While multiple Marvel Studios involve flashbacks, no project has been primarily set prior to World War II. As a result, the epoch of the MCU’s timeline has remained the same since Captain America: The First Avenger debuted in 2011. And so while the Disney Plus MCU Complete Timeline changes as each new project hits the streaming service, the beginning of it has remained static since its debut. But that’s all about to change.
X-Men ’97 has been overwhelmingly successful for Marvel Studios and with its attention-grabbing action coming on the heels of a much more well-received second season of What If…?, audiences have been reminded of the power of telling stories through animation. With X-Men ’97 now into its back nine, another animated series has continued to generate some buzz as rumors and speculation about it circulate. And though it doesn’t have a release date just yet, Eyes of Wakanda will debut in 2024 and become the new jumping off point on the MCU Complete Timeline.
First revealed in December 2023 at the premiere event for What If…? Season 2, Eyes of Wakanda is an animated adventure produced by Ryan Coogler. The series will follow “brave warriors” who “throughout Wakandan history have been tasked to travel the world retrieving dangerous vibranium artifacts” including one such warrior who is rumored to meet up with one of Danny Rand’s predecessors as the Immortal Iron Fist, protector of K’un-Lun, sworn enemy of the Hand.
As seen in Black Panther, the history of Wakanda stretches back to 28,000 B.C. though the meteorite that brought Vibranium to Africa and the Atlantic Ocean fell from the sky much earlier in 2,500,000 B.C. While projects such as Eternals, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and each of the Thor films have included flashbacks that predate Captain America: The First Avenger‘s WWII setting–and even predate the flashbacks in Black Panther–they are primarily set in “the present” and, as such, are placed far further down the timeline than Cap’s first MCU adventure. This will not be the case with Eyes of Wakanda.
According to reports about the series, one of the four 30-minute episodes is set during the time of the Trojan War. While it seems historians are all over the place when trying to pin down exactly when the Trojan War took place–if at all–an episode set during it would likely take place in the 12th or 11th century B.C. If so, will the Disney Plus timeline change?
According to Head of Streaming, Television, and Animation at Marvel Studios, Brad Winderbaum, Eyes of Wakanda “more than any other show, fits right into our sacred MCU timeline continuity.” Winderbaum‘s a pretty important cog in the big wheel at Marvel Studios and so taking him at his word means that for the first time since it hit Disney Plus, the MCU Complete Timeline is almost certainly going to be reframed when Marvel Animation’s Eyes of Wakanda debuts later this year.
Of course, some narrative devices could prevent Eyes of Wakanda from being the new #1 on the timeline. The studio could choose to have the series told by someone in the present day–perhaps Shuri is telling her nephew, T’Challa, for example–making each episode a flashback. In that case, the series would end up tacked on later on the timeline after the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. That decision has already been made, of course, by Coogler and director Todd Harris and ultimately where the series appears on the timeline plays no role at all in how the stories told within it shaped Wakanda, Talokan, and, as we might be about to find out, some other places in the 616 universe.
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Micah Parsons claims he was willing to return to the negotiating table with the Dallas Cowboys before he was traded to the Green Bay Packers in a deal that sent shockwaves across the NFL, but the team declined. Parsons was traded to the Packers on Thursday in exchange for two first-round draft picks and three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark. The deal came less than a month after Parsons publicly requested a trade, but the star pass-rusher says he was open to remaining in Dallas right up until he was moved. Parsons told Jane Slater of NFL Network on Thursday evening that he went back to the Cowboys in an attempt to discuss a new contract after the trade chatter began heating up this week. The 26-year-old says Jerry Jones and company told him he can either play under the fifth-year option on his rookie contract (which would have paid Parsons just over $24M) or be shown the door. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media confirmed that the Cowboys "had a chance to stop the deal." Jones insists that he and Parsons had a handshake agreement for a new long-term extension earlier in the offseason. The Cowboys owner said he and Parsons worked out all of the details, including length, average annual salary and guaranteed money. Jones claims he presented the terms to Parsons' agent David Mulugheta, and Mulugheta had a vulgar response. Mulugheta insists that is not the truth. The relationship between Parsons and the Cowboys deteriorated rapidly in recent weeks, but it sounds like Parsons was still willing to work to find middle ground. It would not be a surprise if Jones tells a much different story.
It's the trade everyone wants to talk about, and for good reason. The Green Bay Packers pulled off a rare blockbuster trade, perhaps one of the biggest moves in the franchise's storied history. Superstar pass-rusher Micah Parsons is now a Packer. Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst traded two first round picks and long-time defensive tackle Kenny Clark to the Dallas Cowboys for Parsons, and then immediately gave him a four-year, $188M contract extension. That's seismic NFL news and it overshadowed another positive moment for Green Bay on Thursday, albeit a much smaller one. Before the trade, and while speaking to reporters, quarterback Jordan Love revealed that his surgically repaired left thumb is feeling good. He said he has "no concerns" heading into Week 1's massive matchup with the Detroit Lions, according to Rob Demovsky of ESPN. He'll have to wear a brace, but keep in mind, the brace will be on his non-throwing arm. "It'll be some weeks having to brace it up and just keep it protected," Love said. "It's one of those things, we'll play it by ear, as I start getting into games and seeing how it feels, as you get back to live contact. But there'll be some time having that brace still." While the Parsons trade will absolutely impact Green Bay's 2025 season, this update from Love is arguably just as important. Love showed at the end of the 2023 season that he has the capability to be an elite quarterback. He was injured for much of 2024, though, and his numbers and overall efficiency dipped as a result. No team wants to hear about its quarterback going under the knife just weeks before a season begins, but it sounds as if the decision was made in order to give Love the best chance to be as close to 100% as possible when things kick-off against the Lions on Sept. 7. It also sounds like he was dealing with a legitimate problem with his left thumb. "If you have no stability there, you have no strength as well," Love explained. "So it was pretty much just a limp thumb. I couldn't really do much with it, and it's just something that I wasn't, before the season, I'm not trying to be dealing with that throughout the course of the season. Who knows if that would have kept getting reinjured, kept getting messed up, and who knows how that would have been going through a whole season? So I think, and the doctors' opinion was, just go ahead and get the surgery knocked out and try to get back to as 100% as possible for the season." The Packers now have what appears to be an elite defense with the addition of Parsons. Despite trading away Clark in the deal, they've added him to a unit that features stars like safety Xavier McKinney, defensive end Rashan Gary and linebacker Edgerrin Cooper. If Love can remain healthy, there's a real chance the Packers' offense will be elite as well. That's got to be a scary proposition for the rest of the NFC.
It may be no consolation to Dallas Cowboys fans, but their team did land an outstanding defensive player as part of the stunning blockbuster that sent Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers on Thursday. The Cowboys have traded Parsons to the Packers in exchange for a pair of first-round draft picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark. While Clark is nowhere near the same caliber player as Parsons, he has been one of the top players at his position in the NFL for several years now. Clark spent nine seasons with the Packers after they drafted him in the first round out of UCLA in 2016. He became a full-time starter in 2017 and has started every game in which he has played since. Clark started all 17 games for Green Bay the past three seasons and has missed just one game in the last four years. He had a career-high 7.5 sacks and nine tackles for loss in 2023, which is when he made his third and most recent Pro Bowl. The 6-foot-3, 314-pound tackle also made the Pro Bowl in 2019 and 2021. Almost all Cowboys fans would have preferred for their team to work out a long-term extension with Parsons. The tension between the two sides simply escalated to the point where a divorce became the most viable option. If the Cowboys felt they had no choice but to trade Parsons, they at least seem to have maximized the return. The future first-round picks will give them flexibility to build through trades and/or the draft. It should also soften the blow — even if only slightly — that they landed a 29-year-old player who has played like an elite defensive tackle throughout much of his career.
Jerry Jones is receiving all kinds of criticism this morning for doing the deal yesterday that has sent Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers. It’s so much so that Stephen A. Smith thinks this will go on Jones’ resume. Smith reacted to Dallas trading Parsons to the Packers to start on ‘First Take’ on Friday. He discussed what a mess this was for the Cowboys, especially for Jones, as Stephen A. thinks he let this get personal. “This is what it is,” Smith said. “This is a disaster for Jerry Jones. This is a bad, bad situation, and I think this is something that’s going to taint whatever legacy he hoped to have because this is not a football decision. You can slice it any way you want to. “The reason why this is kind of something that’s going to taint Jerry Jones is because, in the end, we’re all looking at it and we know this is not purely a football decision. This was clearly not for football reasons. This was because you thought you had a handshake agreement with a young man, that was basically pleading with you to talk to my representation, and you ignored him.” That personal aspect of this then affected the business side of it, as Smith just sees this as a bad deal. For one, Dallas didn’t get enough in return for Parsons, as is almost a consensus opinion coming out of the trade, and simply could’ve gotten more had they made him more publicly available earlier. Then, for two, the Cowboys traded him to none other than the Packers, which only makes it that much worse considering the quality of franchise they’ve been in Green Bay. “Micah Parsons is a superstar-caliber player in the National Football League. You traded him for two late first-round picks. That’s late. The Green Bay Packers haven’t had a Top-10 pick since 2009. They’re usually in contention. This is going to be a low first-round pick. You made them younger. You made them better defensively, okay,” Smith said. “They’re within the NFC. You know what, if you’re going to trade Micah Parsons? Trade him out of the conference, or trade him to somebody like New Orleans or somebody like that. You don’t trade him to a Green Bay Packers team, who, by the way, was the last team to whip your ass in the playoffs. When you were last in the playoffs, the people that busted your tail was the Green Bay Packers.” “Two first-round picks and Kenny Clark, the defensive tackle, who had a down year last year, does not equate to a superstar, at age 26, that is Micah Parsons. It doesn’t equate to that,” Smith continued. “If you had made this deal in March, and opened the floodgates to everybody, then there’s no question that you would have had a better deal offered to you than the deal that you just agreed to.” “You could’ve done this in March, okay,” Smith said. “So, when you trade, and you get two first-round picks? You might’ve been able to get three, and they might’ve been able to be three better first-round picks had you done it earlier and opened the floodgates because competition might’ve compelled somebody else to be willing to give up more collateral, as opposed to it being right now.” The fact of the matter is, this deal is done, with Jones not budging on signing Parsons and instead sending him away to Green Bay. That’s something that he and the franchise will have to deal with moving forward, especially since it was seemingly done with football not being the main purpose of the trade. “All of these things that you take into consideration, for Jerry Jones to make this move? I mean, for me personally, it doesn’t bother me. This is going to give me more stuff to laugh about. But, on this particular morning, I don’t like to see Jerry put himself in this kind of position,” Smith said. “It looks very, very bad. This is not a good day for the Dallas Cowboys, at all. “It’s not that he’s gone. It’s what you got for him in return. But, most importantly, it’s why he’s gone because, if you’re Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys, you knew what this situation was financially, cap-wise and beyond months ago, last year. You knew it then, but you wanted to keep him because you don’t let stars walk out the door if you’re Jerry Jones. But then, suddenly, you do. Why? It comes back to the why. He’s taking it personally…This was different. It wasn’t just football.”