Bucky Barnes, aka The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) is bad at being a Congressman. Spoilers for Thunderbolts*, but that’s pretty much his whole character arc in the movie. He hates being in Congress, and isn’t much happier when he falls back into what he’s comfortable with: being a superhero. But that’s the least of Bucky’s sins, because he’s front and center in the latest, confusing mess of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) timeline.
To get this out of the way: I’m 100% sure someone at Marvel Studios has a chart that makes sense to them. And every once in a while, they share those charts with the public to explain things like how Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Hawkeye all take place, for the most part, in December of 2024… Despite the movies and shows coming out in 2022, 2021, and earlier in 2021, respectively.
The core of the problem goes back to Avengers: Endgame, which included a five-year time jump that took the MCU from 2018 to 2023. And since then, nearly every MCU TV show and movie has existed a few years ahead of our real timeline. The further problem? They just cannot stop messing with that timeline.
Let’s actually start pre-Thunderbolts* because that’ll give you a scope of where we’re at when the movie starts. Captain America: Brave New World begins in November 2026, with the election of Thaddeus “Thunderbolt*” Ross (Harrison Ford) as President. The movie then jumps forward to track the end of his first hundred days in office as he hulks out and battles Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). So the bulk of the movie takes place in 2027. In addition, Bucky stops by to give Sam a pep talk and explains that he’s on the campaign trail, running for Congress.
(*No relation to the movie. See, that’s how asterisks work, Thunderbolts*!)
Thunderbolts*, we know, is after the events of Brave New World because Bucky is in Congress — and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) specifically references Ross turning into the Hulk. Good so far? Seems like Thunderbolts* takes place in 2027, just later in the year.
…Except once again, Marvel insists on giving a specific reference to timelines. First of all, one data point we can likely ignore is Bucky’s election. Congressional elections happen every two years, and only in even years. But just based on the absolutely confusing way Marvel has rolled out its Presidents (did you notice Ross’s election happened in 2026, not 2024 or 2028?), while Bucky should be running in 2028, let’s say he was facing off in a runoff or something, who cares. To simplify things, he was elected and began his term in 2027. Doesn’t make sense, but moving on.
There are two issues here. The first is that Valentina specifically references about two-thirds of the movie that she’s surprised Bucky only made it half a term before he got back to superhero-ing. And Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan) earlier notes that Bucky hasn’t passed a bill, which also indicates he’s been at this a while. Since Congressional reps serve two years, he’s about a year into his term. After the election, which happened some unspecified chunk of time after the events of Brave New World.
Oh, also: Brave New World ends during Cherry Blossom season in Washington, D.C., which is in March and early April. Again, I don’t want to get too deep in the weeds about the election, but all pieces of evidence point to at least a year passing since Bucky showed up in Cap 4. Meaning we’re now in 2028.
…And then, for no good reason, the end credits scene for Thunderbolts* flashes a title card that says “14 Months Later.” I mean, there is a good reason; it’s to establish that the Thunderbolts team has been the New Avengers for well over a year, and everyone hates them. But it also shunts what is likely the events of Avengers: Doomsday even further down the timeline. If Thunderbolts* takes place in 2028, like we posited above, then depending on where in the year it is, Doomsday takes place in either 2029 or possibly even 2030. Why 2030? I know I promised not to talk about elections, but if Bucky is elected in November of 2027, begins his term in 2028, and has been in Congress for about a year, then that’s in 2029, and 14 months after that is 2030. Or maybe even 2031! Oh my god!
In conclusion, Thunderbolts* takes place in either 2027, 2028, or 2029, and the end credits scene is set in either 2028, 2029, 2030, or 2031. Most likely? Thunderbolts* is set in 2027, and Doomsday is in 2028, and Marvel is not nearly as concerned about all this as I am. Whatever the truth, we’ll get an official timeline eventually. But frankly, I can’t wait for Avengers: Secret Wars to come out and reboot the whole thing. Unless they do another time jump.
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