When Thanos dusted half the universe he also fractured our understanding of the MCU timeline. Avengers: Endgame jumped the franchise five years into the future, and not every Phase IV project has clearly defined its place in the franchise’s timeline. That’s been true of the newest Marvel series, Moon Knight. The studio’s executives and creatives haven’t exactly been forthcoming about what year, or even era, Moon Knight is set in as far as the MCU’s timeline is concerned. But now we know when in the Marvel Universe the show is taking place. A bus billboard in episode two firmly established Moon Knight happens post-Blip. And if that wasn’t enough, Disney+ has confirmed its chronological MCU spot.
In Moon Knight episode two, Steven Grant fights an ancient Egyptian jackal monster in the streets of London. Part of that fight takes place in front of—and into—a red double-decker bus. While Khonshu’s avatar and public transport enthusiasts probably didn’t enjoy how that ride ended, it was a big deal for fans. The side of the bus provides us with the first concrete evidence of when the show takes place. It has a giant poster for the GRC (Global Repatriation Council) first introduced in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
The governments of the MCU’s world created the GRC in 2023, after Hulk brought everyone back, to help relocate those who had returned from the Snap but found their homes and jobs occupied. As Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes learned, not everyone approved of the GRC’s methods. The Flag Smashers sought to destroy the GRC, redistribute its resources, and maintain a world without borders. They all died in that pursuit, but the new Captain America gave a rousing speech on live TV to the planet about why the GRC needed to be better.
This billboard could be old or out of date. However, its slogan, “Reuniting You With Your Better Half,” suggests it is new. The original GRC slogan introduced on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier read, “Reset. Restore. Rebuild.” Regardless, its presence here means the earliest Moon Knight can take place in the MCU is 2023.
What’s the latest though? Spider-Man: No Way Home ends in December of 2024, shortly before the events of Hawkeye. That wrapped its story on December 25. Until now, those are the two most “recent” events in the MCU. Now Disney+ has now confirmed Moon Knight, which is clearly not taking place at Christmas time, happens after Hawkeye.
The streaming site’s Marvel page has a category labeled “Marvel Cinematic Universe in Timeline Order.” And Moon Knight currently sits at the very end of this MCU Timeline playlist, after Hawkeye. That puts the Oscar Isaac-led show in the year 2025. (Spider-Man: No Way Home is not available on Disney+.)
That is unless Khonshu can also send Marc Spector/Steven Grant back in time to Ancient Egypt. If that happens we’ll probably give up on trying to understand the MCU timeline and where Moon Knight fits into it and move to He Who Remains’ Citadel.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
