When Does the Film "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014) Take Place?
"Guardians of the Galaxy" is a comedy science fiction film written by James Gunn with Nicole Perlman, Joss Whedon, and Chris McCoy [loosely adapting "Annihilation: Conquest" #3-#6 (2008) as well as "Guardians of the Galaxy" #1 v2 (2008), both by Dan Abnett with Andy Lanning] and released August 1st, 2014.
It takes place on the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline in the year:
We know this because the film's heart-wrenching prologue opens with a place and time setting title card that reads "Earth 1988" and then the beginning of the story's main action includes another title card that tells the audience it's now "26 YEARS LATER" from 1988 AD.
2014 AD
We know this because the film's heart-wrenching prologue opens with a place and time setting title card that reads "Earth 1988" and then the beginning of the story's main action includes another title card that tells the audience it's now "26 YEARS LATER" from 1988 AD.
1988 + 26 = 2014.
Furthermore, at the start of a series of shots in "The Avengers: Endgame" (2019) that show us some shots entirely used again as well as moments of this film from a new perspective, there is a large time and place setting title card over the footage that reads "MORAG 2014". (Morag is the planet shown in the first scene of the main action of the story.)
Being a story that takes place almost entirely off the planet Earth, there are no other clear markers to tell us more about when it takes place.
This Geekritique article and video examines its exact setting.
It is a chronologically midway film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (the first chronological film to feature the Guardians of the Galaxy) and can be watched either at its timeline point, before “The Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) as an extended flashback, or entirely separately.
