018 - otherwise it would be referred to as a year. So, in this case, it would suggest Avengers: Infinity War takes place around January 5-6, 2018. In the film, during the Attack on Greenwich Village, Tony Stark's flip-phone is shown to say it is "Wed", and the first Wednesday after January 5, 2018 is January 10, 2018. Therefore, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. would suggest that The Devil Complex to The End take place January 6-11, 2018, and Avengers: Infinity War takes place January 10-11, 2018. While this does not particularly match the weather in Avengers: Infinity War, and is not ideal as 2 years since Captain America: Civil War (only 1 year and 7 months, but 2 calendar years), 4 years since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (only 3 years and 3 months, but 4 calendar years), and 6 years since The Avengers (only 5 years and 8 months, but 6 calendar years), the gap between Principia and The Devil Complex cannot be stretched much further, and January 2018 still works adequately for the time spans just listed. As well as this, the film is presented as being very shortly after the main events of Thor: Ragnarok, based on character behavior in that film's mid-credits scene and in Avengers: Infinity War, as well as physical appearances and the likelihood that Thanos would have caught up with the ship quickly. That film cannot realistically take place later than October 2017, with the sheer number of times cast and crew (as well as the film itself) have discussed it being 2 years after Avengers: Age of Ultron - with October 2017 being the last month which is both 2 calendar years and 2 rounded years since May 2015 (see other 2017 references). It certainly cannot take place later than early December 2017, with Noah referring in All the Comforts of Home, on December 4, 2017, to "an Asgardian in the city" recently. While Thor: Ragnarok's placement would imply Avengers: Infinity War takes place in late 2017, as thoroughly explained, it has to be at least early 2018. Still, this supports the film being in January 2018 as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. suggests, minimising the gap between the films to only 2½ months. So, The Devil Complex picks up on January 6, 2018, and the remainder of Season 5 takes place over 5 more days, with the last 2 coinciding with Avengers: Infinity War, taking place from Wednesday, January 10, 2018 to Thursday, January 11, 2018.
↑In Avengers: Infinity War, Thor says on Wednesday, January 10, 2018 (see other references for the date), that Xandar was attacked "last week". This would place the attack on approximately January 3, 2018.
