Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki

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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Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
The Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki is continually revising our policies.
If you locate any unwritten rule that should be clarified, use the talk page to make a proposal


The Article Creation Policy is a basic guideline used when deciding whether a page should be created or not. The Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki aims to cover everything within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, while maintaining a high-quality level in each and every article. Therefore, not every article that could be created must be created.

Keep in mind that, sometimes, if an article does not exist, it is not intended to be created. Of course, a non-existent article can be created if it presents official and relevant information from the point of view of the subject of the article, and it follows our different policies.

This policy focuses on whether or not an article should be created, check the Manual of Style and the different Layout Guides for a guide of the content the actual article should have.

Characters

Character articles can be automatically created upon their first appearance or mention in any official media, with the requisite that their Biography section could potentially cover enough relevant information about the character itself. This excludes, particularly, biographies based on explaining the context where the characters were mentioned, or the context of where a list with their names was shown, as these are both examples of information not relevant about the character itself.

In the cases of characters confirmed to appear in Upcoming Media, character articles can be created as soon as enough in-universe details about the character are undoubtedly known, in order to properly write an overview of the character, while the requisite of covering enough relevant information about the character is expected to be fulfilled upon the media's premiere.

Characters that usually fulfill these requisites are:

  • Characters confirmed as portrayed by an actor or voice actor in live-action media, both named and unnamed characters.
    • If a character has not enough relevant information, he should be added to the corresponding List of Minor Characters article. Keep in mind that a character from that list can be expanded as a full article if the events surrounding his appearance are written from the character's point of view.
    • The creation of articles for unnamed characters as stubs is strictly not allowed. Instead, add them to the corresponding List of Minor Characters.
    • This would exclude most background characters, such as bystanders, customers..., as they are usually uncredited for their work, and their biography is not substantial enough to warrant an article.
  • Characters appearing in comics or similar media whose appearance is analogue to that of a character portrayed in live-action media.
  • Characters explicitly mentioned by name in any media.
    • Characters that are only mentioned by name, but lack any relevant information about their own biography should not be created, such as characters appearing in lists, files or newspapers. A list of these characters can be added to the Mentioned section of the Movie or Episode they are mentioned in, and a relevant in-universe article that would cover their mentions (e.g. Project Insight#Named Targets or Culver University#Academic Staff.
    • Characters that are both unseen and indirectly mentioned, especially family members of established characters, should be strictly avoided. Usually there is no other relevant information about the character itself than explaining the circumstances of the mention, instead of relevant information about the character. Therefore, it does not follow the rules explained in the Layout Guide for character articles.

Alternate Counterparts to Characters

Articles for alternate counterparts to existing characters can be created when they follow one of these two circunstances:

  • Characters that are basically a recreation or copy of another character, including, but not limited to: Life-Model Decoys, Monolith Recreations, or Shapeshifters taking their resemblance. Despite sharing memories with the character they recreate, the biography section must be adapted to the actual biography of the subject of the article, and not the memories of the character recreated.
  • Characters that are versions of another hailing from a different reality or universe. Articles for these characters can be created if the alternate from different universes has actually appeared or, if they have just been mentioned, if their biography is significantly different from the ones from the main MCU reality.

In both cases, there is need for an adequate differentiative to be chosen prior to the creation of any of these articles.

Items/Weapons/Vehicles

Item, Weapon and Vehicle articles can be automatically created upon their first appearance or mention in any official media for:

  • Items or Weapons that are fictional from a real-world point of view, but considered "real" within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The vast majority of item and weapon articles that have been created fall under this criteria.
  • Items or Weapons that have a real-world counterpart, but are unusual or important enough to grant the creation of an article, having enough relevant information about the item covered in the History section, e.g., Particle Accelerator, Semtex, Hyperbaric Chamber.
  • Vehicles that are fictional from a real-world point of view, but considered "real" within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, e.g., Helicarrier, Quinjet.
    • Creation of articles for different models of a single vehicle is not allowed, as they should be covered in the general History section of the main article.
  • Vehicles that have a real-world counterpart, but are unusual or important enough to grant the creation of an article, having enough relevant information about the item covered in the History section, e.g., Humvee, F-22 Raptor.
  • Individual vehicles that have a proper noun, e.g., Norco, Lemurian Star, Milano.
  • Individual costumes used by characters can be created if, and only if, they are unique pieces of technology with a set of capabilities (Ant-Man Suit, Spider-Man Suit, Daredevil's Suit...) or are given a rich and detailed background beyond the instances where its owner used them (Captain America's Uniform). Therefore, this excludes suits worn by characters without any other notability feature (Black Widow's, Izel's, Quake's...)

Locations

Location articles can be automatically created upon their first appearance or mention in any official media for:

  • Articles that cover a real-world Continent, Country, State or City.
    • Articles about neighborhoods or boroughs are, as a general rule, not allowed. The specific information about them should be added to a "Layout" section in the article about the city, which would include a list of specific landmarks within the neighborhood or borough.
  • Articles that cover a Region that is either a natural region (eg: Death Valley, Everglades, Lake Ontario), or a First-level administrative country subdivision, analogue to a State from the United States of America, e.g., Ontario, Tuscany. Articles for lesser subdivisions are, as a general rule, not allowed.
  • Articles that cover a fictional (from a real-world point of view) Planet, Continent, Country, Region or City, that is "real" within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
  • Articles for facilities, establishments, prisons, universities... that have appeared in a substantial role within official media.
    • Articles for background establishments, such as the Broussard's Pharmacy close to the L&L Automat, cannot be created, as there is not enough in-universe information to build a high-quality article.
    • Articles for single rooms or areas within a facility are not allowed. The events that happen in the particular room or area must be covered in the main History section of the facility article, while the description of the room or area must be covered in the Layout section.

Alternate Universes

Alternate Universe articles can be automatically created upon their first appearance or mention in any official media for:

  • Articles that cover an alternate universe undoubtedly presented as such, and whose name has been either given or chosen to comply with the Naming Policy.

Races and Creatures

Race articles can be automatically created upon their first appearance or mention in any official media, with the requisite that their History section could potentially cover enough relevant information about the race itself.

  • Every sentient races, especially extraterrestrial or extradimensional races.
  • Non-sentient races, of extraterrestrial or extradimensional origin.
  • Articles for real-world species of animals are, as a general rule, not allowed. If one of these species has a notable role in one or more of the Marvel Cinematic Universe products, or a series of appearances across several products, an Administrator will decide, on a case by case basis, if the article is worthy of being created.

Organizations

Organization articles can be automatically created upon their first appearance or mention in any official media for:

  • Organizations and Companies that are fictional from a real-world point of view, but considered "real" within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The vast majority of organization articles that have been created fall under this criteria.
  • Organizations that have a real-world counterpart, but are unique or important enough to grant the creation of an article, having enough relevant information about the organization covered in the History section, e.g., United Nations, NASA.
    • In case the organization is not unique enough (Armed Forces Services for different countries, Government Agencies, Police Departments for different cities), the articles may be created if they meet, at least, one of the following criteria.
      1. At least two different named characters portrayed as members of the organization.
      2. A susbstantial (not supporting) role in a particular media, event or storyline.
    • As such, local police departments or armed forces that have only served as background or incidental players in different events should not be granted their own article.
    • Make sure to ask an administrator before creating one of the articles for this category.

Events

Event articles usually highlight only major events in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Events articles can be created for:

  • Major "battles" or action scenes in a movie.
  • Major "battles" or action scenes in TV episode, especially for the mid-season and/or season finales.
  • Major "battles" or action scenes in other media that can be considered analogue to the ones from the movies (e.g. Battle of Hong Kong, Battle of Sudan).
  • Events that do not involve a battle but are important enough in the plot of live-action movie or TV series, and have enough information to properly construct an article, e.g., Convergence, Resurrection of Phil Coulson.

Wars

War articles are usually created to collect the major battles in a movie or TV series. War articles can be created for:

  • Conflicts specifically denominated as "wars", covering a series of organized and prolonged conflicts between at least two factions.
  • A collection of related major "Events", usually portrayed in a single Marvel Cinematic Universe movie or TV series season.

Hubs

Hubs are visual disambiguation landpages that collect all alternate versions of three sets of articles: Characters, Teams & Organizations, and Wars & Events.

Hubs can be automatically created upon the first appearance or mention in any official media of at least two alternate articles collected within each hub, provided the articles themselves could be created according to this policy. Such alternates are usually alternate universe variants of the characters, organizations and events of the main universe, but could also be considered from impersonators, illusions or recreations of the characters, organizations and events.

Actors and Crew Members

Articles for actors and crew members involved in any kind of media can be created as soon as their involvement is confirmed.

Media

Articles for different media are usually created when Marvel Studios officially confirms their actual development.

  • Movie articles can be created once the movie is confirmed to be developed in a future. Placeholder titles, such as "Captain America 3", can be used to collect the information prior to the announcement of its official title.
    • Movies that are considered but never confirmed cannot spawn new articles, instead, they should be added to the List of Undeveloped Movies.
  • TV series articles can be created once the series is confirmed to be developed in a future. Placeholder titles can be used to collect the information prior to the announcement of its official title.
    • Season articles can be created as soon as the release date and official synopsis of the season is released.
    • Episode articles can be created as soon as the official title of the episode is released.
  • Other media, such as tie-in comics, video games, books or art books, can be created once their title and synopsis is released.

Music

Articles for individual songs are created exclusively for songs created explicitly for the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, and if they have their own lyrics, especially if they appear in the media itself instead of being soundtrack-exclusive. For the songs that are just scores, all information should go in the respective soundtrack articles.

Mainstream songs appearing throughout the franchise do not get their own articles, and a link to them on YouTube/Spotify should only appear in their respective artists' articles.

Media Subpages

The different templates for Movies or TV series automatically link a page to a series of sub-pages that can be created:

  • For /Credits pages, as soon as a major actor and/or crew member (other than regular executive producers like Kevin Feige) is confirmed.
  • For /Awards pages, as soon as the movie or TV series in nominated for an official award, such as People's Choice Awards, Saturn Awards...
  • For /Portal pages, as soon as a character is confirmed to appear and there is an official Marvel Cinematic Universe promotional image of the character belonging to said media that can be added to the Portal.
  • For /Trivia pages, as soon as any relevant trivia fact is confirmed.
  • For /Home Video, as soon as the Home Video release is announced and its features are revealed.
  • For /Release Dates, as soon as the Release Date is announced.

Galleries

Gallery articles are usual enough to be automatically created in order to collect images from live-action media such as movies or TV episodes. For in-universe topics, a gallery can be created when there are at least ten different images about the article.

  • Galleries for wars, events and common locations (countries, regions, states, cities...), should never be created.

Quote

Quote articles are susceptible of being created in order to collect quotes from or about the following subjects:

  • Movies or TV series Quote pages can be automatically created upon their release.
    • Quote pages for TV episodes are not allowed, they must be added as subsections of the general TV series Quote page.
  • Character Quote pages can be created, as long as they collect at least five different and relevant quotes from or about the character.
    • Quote pages about other in-universe subjects such as items, locations or events are not allowed. Quotes about those topics must be collected in the general page about the subject, either as a general quote, or as a quote in each of the sub-sections of the main History section.
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