Disney+'s Wonder Man creator revealed one topic that he wasn't allowed to discuss. Keeping things connected and cohesive was never an easy task for Marvel Studios, but that only got tougher after Avengers: Endgame. Nowadays, the MCU is linked across theatrical movies and Disney+ series, giving both creatives and fans more than ever to keep track of, which some have suggested has caused the reduced connectivity that has been seen in the Multiverse Saga.
Wonder Man showrunner Andrew Guest revealed in an interview with The Brandon Davis Show that Marvel Studios doesn't allow its creatives to offer any timeline specificity and requires them to be vague when referencing past MCU events. He explained that a key criterion in its projects is to "never say the date:"
"One of the things you learn when you're doing an MCU project is never to say the date, the year..."
Furthermore, Guest noted that, beyond hiding the date and year, it is important to be "really unspecific about what happened recently" and other MCU events:
"No character will ever tell you what year it is, and you try to be really unspecific about what happened recently in the past or referencing other MCU events."
One exception to Guest's came just last year with Captain America: Brave New World, as a peak at Sam Wilson's invitation to the White House confirmed that the "Celestial Island World Summit" took place on April 16, 2027. However, as the Wonder Man boss stated, that was a very rare break in the rule.
Marvel Studios' Ever-Expanding Timeline on Disney+ And In the Movies
The MCU's top brass may not want to be explicit when it comes to timeline placement, but that's not to say that the studio itself doesn't keep track, as Marvel Studios previously hired an official timeline keeper to ensure events always align.
Marvel Studios rarely puts exact dates on its stories or confirms how long has passed between events, instead forcing fans to piece together subtle clues. Or, those eager to keep track of the MCU timeline can simply turn to Disney+, where every canon movie and TV series is placed in chronological order.
This can be helpful for projects such as Guest's Wonder Man, which initially confused fans with its placement in the MCU timeline on Disney+. That confusion largely stemmed from the fact that Wonder Man was developed for release much earlier, but a deeper dive into the evidence helps settle any qualms.
It has only gotten tougher to keep track of the MCU's chronology in the Multiverse Saga as the latest tales bounce between multiple universes, reality-shattering events, and, of course, the big and small screen. Fans can only hope for a sequel to the MCU's official timeline book that was released in 2023.
That said, Marvel Studios is planning to "reset" the timeline after Avengers: Secret Wars, keeping most major events intact while others are scrubbed away. Only time will tell how drastic that soft reboot ends up being, but that could raise the need for a re-explanation of the MCU chronology down the line.
It's always fun to speculate on the ordering of projects and where other characters were during critical events like Thunderbolts*. But those nitpicky details are generally inconsequential to understanding the MCU's larger storyline, as release order viewing will usually pave the way for the smoothest experience anyway.
