Exact Answer: 4 years
Both Avengers and Spider-Man Homecoming are blockbuster films that are integral parts of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Each of these films is based on the characters and storylines created in the Marvel comic books.
Avengers outlined the first culminating battle between the earth’s mightiest superheroes and an alien army from outer space. This movie was the first of its kind- credited to bring together all the Marvel superheroes earlier seen in their standalone pieces. Spider-Man was introduced formally in the MCU through a standalone film titled Spider-Man Homecoming. However, he had already been partially featured in the MCU in the Captain America: Civil War movie.
How Long After Avengers Is Spider Man Homecoming?
In most mythical and cinematic worlds, fans can calculate the time period between two events in a number of different ways. In the case of the MCU, this is equally applicable. One can calculate the time difference between the first Avengers film and the Spider-Man Homecoming installment in 2 ways.
The first route would entail an assessment of the real-world time gap between the release dates of the films, while the second route would look at the reel world, storylines of each project. If we pursue the first option, then Spider-Man Homecoming takes place 5 years after the initial Avengers movie. Avengers was released in 2012, while Spider-Man Homecoming was released after 5 years, i.e. in 2017.
However, most fans of the MCU go by the in-story timeline of films rather than looking at each film’s year of release. In following this path we can state that there is a 4-year interval between Avengers and Spider-Man Homecoming. The events in each of these films, along with the other Marvel films released in between testify to this date.
There is a controversy about the actual gap between these two films in the MCU because of a misrepresented time stamp that was made visible in the Spider-Man Homecoming film. Erroneously, this film suggested that there was an 8-year time gap between the battle of New York and the events of this film. This implied that the Spider-Man film was placed in 2020. This confusion was later clearer up by Marvel Executive, Kevin Feige, stating that the official gap between the films is 4 years.
In Summary:
| Route of Calculation | Time Gap |
| Real World (Release Dates) | 5 years |
| In-Story Mistaken timeline | 8 years |
| Event-Wise | 4 years |
Why Is Spider Man Homecoming So Long After Avengers?
Spider-Man Homecoming is 4 years after the battle of New York because the MCU focused on developing several other storylines in between the two films. Spider-Man was partially introduced to the Marvel audience in Captain America: Civil War. He was a part of the infamous airport fight sequence in the film. The recruitment process of Spider-Man is also outlined in this movie.
Since Captain America: Civil War (2016) took place in the same year of its release- according to the official Marvel timeline- Spider-Man Homecoming had to be tied to this time frame. When Peter Parker is being recruited by Tony Stark he is in high school, approaching homecoming.
Homecoming events shown in the film were supposed to happen after merely 2 months of the airport battle scene in Civil War. Therefore, it would make minimal sense to place Spider-Man Homecoming several years after the events happening in the Captain America movie. Following this rationale, the makers of the film decided to announce that fans need to disregard the 8 year time stamp mistakenly featured in the film. The official gap remains 4 years after Avengers and 2 months after Civil War.
The 5-year real-world gap between the films is a result of Marvel investing time and energy in the production of other standalone feature films. Release-wise, Spider-Man was released in 2017, after several other Marvel superhero films were released. Moreover, to clarify the mistaken 8-year time stamp in the film, Marvel released an official timeline for fans that placed Spider-Man Homecoming along with Captain America: Civil War in 2016.
Conclusion
Marvel has created an outstanding cinematic universe featuring some of the most beloved, phenomenal, and notable superhero characters. Fans of the MCU are constantly engaging in ways to figure out the appropriate timeline of the films released in the first phase of the MCU.
There is a 5-year gap between the first Avengers movie that was released in 2012 and the Spider-Man Homecoming film that was released in 2017. However, in terms of the storylines pursued and displayed in each of the films, this gap is minimized to only 4 years. Thus, Spider-Man Homecoming takes place 4 years after the battle of New York.
References
- https://www.diegesis.uni-wuppertal.de/index.php/diegesis/article/viewFile/385/587
- https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2783258.2783325
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