A curated ranking of film series where the narrative spans decades or even centuries within the fictional universe, rather than just the real-world release duration of the movies.
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Beginning with street racing in the mid-2000s, the saga has evolved into global spy thrillers set in the present day, spanning roughly a decade of in-universe time with multiple flash-forwards and flashbacks.
While the main films span years, the broader cinematic timeline includes flashbacks to the Old Republic and future sequels hinting at generations later, creating a sprawling timeline of thousands of years in Legends and significant periods in canon.
From the initial simulation awakening to the reconstruction of Zion and future iterations, the timeline covers multiple cycles of the Matrix and machine war, suggesting a historical depth of decades to centuries depending on the specific film and companion media.
Defined by time travel, the timeline jumps between the 1980s, 2029, 2032, and 2044, creating a complex, non-linear history that spans several decades of human-machine conflict and divergent realities.
The narrative explicitly travels through 1955, 1985, 2015, and the 1880s, compressing and expanding time significantly while altering historical events across a span of over a century within the fiction.
Starting in the near future and jumping forward through a century of apes rising from slavery to dominion, this reboot trilogy covers approximately 100 years of in-universe evolution and war.
While the main events happen quickly, the extended lore and flashbacks in The Hobbit reference the Second Age and Dragon Wars, with appendices detailing thousands of years, though the films themselves focus on a single year of the Third Age.
The seven main films cover exactly seven school years for the protagonists, but the narrative includes a 19-year epilogue and references to the founders' era, creating a timeline that spans nearly a century of student life and hidden history.
The multiverse storyline allows for simultaneous existence across different timelines and dimensions, effectively bypassing linear time constraints and showcasing characters from various eras and alternate realities interacting in the present.
This film jumps 60 years into the future of the previous trilogy, adding a new layer of temporal distance and introducing characters who have lived in a simulation for decades, extending the in-universe chronology significantly.
Spanning from the 1960s Cold War era to modern day and beyond, the timeline includes alternate realities and prequels that push back to the 18th century, covering nearly four hundred years of mutant history.
The narrative explores the Multiverse, allowing access to infinite timelines and alternate versions of reality, effectively creating a non-linear timeline that encompasses events from various parallel universes simultaneously.
The plot involves traveling back to different points in the MCU timeline (2012, 2013, 2014) to retrieve infinity stones, effectively stretching the narrative across several years of the collective superhero timeline before returning to the present.
Covering the high school years of Bella Swan, the films span approximately four years, but include flashbacks to Edward's 1918 vampire origins and future glimpses of their daughter Renesmee, adding layers of historical depth.
Starting in the present day of a dystopian future, the timeline spans several years of rebellion and war, with prequels like The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes extending the lore back to the origins of the Games decades prior.
Spanning from the 1970s to the present day, the combined Rocky and Creed sagas cover over five decades of real-world release time, which largely mirrors the in-universe aging of characters like Rocky Balboa and Adonis Creed.
While the Eon films span decades, the modern reboot era (Daniel Craig) covers a continuous timeline of roughly ten years, with flashbacks to Cold War era events in Skyfall, adding historical context to the character's background.
The universe spans several decades, with The Conjuring events in the 1970s and 80s, Annabelle set in the 2010s, and The Nun set in the 1950s, creating a timeline that connects past hauntings to present-day exorcisms.
Beginning in 2122 and progressing through prequels set in the 21st century and sequels in the 24th century, the timeline spans hundreds of years of xenobiological horror and corporate exploitation across different eras.
Blade Runner 2049 is set 30 years after the original 1982 film, extending the dystopian timeline and exploring the long-term societal impacts of replicants, while connecting to the original events through memory and legacy.