When Does the Film "Thor: The Dark World" (2013) Take Place?
"Thor: The Dark World" is a fantasy superhero film written by Don Payne with Robert Rodat, Christopher L. Yost, Christopher Markus, and Stephen McFeely [loosely adapting "The Mighty Thor" #344-#348 (1984) by Walter Simonson] and released October 30th, 2013.
It takes place on the fictional Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline in the year:
We know this because, very early in the film, Erik Selvig is arrested while having a nervous breakdown in reaction to events in “The Avengers” (2012). When he is released from a mental institution and collected by Darcy Lewis, partway through the film, his documents appear to have a date ending in "13".
2013 AD
We know this because, very early in the film, Erik Selvig is arrested while having a nervous breakdown in reaction to events in “The Avengers” (2012). When he is released from a mental institution and collected by Darcy Lewis, partway through the film, his documents appear to have a date ending in "13".
Certainly, the story's inclusion of the unique London skyscraper the Gherkin in several scenes tells us it must be after 2004 AD when the building was completed.
Furthermore, at the start of a series of scenes in "The Avengers: Endgame" (2019) that show us moments of this film from a new perspective, there is a large time and place setting title card over the footage that reads "ASGARD 2013".
Additionally, the film includes a prologue depicting the defeat of an army of the Dark Elves. This moment is first referred to as "millennia ago" and later as the start of "a peace that lasted thousands of years". This prologue is unplaceable.
There is also a second prologue that depicts a moment of fallout from the end of “The Avengers” (2012). Though it is not specified, logically, it is probably soon after the end of that film, which takes place in June of 2012 AD. So, presumably, this second prologue takes place then.
This Geekritique article and video examines its exact setting.
It is a chronologically midway film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (a third chronological film featuring Thor; the second chronological film to feature him solo).
