On Timelines (Also: What is All This?)
The purpose of this blog (hopefully someday soon website) is to help people better understand the stories they're already enjoying by putting them into their proper context on the Gregorian calendar (when possible) but without major story spoilers. Plus, providing links to relevant information.
It’s not so much about watch/play/read orders (though those are arguably even more fascinating because they’re so much more flexible…) or directly stringing the works into a timeline at all. That has already been done online for just about every series of anything and I suspect this will help. It's hopefully going to be a useful resource for anyone looking to enjoy art in an ordered sequence, proper or otherwise.
However, in hopes of being of further service, I've compiled a list of excellent spots on the internet that already put works into chronological dated timeline orders:
There's a fun attempt to organize EVERYTHING ON FILM at the Movie Timeline.
The Marvel Universe timelines from the comics are best understood at the Marvel part of WikiLists.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline is best understood at the MCU wiki.
The X-Men film timelines are best understood at the X-Men Movies Wiki. (Though this is all certain to absorbed into the Marvel Cinematic Universe soon.)
The DC Universe timelines from the comics are best understood at the DC Wiki (formerly known as the DC Database).
The DC Films (i.e. the DC Extended Universe) timeline is best understood for now at this IMDb list.
The Star Trek timelines are best understood at Memory Alpha.
The Star Wars timeline is best understood at Wookieepedia. (Years measured in BBY or ABY.)
The Planet of the Apes timelines are best understood at the PotA wiki (formerly known as the Sacred Scrolls).
The Metal Gear timeline is best understood at the Metal Gear Wiki.
The MonsterVerse timeline is best understood with this DenofGeek.com article.
The Lord of the Rings timeline is best understood at the One Wiki to Rule Them All. (There’s also a great simplified version at the LOTR Project.)
The John Wick timeline is best understood with this IMDb list.
The Hyperion timeline is best understood at the Hyperion Cantos Wiki.
Once you’ve got all the stories together, you might also recognize that watching/reading it all in perfectly exact chronological order is sometimes the garbage approach. So, there’s also a lot of watch/play/read orders:
To get a grip on the original Marvel Universe, there's a very impressive nearly complete comic-book reading order at MarvelGuides.com.
For the MCU, there's also a great simplified timeline here that can be reorganized into a watch order with the click of a button!
In the original world of heroes like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, the DC Universe, you could do worse than to check the DC section of ComicBookReadingOrders.com.
With everything Trek, one can’t do better than LetsWatchStarTrek.com, a very clever site that offers many paths through the immensity of that universe.
At the weird combined world called the MonsterVerse, the best watch order seems to be this IMDb list.
My hope is that with all the information here you can play around: make your own timelines and better create your own personalized experiences!
~ @JonGorga
P.S. ~ Personally, I have an experimental and entirely unofficial watch order of DC Comics live-action adaptations here and I’d be honored if you’d take a look.
