What the fuck’s going on with the timeline in Spider-Man Homecoming? I have two main issues: the first being the 8 years later thing, and the second being related to one of Happy Hogan’s lines at the end of the movie.

First of all, we know that Adrian Toomes (the Vulture) starts the whole alien weapons gig in 2012, after the Battle of New York during the Avengers. We also know that Spider-Man starts after the battle at Leipzig/Halle and the end of Captain America: Civil War, which took place in 2016. So, presumably, this movie takes place in Fall 2016, since the movie takes place at homecoming and Marvel hasn’t done the future thing since 2008 with Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk. So, why in the hell did Jon Watts include an “8 years later” time-jump? That would place the events of Civil War in 2020, or alternatively the events of the Avengers in 2008, and we know neither of those options are correct. Is this another one of those dumb instances where a director forgets the timeline (a la James Gunn including the Stan Lee/Uatu line about the Fedex guy in Civil War), or am I missing something?

Secondly, at the end of the movie, Happy Hogan mentions he had an engagement ring for Tony and Pepper since 2008, which is assumedly a nod to Iron Man’s release in 2008. However, Iron Man takes place in 2010 according to the MCU timeline, so it would be improbably for Happy to notice a relationship between Tony and Pepper until at least that time (the whole dance scene with the backless dress). In 2008, Tony was probably banging some hookers or something.

So, what can we learn from this? Jon Watts has a sexual fetish for continuity errors.