Where Does Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness Fit Into The MCU Timeline?

A new Marvel Cinematic Universe film has landed, with "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" cemented as the 28th movie in the ever-expanding catalog that also includes six television series. The project has the tall order of following up "Spider-Man: No Way Home" — a cameo-riddled film with blasts from Sony's past that didn't disappoint fans or critics. The second "Doctor Strange" solo flick also follows the season finale of the highly-applauded "Moon Knight," which is seemingly detached from the MCU as a whole with only a few nods to its predecessors.

With all these projects landing closer than ever, many fans are wondering where they all fit on the timeline of the MCU. Within the last year, the multiverse burst wide open, thanks to the events of the Disney+ series "Loki," which was recently confirmed by Kevin Feige. This makes lining things up in a row with a pretty bow on top pretty impossible, and we're all going to have to accept that nothing takes place one right after the other. The MCU timeline is very much like many of the movies within it — not entirely perfect.

Many Marvel Studios projects happen alongside one another or even in a place outside of time. Based on everything we know from "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and a small comment from "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," we can at least deduce the relative time frame that the new film takes place.

To figure out where "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" fits on the MCU timeline, we need to travel back and look at the last few projects. "Hawkeye" was confirmed to take place during Christmas time in the year 2024 — remember, we're still in the future thanks to the time jump from "Avengers: Endgame." At the time of the show's airing, "Hawkeye" was the furthest MCU project out and remained so after "Spider-Man: No Way Home." The beginning of the Tom Holland film took place immediately after the events of "Spider-Man: Far From Home," which was confirmed for the summer of 2024. By the end of that film, after all of the multiversal fallout, we saw Spidey swing past the big tree in Rockefeller Center, revealing the end of that movie was occurring at the same time as "Hawkeye." 

Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) was obviously a huge part of the third "Spider-Man" MCU film and was instrumental in opening and essentially closing the multiverse. With Stephen mentioning the multiverse directly in that movie and the word being in the new film's subtitle, it's really not a surprise to find out that "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" takes place after "No Way Home."

Unfortunately, we cannot be 100% certain where "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" falls on the MCU timeline. This is something we just have to accept about most Marvel Studios projects going forward. But, we can narrow it down to two more specific points of time before we get confirmation from the powers-that-be at Feige and company. There is a significant time jump between Doctor Strange closing the crack in the multiverse in "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and when Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is swinging around at Christmas time. There are at least a few months of time here, from summer to fall, that we don't see play out on screen. It's entirely possible that "Multiverse of Madness" occurs during these months.

There's also a good chance "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" is the first MCU property to take place in 2025. There is no indication in the film that any of it is taking place during Christmas time, so if it is after all the events of "No Way Home," it's probably in the new year. Also, remember, a lot of this movie is happening in the multiverse, and we need to disregard time altogether. If "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" does indeed land in 2025, it would be the furthest out project in the MCU currently. For now, it doesn't look like our personal timeline is ever going to catch up with what's going on in the cinematic universe, but that's why we shouldn't be too concerned with when things are exactly taking place. It's more important to focus on when these events are happening in relation to one another and not specific dates.

When it comes to "Moon Knight" and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," we know that the events of both projects happen post-Blip, but when might just remain a mystery forever.