When Does the Film "Spider-Man" (2002) Take Place?
"Spider-Man" is a superhero film written by David Koepp with Scott Rosenberg [adapting "Amazing Fantasy" #15 (1962) by Stan Lee as well as "The Amazing Spider-Man" #121-#122 (1973) by Gerry Conway] and released May 3rd, 2002.
It takes place on an alternate timeline of the fictional Marvel Cinematic Universe in the year:
We know this because at least two issues of the fictional tabloid newspaper "The Daily Bugle" appear on-screen cover dated for October of 2001. They read, "Monday October 21, 2001" and "Tuesday October 22, 2001". (Though some covers are entirely undated.) Soon after, the main characters sit down to a Thanksgiving meal, a holiday ritual celebrated in late November in the United States of America. Then, the main action resolves very soon after, almost certainly still within the 2001 AD calendar year.
2001 AD
We know this because at least two issues of the fictional tabloid newspaper "The Daily Bugle" appear on-screen cover dated for October of 2001. They read, "Monday October 21, 2001" and "Tuesday October 22, 2001". (Though some covers are entirely undated.) Soon after, the main characters sit down to a Thanksgiving meal, a holiday ritual celebrated in late November in the United States of America. Then, the main action resolves very soon after, almost certainly still within the 2001 AD calendar year.
Furthermore, in a very early scene of the film, a teacher is taking Peter Parker, Harry Osborn, Mary Jane Watson, and Flash Thompson on a field trip and refers to the class as "Midtown High seniors". This implies that the graduation scene a third of the way through the film must only take place a matter of months later than the field trip scene. Though, how long the last two thirds (including "The Daily Bugle" covers) occurs after this first third of the film is unclear. At earliest, this would set the first third of the film in late 2000 AD.
It was retroactively absorbed into the Marvel Cinematic Universe at a chronologically early place (a first chronological film to feature Peter Parker/Spider-Man) and can be watched either at its timeline point, before "Spider-Man: No Way Home" (2021) as part of an extended flashback, or entirely separately.
