Official MCU Timeline Destroys This Marvel Show's Legitimacy in the Universe
Let’s be real, we’ve all always suspected that Agents of SHIELD were not part of the MCU’s official timeline — and now, there’s an official confirmation of its off status.
The MCU ’s timeline is not an easy concept to keep track of, especially since not every movie and TV series becomes part of the official continuity. While you’re relatively safe assuming that most of last decade’s films belong to it, the situation is way less definitive when it comes to shows as many of them are entirely separate.
Agents of SHIELD, one of the most famous Marvel TV shows, has always seemed quite a bit off compared to the MCU. The series, despite having good old agent Phil Coulson in charge, never felt like it belonged to the MCU’s overarching continuity since it largely ignored its major events and seemed to be on its own.
But those are feelings — so what about facts?
According to Marvel’s official reference book that includes all the MCU’s canon events and personas — Marvel Studios' The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline — Agents of SHIELD is obviously out of the equation. In the codex, this show’s name is not even mentioned, and a more thorough search reveals similar results.
If you search the Official Timeline by names, no original characters from Agents of SHIELD pop up: there are no Daisy Johnsons or Melinda Mays in it. Even Phil Coulson, the head of SHIELD’s team in the show, doesn’t have any mentions aside from his relatively modest appearances in other Marvel projects.
The same goes for everything else that was only featured in the series: no results.
Consequently, Agents of SHIELD is not part of the MCU — however, that was not always the case. The first few seasons of the show included several characters from the MCU and were affected by the primary plots of Avengers, Captain America, etc.
Later, however, Agents of SHIELD began straying further and further away from the MCU, and even the biggest events didn’t seem to have any effect on the show’s plot. Essentially, the series started as part of the MCU and then kind of…left it. Since this doesn’t make any sense, Agents of SHIELD was not included in the Official Timeline, stripping it of its past status.
Source: Marvel Studios' The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline