The first scene of the movie is presumably set in the immediate aftermath of The Avengers. The movie then fast-forwards to '8 years later'.
But Spider-Man already appeared in Civil War as a high school student, which he still is in this movie. So what's the timeline here? If Avengers was set in 2012 and Civil War in 2016, how can Homecoming be in 2020?
Or am I wrong in assuming the canonical timelines of the other movies?
This confused me as well. If we are to assume that the first Iron Man came out in its release year, 2008, which is pretty much universally agreed-upon.
According to this link which was published all over the place including Entertainment weekly as promo material for Avengers, it looks like Avengers happens only 6 months after Iron Man, which would put it in 2008.
Then Vision says in Civil War, "In the 8 years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man, the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially. And during the same period, a number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurable rate." That has to put Age of Ultron in 2016. Civil War and Homecoming take place at the same time.
According to the Russo Brothers, "We like to say that the amount of time that has passed in between films is the amount of time that has passed in the movies" which is a year, so that would put both Civil War and Homecoming in 2017.
So Iron Man (2008), 6 months later (2008-09?) Avengers, Age of Ultron (2016) beginning of Homecoming, 8 years later Spider-Man: Homecoming/Captain America: Civil War (2017).
tl;dr: The short answer is, if we go by the one single explicit date that appears in the movie, and we take Spider-Man as a stand-alone movie, then it's happening in September of 2017.
The long answer is: It's is basically impossible to make sense of the MCU timeline if we assume everything in all the official Marvel MCU material (movies, tie-in comics, etc) are true. The most likely explanation is that the time-frame stated in Spider-Man: Homecoming is just a mistake, but whether or not it can now be retrofitted into the MCU timeline is still a bit of a debate.
The movie itself gives a few clues to when it takes place, all pointing to September of 2017. These clues include:
According to its poster, the Decathalon takes place on Sept. 14; their school trip takes place over a "long weekend". Sept. 14, 2017 is a Thursday, and Sept. 14, 2018 is a Friday. The real Decathlon takes place in April, but starts on either a Thursday or Friday, so either of those years would make sense.
The AI in Peter's suit pulls up the criminal record of one of the guy's Peter's chasing -- he was born in April 1984 and is 33. That definitively puts the movie in 2017.
According to reports from people on the set:
In place of ads touting real N.Y.C. tourist spots, there are posters hawking the 2018 Stark World Expo
Generally speaking, with a couple of notable exception, the MCU movies are assumed to take place on, or very near, their release dates. (The exceptions so far as The Incredible Hulk, which occurs after it was released, and Guardians of the Galaxy 2, which occurs about three years prior to it's release). According to the filmmakers, Spider-Man: Homecoming is another movie that is set earlier than it's release date, in order to better tie it in with Captain America: Civil War:
There will be some awkward chronology in that the movie comes out almost two years after Civil War, but we’re playing it like it’s a few months after Civil War. [...] If we say that it was actually two years after Civil War then he’s moving on, he’s a senior, and when the next movie comes out, it’s his sophomore year of college, and we really wanted to do multiple movies where he’s in high school.
Beyond that, if we assume that everything we've seen is true, then here are the specifics of the MCU timeline that we can pin down:
The only way that #1, #4, #5, and #6 can all be true at the same time, is if Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and Avengers happened within the same year. The only way #3, #7, and #8 can all be true at the same time is if Iron Man takes place at least 18 months before Avengers. Obviously, both of those can't be true, so one of our assumptions must be wrong.
One option is, we can ignore all of the official material that didn't actually appear on screen, even if it was officially produced by Marvel. If we do this, we can set Iron Man in late 2008, Iron Man 2 in 2009, and Avengers in early 2010. That then puts Civil War in July 2017 (8.75 years since Iron Man) and Homecoming in September 2017 (7.5 years since Avengers, 8 years since Iron Man 2). Assuming we allow for a bit of extremely convenient rounding, that can be made to fit both movie's timelines.
While this does seem to fit with the details of the movie n, but it requires us to really stretch credulity. Just based on how much has changed with all the various characters between our first, a single year seems a stretch. It also requires us to discard the idea that these movies generally happen in "real time", which has otherwise made a lot of sense even within the broader MCU (e.g. the Agents of SHIELD and Netflix shows).
Alternatively, we can accept that Fury's Big Week is canon, and instead assume that either Civil War or Homecoming made a mistake in the timeline. Ignoring the title card as a production mistake is pretty easy. Ignoring the characters contradictory statements is a bit harder: it means that either Vision was wrong, and none of the Avengers (or Ross) noticed; or else, Toomes was wrong, and no one in his crew noticed. Given the circumstances, and the people involved, I think it's far more likely that Toomes made the mistake here.
Since option #2 seems far more likely than option #1, and since the "8 years" detail contradicts almost everything else we think is true, I think we are justified in assuming that's a mistake on Marvel/Sony's part.
In a promotional Q&A for Infinity War, Joe Russo says that "8 years later" in Spider-Man "a very incorrect eight years."
Chanchlani: What was the time gap between the events of Avengers and Spider-Man Homecoming?
Russo: Oh it was it was 8 years I believe.
Chanchlani: And it was quite controversial.
Russo: Yes, it was a very incorrect eight years.
This is especially true, since Tony Stark clearly states it has been 6 years since The Battle of New York (i.e. Avengers) in Avengers: Infinity War, and Spider-Man Homecoming takes place before that.
8 years earlier refers to the time at which that particular scene took place, the scene where Adrian Toomes' company is muscled out of their city-contract for cleaning up all Avengers collateral by the Stark-NYC joint Damage Control. This particular scene is 8 years prior to 2018 (where the rest of the movie takes place), and places it perfectly in-line with The Avengers movie.
We then jump back to the present (2018), where Adrian's new venture of alien-weaponry is flourishing.
To surmise, 8 years earlier refers to the clean-up operation for the Chitauri invasion from The Avengers movie. Specifically to Damage Control essentially ruining Adrian Toomes' livelihood and setting him down the path of villainy!
Aaron Davis, the criminal Spider-Man tracks down, is stated to be 33 years old and to have been born in April 1984 by Spider-Man's suit readout. This would set the film in 2017 or 2018. This, as well the factors mentioned in other answers, means the title card must be an error.
Sony/Marvel simply goofed. And, Vision clearly made an error as well.
Remember, Sony/Marvel want Peter to stay in High School. They soooo goofed. We as fans notice this stuff and wonder how they goofed but hey at least we all know whats up.
OR! Dr.Strange's usage of the Time Stone messed everything up! BOOM! Fan theory. You're welcome.
According to Marvel Studios’ The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline, which tells the official chronology of the MCU, Spider-Man: Homecoming is actually set in 2016, not 2020, as the movie suggests.
The book states that it was an error when Homecoming showed that it took place 8 years after the Battle of New York in The Avengers, which, according to the same book, occurred in the spring of 2012.
The book is presented as an in-universe guidebook written by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) (introduced in the Loki TV series). It has a note from Miss Minutes, the TVA’s AI mascot, who says that Adrian Toomes was wrong about the 8-year gap and adds that a TVA analyst might have misplaced the case file, causing the error. Hopefully, there will be no further errors by the time Loki (or Sylvie) takes over the TVA.
REDLINE ALERT!
Hi again! Adrian Toomes says the Battle of New York was 8 years ago. but that event was only 4 years prior This one's a real head scratcher for us—I reckon an Analyst misplaced the case file.
2008- Iron man; Incredible hulk
2009- Iron man 2, thor
2010- Avengers
2014- Thor 2
2015- Iron man 3
2016-CapAmerica 2
2017- Avengers2
2018- CapAmerica3, Spider-Man Homecoming
