Seeing what I can tackle in the rest of your post before I get to work
In fact, the credits scene for Iron Man implies that they do take place before it.
Agents of SHIELD (which, yes IS still officially part of the MCU) tells us that SHIELD has been keeping an eye on people with extraordinary abilities for a while (known as "The Index"). (just wanted to add that in addition to my previous post pointing out the content in Iron Man 2 that has it taking place at the same time as TIH and Thor). Which, by the way, also means that there's technically that to fit into the timeline as well - again, regardless what people think of it, it IS still part of the MCU (for example, we know that Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier don't happen terribly far apart from each other because within the first half of season 1 there's an episode where they're cleaning up in London after the events of TDW and by the end of the season they're bumping into what's going on in The Winter Soldier. So there's a few months or so, but nothing like an entire year or more.... the next season, a year later, Coulson is the one that's refurbished helicarrier #64 for Fury, etc...)
So far no one has been able to show me anything from in the films that show why Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and The Avengers couldn't have happened all in the same year. All I've heard so far is that there is six months between the first and second confirmed by dialogue. That leaves up to six months between Iron Man 2 and The Avengers where they could still fit in the same year.
I've told you multiple things
in the films that have told why they can't all have happened in the same year. You just insist on ignoring
what's present in those films (I mean seriously, how do you ignore Coulson telling Tony that he's going to New Mexico, the post credit scene of Iron Man 2 being Coulson arriving in New Mexico and finding Thor's hammer, and then try to put Thor as happening BEFORE the first Iron Man film?! - as I said, you're grasping at straws)
There's nothing imprecise about it, it's just informal. Wouldn't it be weird if he had stated it down to the month or day?I think that's ridiculous.
If it had been any character other than Vision, yes... it would have been odd. But this is Vision we're talking about. A being born from the combination of an AI/Computer program and an Infinity Stone. Again, him (out of all the characters) being more precise would not surprise me at all. And again (as TVO said), there is no reason why the bigass "8 Years Later" shown on screen would be something stated 'informally'.
They have published timelines and there are thousands of people working on these films (including dozens to hundreds that check over the script and storyboards.) This was definitely intentional.
Yes, they do have published timelines. In fact, they published one of those timelines FOR US (the timeline included in the Art of Avengers book)... if you want to bring up them having published timelines, then that HAS to be included. And that timeline shows (in addition to what's said and shown in Iron Man 2 itself) that those three movies take place during the same time frame (AND take place 6 months after the events of Iron Man). And, again, dialogue within Avengers itself states that there's at least a year (possibly a bit more, given Widow's "it's been
more than a year" since Banner's last incident) between TIH/Thor and Avengers. So, again, there's at least a year and a half between the first Iron Man and Avengers. So if one of the 8 year statements is right (and both of them aren't a writer's mistake) then someone is still wrong and it's either Civil War or Homecoming.
Hard as it may be to accept, if you look at the facts, the conflict is purely between Iron Man 3 and Homecoming.
No... IM3 is not the only conflict, as stated.
Iron Man 3 in turn causes a ripple effect across several other films that simply do not exist without it. For example, the only reason Homecoming conflicts with The Avengers is that The Avengers seems to happen soon before Iron Man 3 which we are certain occurs in 2013.
2012, not 2013 (December 1999+13 years=December 2012)
Marvel released this film knowing this conflict would exist and that Iron Man 3 would take the fall. If they could have avoided it, they would have, but it clashes with their plans to keep Peter in high school for his solo films. So they retconned knowing that Iron Man 3 would no longer fit quite right...it is the weakest link, goodbye.
How do you know they realized this conflict would exist? Continuity errors happen in film franchises ALL THE TIME (the MCU is not immune). Has there been a quote yet by a PTB that they're intentionally shifting the pre-existing timeline/what had already been established? Show me that... otherwise, you're simply stating what you *think* they know, you don't know that for a fact - you are not involved in their meetings, you don't know what specific details have or haven't been discussed
They probably did this so that Homecoming 2 would take place in 2019, the same year as it is released in theaters.
Maybe they did... or maybe it was a mistake. As far as I can tell, there's been no indication either way yet and so (again) for me/for now, I'm taking the more simple route of going with writer's having made mistakes in 2 films (Homecoming and Civil War) rather than try to completely readjust more than 2 films in the rest of the previous MCU (because, again, IM3 is not the only conflicting problem).
There are props in the current film confirming that it is 2018. These props were custom-made so we can be certain that this was the filmmaker's absolute intention. .
Oh I love it when someone cites props (btw, just out of curiosity, what props? Were there close ups of these props that weren't... how did you put it "something like a blurry calendar in the background"? because I honestly don't remember seeing anything like that).
Ultimately though Props are not always perfect. Seriously... go to Captain America: The Winter Soldier and, based on Bucky's Smithsonian exhibit, tell me what year James Buchanan Barnes was born.
Better yet, I will even provide you with a link to a screenshot of the full text of his exhibit:
here
Props aren't perfect/are not always right. The prop makers are not always given exact teenie tiny little details like dates unless that date is of a significant event where it's the date that they're focusing on (i.e. a newspaper in a movie covering that 9/11 happened just days before should probably have a date on it that corrisponds/makes sense with 9/11 having just happened and not have a year that's 4 years later).
(apologies if anything I said was confusing, it's been one of those mornings already... and I still have 7 hours of work to go)
