Up until the point of Avengers: Endgame, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a pretty linear affair, and with the exceptions of the likes of Captain Marvel, there was never any doubt that the films happened in an almost perfect chronological order. There was the Blip, and then came the multiverse, and now every new movie’s place in the timeline, both in terms of where and when they occur, is something that is almost as speculated on as the plot and characters themselves.
That is exactly the same with Eternals, and while there have been sound bites from those involved that the story will span millennia, it was also confirmed in the final trailer that the main action will take place after the Blip, while the word is still coming to terms with the return of thousands of people. Now a new piece of information that places Eternals alongside another Marvel movie makes for some intriguing theorising.
As we know, there are some times that Marvel movies have events that run simultaneously with other storylines from other films in the MCU, and it appears that Eternals takes place at the same time as the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home, and this makes perfect sense. The details were shared by producer Nate Moore who told Empire magazine about the new movie’s place in the current Marvel timeline.
“Right around the same time as Spider-Man: Far from Home, with the world recovering from the attack of Thanos and the return of half the population,” he said. As we know, Spider-Man: Far From Home /currently holds the most advanced place in the timeline as far as the movies are concerned and since Far From Home arrived in cinemas post Endgame, it has been the one marker that all other movies could be gauged by. Considering Spider-Man: No Way Home seemingly picks up its storyline directly from the final scenes of Far From Home, then it was always likely that Eternals would be set around the same time with it being the only movie left to arrive before No Way Home‘s December release.
So far in Phase Four, with the exception of Black Widow, which was mostly set just after the events of Civil War other than its post credit scene, the movies and TV shows have all been set after the defeat of Thanos. WandaVision dealt with the Scarlett Witch’s fallout after losing Vision to the Mad Titan and delivered to a place where she will be picked up by Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness. Falcon and the Winter Soldier followed a very similar time period. Loki saw the God of Mischief taken from his Endgame escape and led to a point that again leads into the next outing of Doctor Strange or there about.
We then have Shang-Chi, which doesn’t have too much crossover with existing MCU events, but is again set in pretty much “present day”, and we have Hawkeye coming towards the end of the year which will also sit in the same area. Considering there was a jump of five years between Infinity War and Endgame, it appears that by the time Phase Four comes to a close we well almost have caught up to the year 2023 when Endgame took place. It’s almost as though Marvel have a plan.
Eternals is currently slated to arrive in theaters on November 5th, and with Shang-Chi doing well at the box office, it doesn’t look like that is about to change.