Marvel finally admits to – and fixes – glaring Spider-Man: Homecoming error

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has addressed timeline discrepancy

Marvel has finally fixed one of the most glaring errors that featured in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

In 2017, when Tom Holland’s debut standalone film as the character was released, many die-hard Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) viewers noticed that the timecard featured in an early scene was actually incorrect.

After a scene setting up the film’s villain, Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes aka the Vulture, the intertitle “8 Years Later” appears on the screen – however, the film takes place before the year this would position it as within the MCU timeline.

The Direct noticed a clarification in a new book, which is titled Marvel Studios’ The Marvel Cinematic Universe – An Official Timeline.

On page 173, a text box explains that Toomes incorrectly says the Battle of New York, as featured in Avengers Assenble, occurred eight years before the events of Homecoming.

In actual fact, it happened four years before, meaning the film is set in 2016 and not, as the incorrect timecard would suggest, 2020.

As explained by character Miss Minutes, the animated Time Variane Authority mouthpiece in Disney+ series Loki, “Adrien 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.”

Of course, thanks to Loki, time is no longer a straight line in the MCU, with the latest Doctor Strange and Ant-Man films exploring the Multiverse, which is a series of alternate timelines featuring Marvel characters, dead and alive.

Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) is to blame for the glaring Marvel error in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ (Sony Pictures Releasing)

In the book’s foreword, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige acknowleged that there might be timeline discrepancies featured in the MCU as several projects “were created by different storytellers during different periods of Marvel’s history.”

He added: “The timeline presented in this book is specific to the MCU’s Sacred Timeline through Phase 4. But, as we move forward and dive deeper into the Multiverse Saga, you never know when timelines may just crash or converge (hint, hint/spoiler alert).”

Loki is currently airing on Disney+, with new Captain Marvel film, The Marvels, set to be released on 10 November.