The official MCU timeline is an ever-changing and ever-evolving endeavor for fans, especially as more new entries are added to the franchise's growing story almost by the week these days. But because of a few lingering rights issues with both Sony and Universal, there are still a couple of outliers from that nailed-down timeline, including 2008's The Incredible Hulk.
As only the MCU's second solo film, The Incredible Hulk often gets lost in the franchise's vast history as the only Hulk solo movie since its debut in June 2008. The film had Edward Norton playing the leading role of Bruce Banner alongside Tim Roth's Emil Blonsky/Abomination, becoming the first movie to truly expand the MCU's horizons when Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark/Iron Man arrived in the film's final moments.
Thanks to plenty of discussions about the MCU's early days, particularly in terms of the timeline, fans have a fairly definitive idea about where The Incredible Hulk falls amongst its MCU peers chronologically. Now, thanks to a new international listing on Disney+, that placement has seemingly been confirmed for the angry green Avenger's only MCU solo outing.
When Is The Incredible Hulk Set on the MCU Timeline?
As revealed by Reddit user u/Alegna94, the Disney+ service in both Spain and Japan confirmed where 2008's The Incredible Hulk falls in the MCU timeline.
Although it was only the second MCU movie to release in theaters after Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk comes as the fifth project chronologically in the MCU's history. The timeline places this movie after both Iron Man movies from 2008 and 2010, and it comes directly before 2011's Thor.
The full updated timeline with all 34 projects in the MCU to date is below, with the exception of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Thor: Love and Thunder, the latter of which is still in theaters:
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- Captain Marvel
- Iron Man
- Iron Man 2
- The Incredible Hulk
- Thor
- The Avengers
- Thor: The Dark World
- Iron Man 3
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Ant-Man
- Captain America: Civil War
- Black Widow
- Black Panther
- Spider-Man: Homecoming
- Doctor Strange
- Thor: Ragnarok
- Ant-Man and the Wasp
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Avengers: Endgame
- Loki
- What If...?
- WandaVision
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
- Spider-Man: Far From Home
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- Eternals
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- Hawkeye
- Moon Knight
- Ms. Marvel
For perspective, the graphic below includes all 34 live-action projectsm along with Phase 1's Marvel One-Shots:
Hulk Completes Fury's Big Week on Timeline
Looking at this movie's place in the MCU timeline, the footage lines up fairly accurately with how everything plays out in this listing.
During the penultimate scene in Iron Man 2, fans can see video footage of the WHIH report from Culver University on the Hulk's fight against General Ross and the United States Army. That would mean that Iron Man 2 fully completes its own story before The Incredible Hulk's is about halfway done.
Fans are also well aware of The Incredible Hulk's inclusion in what's known as "Fury's Big Week," which also has the plots of Iron Man 2 and Thor taking place all within the same week in Phase 1.
This comes amidst some confusion with timeline additions in Phase 4, specifically with Hawkeye's placement so far after Avengers: Endgame and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings being placed amongst the last two Spider-Man movies. Thankfully, The Incredible Hulk's new destination is one of the easier ones to follow thanks to it being so definitively a part of the MCU's Phase 1.
The Incredible Hulk is now available via home release, and it's streaming on Disney+ in select countries.
