When Does the Short Film "The Consultant" (2011) Take Place?
"The Consultant" is a comedy spy short film written by Eric Pearson [loosely adapting the Iron Man story in "Tales of Suspense" #95 (1967) by Stan Lee] that released September 13th, 2011. So when is "The Consultant" set?
It takes place on the fictional Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline in the year:
We know this because the short takes place across three days: On the first day, S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Jasper Sitwell asks, "What about the Harlem Incident?", referring to the climax of the main action of the feature film, "The Incredible Hulk" (2008). The characters discuss sending someone to a meeting, which we see on the second day (a scene which also plays at the end of the same Hulk film). The third day is soon after this meeting. All this tells us that this short film functions like an epilogue and takes place between events in "The Incredible Hulk" (2008), which almost certainly takes place entirely in 2011 AD.
2011 AD
We know this because the short takes place across three days: On the first day, S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Jasper Sitwell asks, "What about the Harlem Incident?", referring to the climax of the main action of the feature film, "The Incredible Hulk" (2008). The characters discuss sending someone to a meeting, which we see on the second day (a scene which also plays at the end of the same Hulk film). The third day is soon after this meeting. All this tells us that this short film functions like an epilogue and takes place between events in "The Incredible Hulk" (2008), which almost certainly takes place entirely in 2011 AD.
It is the second-earliest chronological short film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (the chronologically fourth film to feature S.H.I.E.L.D. characters) and can be watched at any point between "The Incredible Hulk" (2008) and "Iron Man 2" (2010) and "Thor" (2011) (as these three films take place almost simultaneously in 2011 AD).
