When Does the Film "Doctor Strange" (2016) Take Place?

"Doctor Strange" is a fantasy film written by Scott Derrickson with C. Robert Cargill and Jon Spaihts [adapting the Dr. Strange story in "Strange Tales" #115 (1963) by Steve Ditko] that released October 25th, 2016. So when is "Doctor Strange" set? 


It takes place on the fictional Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline in the year: 

2016 AD 


We know this because, although it’s unclear how much time passes from the start of the long 2016 AD prologue to the start of the main action, there’s a clear start date to the long prologue and it moved very smoothly into the main action. 

Additionally, there are two prologues, a mid-credits scene, and an end-credits scene: 

-The first short prologue is technically unplaceable but seems to take place less than a year before the main action. 

-The second long prologue is the easiest to pinpoint because, early in the movie, we can clearly see Doctor Stephen Strange’s fancy watch that includes a mechanical calendar and it reads “TUE”, “FEB”, “2”, “2016” across its letters and numbers dials. So this part of the story must start in February of 2016 AD. 

-There’s also a mid-credits scene– though this is really just an expanded version of a scene in the main action of “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017), which takes place squarely in 2017 AD

-Finally, there’s an end-credits scene which is unplaceable other than the statement of a character who appears in the main action that “I’ve been away for many months now” but not years so, presumably, we’re also talking 2017 AD. 

This Geekritique article and video examines its exact setting. 


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