First announced back in December last year and recently previewed with a trailer, Marvel Studios will soon be releasing “Marvel Studios: The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline” – a new coffee table book that serves as an official guide to the MCU timeline.
The 344-page work is being co-written by authors and journalists Anthony Breznican, Rebecca Theodore-Vachon, and Amy Ratcliffe and aims to deconstruct ‘every moment’ from the 15-year history of the MCU – the action running from 2008’s “Iron Man” through to next month’s second season of the Disney+ series “Loki”.
One thing you likely won’t be seeing in it though? References to any series from the now-shuttered Marvel Television division.
Whilst the various shows for ABC, Netflix, Hulu and the like referred to MCU events and even boasted the odd familiar guest star, it was always a one-way street with none of the MCU films referring to events on the shows.
Now, The Direct reports that while the book doesn’t hit retailers until late October, an extended preview of the title is now up on Amazon which allows some of the book’s contents to be searched. After searching for specific entries, they say:
“By searching further, including in the index, it’s easy to see that all Agents of SHIELD material has been completely omitted. There’s no mention of the Terrigen outbreak, Ghost Rider, or Chronicoms. On top of that, nothing from shows like Daredevil, Cloak and Dagger, or Runaways was listed either.”
Our own search of the index found no reference to either Jessica Jones or Luke Cage. The book has been called the “definitive, filmmaker-endorsed guide to the MCU,” but this seemingly puts a final stamp on their expected stance that only Marvel Studios titles are canon to the MCU.
That would mean any of the events within ABC’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” “Agent Carter” and “Inhumans”; Netflix’s “Daredevil,” “Luke Cage,” “Jessica Jones,” “Iron Fist,” “The Punisher” and “The Defenders”; FX’s “Legion”; FOX’s “The Gifted”; Freeform’s “Cloak and Dagger”; and Hulu’s “Runaways,” “Helstrom,” “M.O.D.O.K.” and “Hit-Monkey” are not.
Could that change with the upcoming multiversal shenanigans of the MCU’s fifth and sixth phases? Whilst the events may not be canon, the casting of several Marvel Netflix actors in their old roles for the upcoming “Daredevil: Born Again” series suggests fan favorites could return albeit as different incarnations of their roles.
The news comes as “Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD,” which was marketed as a tie-in to the MCU films, is celebrating its tenth anniversary.
