With more than a dozen movies already finished, and more on the way, you'd be forgiven for losing track of what's going on in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Apparently, Marvel has their own unique way of keeping track of it themselves. Somewhere in Marvel Studios, there is an actual scroll which sets out the entire timeline of the MCU. Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts revealed the existence of the scroll recently, having it actually unrolled for him when he took on the job. According to Watts...
Well, there is this scroll. It's an actual scroll they unrolled for me... It's the most amazing thing because it starts, no joke, at the beginning of time. So you can see where all the events line up! Like, oh that's when Captain America was born.
What's interesting is that the scroll apparently doesn't only keep track of the MCU, but it actually covers the timeline of the entire universe. Everything that has occurred within the MCU, whether or not we've seen it, or potentially, whether or not the event actually had an impact on the MCU in any way. Entertainment Weekly asked Jon Watts if the timeline literally begins with the big bang and while he couldn't recall exactly, it sounds like it begins with some of the earliest events that would have happened within the Marvel universe.
I can't remember specifically but I think it has something to do with a Thor storyline. Or maybe Guardians. It's the MCU version of the history of time. It's a very long scroll. Longer than conference table. It's a pretty amazing document.
Certainly, there are events referenced within some of the MCU movies, like the existence of the ancient celestial being whose body makes up Knowhere in Guardians of the Galaxy or the history of the universe as Asgard explains it, which could be described in more detail on this scroll. We never see them, but we know they happen.
Of course, knowing that this scroll exists, we have to wonder exactly what it says in regards to the most current parts of the timeline. There is a perceived flaw regarding how the events of The Avengers lead into Spider-Man: Homecoming. The dates just don't seem to line up. If we got a look at this scroll, would everything make sense? Alternatively, will the entire scroll need to be adjusted in order to make everything fit together?
We also can't help but wonder how far forward in time the scroll currently goes. Does it stop with the most current events within the MCU or, if we were able to get a look, would we get a peek into the future and events that are planned, but have yet to occur?
