When Does ‘Black Widow’ Take Place In the Marvel Timeline?

Black Widow is finally out in the world, kicking ass in theaters and in your living room thanks to Disney+ (with Premier Access). In addition to all the COVID-related delays that kept the film from dropping in 2020, fans have spent over a decade waiting for Scarlett Johansson’s Avenger to get her own movie. Now it’s here, and it can finally take its place in the increasingly complex Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline.

How complex is the MCU timeline? Well, the last time we saw Black Widow was in Avengers: Endgame—and she died. How does a dead superhero star in her own movie? Is this Zombie Natasha? Or has she come back from the dead? Or is this an origin story that predates her debut in Iron Man 2? What is going on and when is it going on?

Since Black Widow only drops subtle clues as to where it falls in the overall Marvel narrative, here’s everything you need to know about where Black Widow takes place in the MCU timeline.

Where does Black Widow take place in the MCU Timeline?

Black Widow takes place immediately after 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. So as far as Black Widow is concerned, her solo film takes place between Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. That’s really all you need to know to understand where she’s at at this point in her story, emotionally. She just saw her found family—one that she fought to keep together—torn apart! So the revised viewing order for this chunk of the MCU timeline is now:

• Captain America: Civil War
• Black Widow
• Black Panther
• Spider-Man: Homecoming

To get more SPOILER-y and even more confusingly precise: all of Black Widow takes place around the 2:15:15 mark of Captain America: Civil War. We know that because the film ends with—again, SPOILERS—a newly blonde Natasha hopping in her newly-acquired (re: stolen) Quinjet and taking off to go bust some friends out of jail. So if you’re watching things in chronological order, you’d stop Civil War at 2:15:15, watch all of Black Widow, and then resume Civil War to see Captain America spring his buds out of jail. Now we know that Black Widow was there with Cap, keeping the car running offscreen—and we now know that Falcon, Wanda, Ant-Man, and Hawkeye were chilling in the Raft for a little bit of time before their rescue.

Black Widow’s ending also sets up Avengers: Infinity War, adding a lot more emotional heft to Natasha’s minor role in the film. We now know that Black Widow’s dramatically different look in that film is a nod to her sister, Yelena. She’s wearing Yelena’s vest (with so many pockets) and has blonde hair like her sister. And if Yelena was blipped out of existence for five years, this would also explain why Natasha didn’t cut all the blonde off during that time, as seen in Avengers: Endgame. She was holding on to memories of her sister. And/or, y’know, she was really depressed and the last year has, uh, really taught all of us about haircare and depression.

So to sum it all up: Black Widow takes place between her appearances in Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.

Stream Black Widow on Disney+ with Premier Access