According to the movies set to take place this year, maybe we should skip 2026.
Metropolis (1927)
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis is the foundational text of science fiction cinema, a towering monolith of German Expressionism that has influenced every subsequent depiction of the future, from Blade Runner to Star Wars.
Next year, 2027, marks the centennial of the debut of Metropolis, but the movie is set 99 years in the future. Could there be a more fitting movie to depict the age we live in today? No, we don’t have robots like this, yet, but AI is reshaping the world we live in. I know that my day-to-day work as a developer is unrecognizable from how I worked nine months ago. By some metrics, AI coding capabilities double every 4 to 4.5 months. My head is spinning.
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V for Vendetta (2005)
Reconstructing the timeline for V for Vendetta takes some cinematic forensic work. The film adaptation of V for Vendetta updates the 1980s graphic novel setting to the near future. While the film is often vaguely described as being set in “the future,” a forensic analysis of the on-screen props and dialogue allows us to pinpoint the year 2026 as the narrative climax.
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Evidence
The ID Card: Early in the film, the protagonist Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman) is shown with a BTN (British Television Network) ID card. A close-up reveals the expiry date as December 2024.
The Narrative Flow: The scene with the ID card occurs on the eve of the first November 5th depicted in the film. Since the ID is expired, the film must be taking place after December 2024. The first available November 5th is in 2025.
The Year-Long Plot: The film’s narrative spans exactly one year, from one Guy Fawkes Night to the next.
Start: November 4/5, 2025 (V rescues Evey, blows up the Old Bailey).
Middle: The “education” of Evey, the investigation by Inspector Finch.
Climax: November 5, 2026 (The destruction of Parliament, the fall of the Norsefire regime).
Personal Favorite
V for Vendetta is one of my top-5 all-time favorite films. I’ve watched it more than a dozen times and I get lost in the narrative every time. If Metropolis is depressingly too real for comfort, then V4V is agonizingly too real. If you rewatch this movie and then turn on any American news channel, you’ll get it, right away. I don’t care what day it is. The orange-guy is a Chanselor Sutler wannabe.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
The Chronology of Collapse: To understand the 2026 of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, we must look at the timeline established in its predecessor, Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011).
2016 (Year Zero): The ALZ-113 virus, designed as a cure for Alzheimer’s but fatal to humans, escapes the lab. The “Simian Flu” pandemic begins.
2016-2021: The “Collapse.” Global infrastructure fails, governments dissolve, and mass die-offs occur. Fighting breaks out between the immune and the infected, and nuclear exchanges are hinted at but not confirmed as total.
2026: The setting of Dawn. The film’s marketing and opening text explicitly state that ten winters have passed since the fall of humanity.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe
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Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
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Secret Invasion and The Marvels
The Complexity of the MCU Timeline
No fictional universe has fleshed out the year 2026 more thoroughly than the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Due to the narrative device of “The Blip”—the five-year time jump in Avengers: Endgame—the internal timeline of the MCU leaped ahead of the real-world release calendar.
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Avengers: Infinity War: Set in 2018.
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The Blip (Thanos’s Snap): 2018–2023.
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Avengers: Endgame: Set in October 2023.
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Phase 4 (Post-Endgame): Covers 2024 and 2025 (Spider-Man: Far From Home, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ms. Marvel).
This places the beginning of Phase 5 squarely in 2026. Several key films and series released in 2023 (real time) are set in the MCU’s 2026.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Set in Early-Mid 2026)
This film kicks off the 2026 timeline.
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Dating Methodology: The key anchor is Cassie Lang. In the first Ant-Man (2015), she is a child (approx. 7-8 years old). In Endgame (2023), she is five years older but still a minor. In Quantumania, she is explicitly stated to be 18 years old. This age aligns perfectly with a 2026 setting.
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The World of 2026: In this timeline, San Francisco (unlike the Apes version) is a thriving, futuristic tech hub. Scott Lang is a celebrity author, capitalizing on his fame as an Avenger. The world has largely recovered from the trauma of the Blip, moving from a state of mourning to a state of exploration. The threat is no longer terrestrial or galactic, but multiversal and sub-atomic (Kang the Conqueror).
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Set in Spring/Summer 2026)
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Dating Methodology: The film follows the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which is set during Christmas. Context clues place this as Christmas 2025. Vol. 3 takes place shortly thereafter, once the Guardians have established their headquarters on Knowhere.
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Cosmic 2026: While Earth recovers, the cosmic side of the MCU in 2026 is defined by the construction of Knowhere as a refugee haven. This mirrors the themes of Secret Invasion (refugees seeking a home), suggesting a universal theme of displacement in 2026. The High Evolutionary’s experiments represent the dark side of the drive to “perfect” life, contrasting with the chaotic acceptance found in the Guardians’ family.
Secret Invasion and The Marvels (Set in Late 2026)
These two projects anchor the geopolitical reality of the MCU’s 2026.
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Secret Invasion: The series is set in the “Present Day MCU,” explicitly dealing with the 30-year aftermath of the events of Captain Marvel (1995). 1995 + 30 = 2025/2026. The show depicts a brewing cold war between humanity and the Skrull refugees who have infiltrated global governments.
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The Marvels: This film follows Ms. Marvel (Fall 2025) and aligns with the S.A.B.E.R. space station plotline from Secret Invasion. Wikipedia and timeline analysts place it firmly in 2026.
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Geopolitics: The 2026 of the MCU is politically fragile. The President of the United States (President Ritson) declares war on extraterrestrials, marking a shift towards xenophobia. The construction of the S.A.B.E.R. space station indicates that Earth has militarized its orbit, preparing for the next Thanos-level threat.
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Aspiring author. Would like to finish his “Zombie Revelations” trilogy if he could break away for working on RunPee and the cottage he’s building for RunPee Mom.