Warning: This post includes spoilers for Black Widow.

Marvel subtly just confirmed where Black Widow takes place in the MCU timeline and it’s not as straightforward as it first seemed. The answer is that it doesn’t actually take place after the events of Captain America: Civil War, but at the same time as part of that movie.

After her debut more than a decade ago, Black Widow finally gives Natasha Romanoff her own story. And as much as she was killed in Avengers: Endgame, it is Black Widow that gives her the true send-off the Russos couldn’t fit in their own movie. By picking up narrative threads from throughout Nat’s MCU run, Black Widow explains much of the mystery of her origin without showing it explicitly and gives her both a new family and reinforces why the Avengers are her people. That’s despite her being forced into hiding at the end of Civil War after betraying Tony Stark.

Related: One Endgame Moment Made Black Widow’s Death More Tragic

And while it has long been assumed that Black Panther would tell the story of what happened to Natasha in the gap between Civil War and Infinity War, it’s not entirely true. Thanks to the final scene before the credits, it’s established that Natasha’s next move will be helping Steve Rogers break Team Cap out of the underwater Raft super-prison. That puts the events of Black Widow running concurrently with their incarceration, meaning the events of the two films overlap.

The Raft

Click here to watch Black Widow's MCU Timeline Explained at YouTube

Black Widow Happens DURING Civil War, Not After It

It's now been revealed that Captain America’s breakout of his fellow anti-Accords heroes would not have been possible without Black Widow’s access to the Quinjet provided to her by Mason. And Black Widow retrospectively confirms that while Cap appears alone in Civil War’s breakout scene, Black Widow was there all along, hidden off-screen somehow. That confirms that the Raft’s imprisoned Avengers were locked away for longer than it seemed in Civil War, as Black Widow’s events happen over a series of days and the final scene happens two weeks after the fall of the Red Room.

It’s an important qualification for the MCU timeline, but the decision also cleverly gets around the problem of the other Avengers not turning up to help Natasha take down Ray Winstone's Dreykov and Taskmaster. For once, they have a cast-iron alibi for not lending a hand in a solo superhero movie. Black Widow may not show the jailbreak itself, but keeping the illusion of Cap managing to make his way to the cells single-handedly (even with Natasha’s support from the jet) is a good thing for Rogers’ own mythology.

Next: The Best Order To Rewatch The MCU's Movies

Key Release Dates