What is the timeline of the mcu movies?

The MCU’s timeline is a continuity of events that includes feature films, television series, television specials, short films, and the I Am Groot shorts produced by Marvel Studios, along with a group of Netflix series produced by Marvel Television. Within this multiverse, the main setting is Earth‑616, also referred to as the Sacred Timeline, and events that occur outside of this or in alternate universes are explicitly noted. For the early parts of the franchise, Phase One and Phase Two films largely follow a linear sequence that matches their release order, providing a straightforward progression from Iron Man to Avengers. However, Phase Three diverges from this pattern; many films and series overlap in time, creating a more complex narrative structure. The most prominent example is Avengers: Endgame (2019), which spans a five‑year time jump following the events of Avengers: Infinity War, thereby compressing multiple storylines into a single film.

Because the MCU is designed to interconnect across media, the timeline is not strictly a linear list of releases but a network of overlapping events and time‑travel arcs. This structure allows characters to appear in multiple films across different points in time, while still maintaining a coherent overarching narrative. The Sacred Timeline remains the central thread, with alternate universes and multiversal events branching off from this core chronology.

While the provided evidence does not detail the full chronological sequence of every film or series, it establishes the key principles that guide the MCU’s timeline: a primary Sacred Timeline on Earth‑616, a general release‑order flow in early phases, and a later phase of overlapping, time‑jumped narratives such as those seen in Avengers: Endgame.