When looking over the Marvel movies in order, one could certainly classify Spider-Man: Homecoming as one of the more beloved entries, with the 2017 movie placing Tom Holland’s Peter Parker front and center following his introduction in Captain America: Civil War the year prior. However, there is a glaring timeline controversy with Homecoming for those who keep a tight watch on MCU continuity: the main events of the movie are said to take place eight years after The Avengers, when it should be only four years. Well, now Marvel has finally provided an official explanation for this issue, and it involved looping in a Loki character.
Within the new book The Marvel Cinematic Universe - An Official Timeline, Miss Minutes, the Time Variance Authority’s animated mascot from the Loki series, is brought in to attribute this Spider-Man: Homecoming issue as a TVA clerical error. In her words (via ComicBookMovie):
Redline alert! Hi again! Adrian Toomes says the Battle of New York was eight years ago, but that event was only four years prior. This one's a real head-scratcher for us - I reckon an analyst misplaced the case file.
For those who need a refresher, Spider-Man: Homecoming starts off in 2012, immediately after the Battle of New York, where Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes salvage job is taken away by the newly-formed Department of Damage Control. However, because he and his crew had already salvaged a decent amount of leftover Chitauri technology, they’re able to use that as the foundation for what will become their weapons-selling operation. Then the movie jumps to its present day setting, which is said to be eight years later, but should really only be four years since we’re picking back up with Peter and Tony shortly after the Leipzig airport battle, as seen in Civil War.
It's unlikely that the MCU was ever going to directly address this continuity mistake onscreen, but of all the characters to explain what went wrong, picking the mascot for the organization responsible for policing the Sacred Timeline was an excellent choice. Granted, Loki Season 2 has depicted Miss Minutes going rogue, but I’d like to think she provided this clarifying statement on Homecoming prior to Tom Hiddleston’s variant of the Asgardian God of Mischief being brought in.
Of course, a lot’s changed in the life of Holland’s Peter Parker since Spider-Man: Homecoming, from battling Thanos’ army alongside the Avengers to teaming up with two of his variants from other universes. Now thanks to Spider-Man: No Way Home’s ending, the world has forgotten Peter Parker exists, which sets up some interested directions a fourth Holland-led Spider-Man movie could go. As for Adrian Toomes, a.k.a. Vulture, although he and Peter haven’t crossed paths since Homecoming, he was shown in Morbius’s mid-credits scenes being transported to Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, where characters like Tom Hardy’s Venom and Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven the Hunter also live.
If you’re now in the mood to rewatch Spider-Man: Homecoming, it, along with Loki and nearly every other MCU movie and show, can be streamed with a Disney+ subscription. Otherwise, you can consult our upcoming Marvel movies and upcoming Marvel TV shows guides to learn what this franchise has slated over the next several years.
