The most important thing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is probably the timeline. Marvel regularly presents the chronological context of the many movies and series. However, in 2017, a mistake was made that causes temporal issues in Spider-Man.
Warning Spoiler: The following article contains spoilers from Avengers: Infinity War.
How did Spider-Man get into the MCU? Spider-Man, played by Tom Holland, made his first appearance not in his own film, but in Captain America: Civil War in 2016. There, he had a small guest role alongside Tony Stark.
In 2017, the first solo film followed with Spider-Man: Homecoming. In the film, there is a brief flashback showing a scene with the villain, but the time jump afterward creates a logic error that does not fit with the MCU timeline.
You can find a trailer for the film here:
Errors in the Years
Where is the problem? At the beginning of Spider-Man: Homecoming, we see Adrian Toomes, played by Michael Keaton. After the Avengers’ battle against the Chitauri and Loki in 2012, he is supposed to clear the ruins of the city and recover valuable items with his salvage company.
However, he is replaced by DODC, a department founded by Tony Stark and the government. In the salvage process, his team has already been able to recover Chitauri technology and instead of returning it, he wants to keep it. After that, there is a time jump of 8 years. That is where the story of Peter Parker takes place.
That is in 2020. The problem is that Spider-Man shouldn’t exist then because the events of Avengers: Infinity War happened in 2018. Due to Thanos’ victory, Peter Parker was wiped out and not brought back before 2023, Avengers: Endgame.
Actually, the story of Spider-Man: Homecoming is supposed to take place in 2016, shortly after the events of Civil War. The line 8 years later
from Homecoming contradicts the timeline.
Marvel Admits the Mistake
How does Marvel respond to the logic error? According to Filmstarts, Kevin Feige, the producer of the MCU, tried at the start of the film to explain that the films do not always take place when they are released. However, Infinity War had not yet been released at that time, and the time jump in Endgame was also not present.
In the audio commentary for the first Spider-Man film, the director reportedly used clearer words. According to Filmstarts, Jon Watts explicitly says that it is a mistake and that the time jump in the film should be shorter.
In the book The Marvel Cinematic Universe – An Official Timeline (via Jeuxvideo), the error is reportedly taken humorously. It states:
Red Line Alert! Hello again! Adrian Toomes says that the Battle of New York took place eight years ago, but that event was only four years ago. That’s a real puzzle for us; I believe an analyst lost the file.
In large franchises with multiple films and timelines, smaller or larger logic errors can easily occur, which do not ruin the films but question the logic of the universe. In Avengers: Infinity War, for example, one might wonder why Dr. Strange did not act differently: Marvel: The Avengers could have easily defeated Thanos – But Dr. Strange was not clever enough
