The MCU's timeline is subject to change anytime Marvel Studios releases a new movie, and the studio is gearing up to make a historic time jump with Avengers: Doomsday. The film is Marvel's biggest crossover yet, bringing together characters from different corners of the multiverse. The Fantastic Four from Earth-828, the Fox continuity's X-Men from Earth-10005, and the Avengers, Wakandans, Thunderbolts, and other heroes from the mainline Earth-616 continuity are being brought together to duke it out with Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom. A plot as complex as this calls for a reasonable time jump, given the numerous arcs these characters have had in recent MCU appearances.
Avengers: Doomsday is now confirmed to take place six years after the events of the last Avengers film, Avengers: Endgame. This marks the biggest time jump between Avengers movies since the franchise commenced in 2012. The jump was confirmed via one of the four new scenes in Avengers: Endgame Encore, the rerelease of the Infinity Saga finale, each one meant to bridge Endgame and Doomsday. The scene in question follows Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner, held in a secure underground facility after his Savage Hulk rampage in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, where he has been tinkering with a serum to keep the Jade Giant in check once again.
In the footage, Banner records a video log of his research, and the camera reveals a timestamp of January 12, 2029, confirming the Doomsday time skip. Mid-entry, the bunker is interrupted by the abrupt flickering of computer screens and lightbulbs. A figure then appears just out of the camera's view, with a rattled Banner asking, "Who are you?" Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom answers from off-screen, "Mr. Banner, I am here to collect you." The Hulk's roar follows, and the footage cuts to black.
The 2029 setting is a big jump. After 2012's The Avengers, the next team-up, Avengers: Age of Ultron, arrived three years later, in spring 2015. Avengers: Infinity War maintained the same three-year gap, unfolding in 2018. Avengers: Endgame then set the previous benchmark with its five-year jump to 2023. Avengers: Doomsday has now broken that record with a six-year leap.
How Marvel Arrived At Its 2029 Time Jump For Avengers: Doomsday
Avengers: Doomsday did not arrive at its 2029 setting by chance. After Avengers: Endgame, Marvel ushered in the Multiverse Saga, and so much has happened since then that a significant skip was warranted for the first half of the saga's two-part finale. The saga began with WandaVision, set in late 2023, mere weeks after Endgame. The first MCU series to debut on Disney+ followed Wanda Maximoff and the grief that consumed her after losing her lover, Vision, during the events of Infinity War and Endgame.
From there, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Hawkeye pushed the timeline forward into 2024. These projects wrestled with the fallout of the Infinity Saga's conclusion, exploring how the Blip and the trauma Thanos left behind reshaped the universe's characters.
By 2025, the MCU entered another phase of storytelling with even more fantastical stories like Moon Knight, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Echo, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Ms. Marvel, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Ironheart. These projects introduced new heroes while moving older ones beyond the immediate fallout of Endgame.
Then in 2026, the timeline welcomed Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Secret Invasion, The Marvels, Agatha All Along, and the opening chapter of Daredevil: Born Again. These stories widened the MCU even further, an ambition that arguably came back to bite Marvel, as the storytelling grew too broad for audiences to keep up with.
Captain America: Brave New World started its story in November 2026 before moving mainly into early 2027. The film ended with Sam Wilson ready to rebuild the Avengers and Joaquín Torres positioned as part of that future, a thread that leads directly into Doomsday, where the events of Brave New World prepared them for their biggest test yet. Later in 2027, the Thunderbolts arrived as a group of misfits assembled by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, later rebranded as the New Avengers, a name that doesn't exactly sit well with Sam Wilson. That conflict will come to a head in Avengers: Doomsday.
The MCU then continued through 2027 with the second season of Daredevil: Born Again and The Punisher: One Last Kill. Wonder Man also featured a significant in-universe time skip, beginning in late 2025 and ending around the middle of 2027.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day then moved the timeline to 2028, taking place four years after No Way Home. In that gap, Peter lived in isolation, doing more Spider-Man work than ever before. Brand New Day introduced a stronger, more mature Spidey, but a troubled Peter Parker.
That film also unleashed the Hulk's savage persona, with Bruce losing control after Jean Grey took hold of his mind, a development Doom appears very interested in, one that will clearly play into Doomsday's plot. Disney+'s ongoing VisionQuest takes place around the same year as Brand New Day, and while it centers on an important Avenger, it isn't expected to influence Doomsday in any major way.
How Impactful Is Avengers: Doomsday's 2029 Time Jump?
Avengers: Doomsday's time jump means audiences meet the heroes at very different points in their lives, especially after Endgame. The Avengers have not banded together since Thanos was defeated, and they will be fighting together for the first time without a hero as important as Iron Man. Steve Rogers also no longer carries the Captain America shield, having handed it over to his former sidekick Sam Wilson.
Sam leads the team for the first time and finds himself in the orbit of the newly branded New Avengers, with a dispute over the Avengers name brewing between them. The Hulk is off the hero board, collected by Doctor Doom. Bruce Banner could potentially end up fighting his friends this time instead of standing alongside them, which, to be fair, he has done plenty of in the past.
Banner's kidnapping takes place in the early stages of the movie, since it happens in January 2029. Doomsday's plot will venture deeper into the year as the story unfolds. The film will also explore other corners of the timeline, with Steve Rogers' decision to stay in the past with Peggy Carter playing a big role. The Encore rerelease highlighted that plot point, showing Loki paying Steve and Peggy a visit, seemingly over the unstable branch their life together created.
A fourth new scene even overlays Endgame's famous metal-clanging stinger with footage of Doom forging his mask, mirroring Tony Stark's origin. The central story will likely span months as the heroes try to survive Doctor Doom and the collapse of the multiverse. It is also plausible the film closes on another significant time skip, setting up Avengers: Secret Wars, the final chapter of the Multiverse Saga.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
