Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special Fixes Love & Thunder's Timeline

This article contains spoilers for the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special fixes Thor: Love & Thunder's place in the MCU timeline. The first two phases of the MCU were told in timeline order, making it quite easy to figure out how events flow into one another. All that changed with Phase 3, however, which began to tell the stories out of sequence. MCU's Phase 4 timeline has been even more confusing, not helped by a number of stories that explore the multiverse.

The Disney+ MCU timeline places the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special at the very end, meaning it's the latest event in the timeline to date. While it's true this Disney+ timeline is far from perfect, in this case it makes sense; it's possible to date Ms. Marvel in fall 2025, and this special then comes at Christmas. It has to be noted that there is nothing to officially confirm whether the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is set in Christmas 2025 or 2026, but the MCU is unlikely to jump forward a whole year for no reason. That's especially true given the Holiday Special serves as setup for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which releases next year, and Marvel surely won't want to mess up the timeline even more.

Groot's Growth Fixes Thor: Love & Thunder's Place In The MCU Timeline

Drax, Nebula, Mantis, Rocket, and Groot look at Quill and Thor as they talk about love in the Thor: Love And Thunder trailer.

This actually helps with deciding Thor: Love & Thunder's place in the MCU timeline. This has been a matter of substantial debate in the fanbase, because the film itself could easily be set in either 2024 or 2025. Thor claims he'd broken up with Jane Foster "eight years, seven months, and six days" ago, but that breakup could theoretically happen anytime after Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015. Thor is mentioned as having largely disappeared by the time of Captain America: Civil War in 2016, so some argue the breakup must have happened shortly after Avengers: Age of Ultron. Others point to the fact the breakup still seems like news in Thor: Ragnarok, which kicks off in 2017, and so argue for a later date.

There must be a fairly substantial time-gap between Thor: Love & Thunder and the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, however. Groot does grow inconsistently throughout the timeline; he matures from baby form to teenager in just a couple of years. But he is still in teenage form in Thor: Love & Thunder, while he's changed substantially in the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. It's difficult to imagine such a radical change occurring in just a couple of months, thus suggesting Thor: Love & Thunder should be set in late 2024, and the Holiday Special at Christmas 2025.

Why The MCU Timeline Has Become So Difficult

Groot looking down and smiling in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

From an out-of-universe perspective, there's a simple reason the MCU timeline has become so difficult; it's because Marvel is producing more content than ever before, often in siloed teams, and the order of release seems to be flexible. Even showrunners have admitted to having no idea where their stories will fit into the overarching MCU timeline. In the case of Moon Knight, explicit scenes that would have helped date the show in relation to other events were deliberately cut, although there are still clues in - of all places - the phases of the moon.

The Disney+ MCU timeline hasn't really helped matters. In general, it tends to place the latest release at the very end of the sequence - even when such placements can't possibly be right. The problem is most notable in the case of Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings, where Disney+ completely ignores the date of the Chinese festival of Qingming - a crucial part of the plot. Still, in this case, Disney+ does seem to have gotten the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special right, even if Thor: Love & Thunder is in the wrong place.

Next: Every Time Disney+ Broke The MCU Timeline