In 2019, Marvel Studios was on top of the world with Avengers: Endgame, the culmination of the Infinity Saga, and its epilogue, Spider-Man: Far From Home. But thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was almost another two years before another Marvel movie was back in theaters. While promoting Deadpool and Wolverine, Marvel's Kevin Feige reflected on the way COVID affected the MCU's shared universe and the studio's production.

"I think you can go look at any big broad slate presentation we've done over the last 10 or 15 years and there have been changes--small and big--to them," Feige told GameSpot. "Certainly, as you point out, these last few years have unquestionably been the most disruptive to all of us as citizens of Earth, but also to those of us trying to plot out a shared cinematic universe."

Some of the challenges of COVID meant that Marvel's release schedule was upended. For example, Spider-Man: No Way Home was released before Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness even though Spidey's film was originally supposed to take place afterwards. COVID has also had the unintentional effect of closing some of the five-year gap between our present and the MCU's near-future after Endgame. It's currently unclear when the present day Marvel movies are supposed to take place.