When Does the Film "Iron Man" (2008) Take Place?
"Iron Man" is a superhero film written by Mark Fergus with Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway [adapting "Tales of Suspense" #39 (1962) by Stan Lee as well as "Iron Man" #200 (1985) by Dennis O'Neil] and released May 2nd, 2008.
It takes place on the fictional Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline in the year:
We know this because, about one-third through the movie, a current date of "May 4, 2008" is seen on a TV broadcasting a news program as well an advanced tablet-like digital display in front of Pepper Potts.
2008 AD
We know this because, about one-third through the movie, a current date of "May 4, 2008" is seen on a TV broadcasting a news program as well an advanced tablet-like digital display in front of Pepper Potts.
In a rare case, because of the many later films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the time that this story takes place has moved in relation to the others. Wikipedia chronicles these changes in the film's relative spot on the timeline in the page devoted to the series' timeline. At first, it was assumed to be 2008 AD. Then, based on a title card that reads "6 months later" after the prologue of "Iron Man 2" (2010) that proved extremely frustrating to MCU fans, the story was retroactively moved to 2010 AD. A title card, being a third-person omniscient statement, overrode the previous information. Later, multiple bits of dialogue in multiple films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe more explicitly placed the events of the film back in 2008 AD, connecting properly with the evidence in the film itself.
This Geekritique article and video examines its exact setting.
It is a chronologically early film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (the first chronological film to feature Tony Stark/Iron Man) and can be watched either at its timeline point or entirely separately.
