Whatever Kevin Feige says about the MCU goes. By nature of his status as Marvel Studios president, he has the ultimate say on the cinematic universe’s canon. He could announce that the entire Marvel multiverse is actually a dream imagined by some kid with a snow globe and we’d have no choice but to believe him.
Therefore, Marvel Studios: The Marvel Cinematic Universe — An Official Timeline is not to be taken lightly, as this book release provides a thorough breakdown of the entirety of MCU continuity for the very first time. For that undeniable stamp of approval, it even comes with an introduction by Feige himself, who clarifies that some productions of the past we may once have considered canon are no longer “specific to the Sacred Timeline.”
Sure enough, An Official Timeline makes clear that numerous movies and TV shows — both fan-favorites and, er, not-so-fan-favorites — have been erased from the Earth-616 timeline. So here’s an in-memoriam list of all those projects that have just been jettisoned into the multiverse.
Hulk (2003)
Hold on, was Ang Lee’s Hulk movie ever considered part of the MCU? Well, those with long memories may recall that when 2008’s The Incredible Hulk first came out Kevin Feige talked it up as a kind of semi-sequel to the 2003 film rather than a straight-up reboot — hence why it doesn’t retell the Jade Giant’s origins.
Once Mark Ruffalo replaced Edward Norton as Bruce Banner, though, maybe it was thought that having three different actors play the same character in a single continuity was too ridiculous as any potential MCU connections with Hulk were never mentioned again.
Sure enough, An Official Timeline once and for all confirms Eric Bana’s Banner is definitely not canon. The Hulk’s creation is classified as taking place five years before the events of Incredible Hulk, which is set in 2010, thereby placing it around 2005 instead of 2003.
Agent Carter
Oh, how the tables have turned. 2013’s Agent Carter One-Shot — hey, remember those? — was so popular when it was released as a DVD extra on the Iron Man 3 home release that it spawned a fully-fledged TV series for Hayley Atwell’s breakout Captain America: The First Avenger character. The only problem was that its depiction of Peggy’s post-war life conflicted with the One-Shot’s timeline, meaning the short had to be erased from canon
Once Avengers: Endgame came along, however, and rewrote Peggy Carter’s timeline, what was and wasn’t part of continuity got switched and suddenly the One Shot was part of the MCU but the ABC show wasn’t. Bradley Whitford’s Agent Flynn, who appeared in the One Shot, returned in What If…?, for example. Sure enough, An Official Timeline confirms Peggy was recruited to co-lead S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1946, as per the short film.
Agents of SHIELD
Well, we kinda knew to expect this one, but it still stings. The downfall of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. from venerated official spinoff of the movies to canonical black sheep is pretty head-scratching, as the show started out directly crossing over with the likes of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Thor: The Dark World and ended its seven-season run adrift on its own timeline, with nary a mention of the Snap.
Once the Infinity Saga wrapped up without the Avengers ever being informed that their old pal Phil Coulson was actually alive and well, we figured AoS had been retconned as non-canon, and now An Official Timeline confirms this is the case. The last canonical appearance of Coulson in the timeline is his death at Loki’s hand (or scepter) just before the Battle of New York breaks out in spring 2012.
Daredevil
Now this one, this one really hurts. We thought that when Charlie Cox made his grand return as the Man Without Fear in various Marvel Studios productions it meant Netflix’s beloved Defenders Saga had been properly folded into MCU continuity. However, as time has gone on, it’s become clear that Marvel considers Cox’s contemporary appearances to be that of some very similar variant to the one we knew before.
An Official Timeline makes no reference to the events of Daredevil — whose first season used to be talked about as taking place in the aftermath of The Avengers in 2012, with future runs of the Defenders Saga referencing the Sokovia Accords of Captain America: Civil War. Instead, the first appearance of Matt Murdock in the 616 timeline is his role as legal representative to Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home (set in summer 2024) before he teams up (and hooks up) with She-Hulk in summer 2025.
Naturally, if Daredevil isn’t canon that means the rest of the collected Defenders Saga isn’t either. So the following series have also been pruned from the timeline:
- Jessica Jones
- Luke Cage
- Iron Fist
- The Punisher
- The Defenders
Inhumans
Of all the Marvel Television series that could’ve received an afterlife in the movies, Inhumans was not one that we ever expected to receive that honor. And yet Anson Mount returned as Black Bolt, the silent king of the Inhumans, in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Sure, he was playing the version of Blackagar Boltagon from Earth-838, but that opened the door a crack for the infamous ABC show.
Just in case we were in any doubt, though, Marvel is still not ready to embrace Inhumans with open arms as the swiftly canceled show that aired in 2016 is not considered canon. The one and only reference to the existence of the Inhumans in An Official Timeline is Black Bolt’s multiversal cameo in Doctor Strange 2, when the sorcerer encounters the Illuminati in fall 2024.
In addition to the above shows being rendered non-canon, An Official Timeline also makes no references to the following Marvel Television productions, thereby pushing them onto their own timeline as well.
- Runaways
- Cloak & Dagger
- Helstrom
