The Twenty-Twenties or Two-Thousand (and) Twenties. (Either way it's okay for us.)
As The New '10s discussed concerning the 2010s in order to distinguish it from the 1910s, so will the current decade be considered as such in order to not confuse it with the 1920s.
Not much can be said about this decade yet— since it just recently began and mostly feels like a continuation of the last decade so far (as with the beginnings of decades past) —except for one thing; a novel coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2 for short) that originated in China near the end of 2019 began to spread rapidly across the world, quickly causing a major socio-economic impact unseen since the Great Recession in the late 2000s, if not since World War II. Millions around the globe became infected with a new disease (coronavirus disease 2019, a.k.a. COVID-19). For most, it's a mild illness that inflicts you with flu-like symptoms, but the unlucky people who find themselves with severe symptoms are left literally gasping for air note . Because the disease is already infectious during the two-week-long incubation period, it's considered a far greater threat than its most comparable predecessor, the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak (also caused by a strain of coronavirus), and countless countries have implemented quarantines to try and slow down the spread of the virus.
We've yet to see how much of a long-term impact it will make on human society, but the ensuing quarantine in many countries is already causing prospects of a second Great Depression in the wake of the massive stock market crash and unprecedentedly high unemployment rates that the pandemic has already caused, as plunging revenues left business, especially ones that cannot operate without face-to-face human interaction, with no ways to pay their employees. Should COVID-19's impact be severe enough even if quarantine ends within the first half of the 2020s, it's possible that the pandemic may be the defining moment of the decade, much like how 9/11 defined the 2000s or the elections of Barack Obama and Donald Trump defined the two halves of the 2010s, and indeed some analysts are already projecting it to be the next big cultural and political "reset" button.
See Also: Turn of the Millennium, and The New '10s.
Examples of Media set in this decade:
- The Aquatope on White Sand starts in summer 2021 with a timeskip to April 2022, and the epilogue takes place around 2024.
- Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex both start in 2029 and expand to 2032.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The JOJOLands is set in the 2020s and references COVID at one point, but a specific year isn't given.
- Weathering With You takes place mostly in 2021, with its epilogue taking place three years later in 2024.
Films — Live Action
- The climactic scenes of Click take place from 2023-2029.
- One edition of Metropolis dates the events to 2026. The other versions place it in 2000, 3000, or simply do not assign a year.
Light Novels
- The prologue of Black Bullet is set in 2021 during the Great Gastrea War, with present day events taking place ten years after, following humanity's defeat in the war.
- Sword Art Online starts in 2022 and continues until at least 2026.
Live Action TV
- How I Met Your Mother has flash forwards to 2020 during Ted, Marshall and Lily's college reunion, Marshall's campaign as District Attorney in an unspecified year, and the titular mother dying in 2024.
Video Games
- The First Encounter Assault Recon series takes place around 2025 or so, though no definitive time-frame is given other than that the third game is set nine months after the first two, and so may have passed in to 2026.
- As the name says, Iron Man 2020 is set in this year, with Arno Stark taking Stark Industries and Iron Man's armor after the death of Tony Stark and becoming the new version of this superhero (set in Earth-8410).
- This comic later got a successor of the same name set in the main Marvel universe in January 2020.
Films — Live Action
- Annihilation Earth is set in 2020.
- Most of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm takes place during the first half of the year, just before and also during the COVID-19 pandemic (which is revealed to have accidentally been Borat's doing).
- Code Name Phoenix is set in a peacefully unified world of 2020.
- Future X Cops begins in 2080, but then its main characters time-travel back to 2020.
- The alien invasion of A Quiet Place overwhelms the world within the first three months of 2020, and the film is set immediately after.
- A flashback in A Quiet Place Part II is set during Day 1 of the invasion.
- The mecha boxing of Real Steel takes place in 2020.
- Reign of Fire is set in the England of 2020, 20 years after the dragons' awakening.
- Stranded follows the first human expedition to reach Mars, which occurs in 2020.
- While Terminator: Dark Fate opens in 1998, the rest of the film occurs in 2020.
- Yesterday (2002) is set in 2020 on the Korean peninsula, which has been unified by then.
Literature
- Pale takes place in 2020, roughly six years after Pact.
- To no-one's surprise, Titanic 2020 is set in the titular year.
Live Action TV
- Dark Angel: The second half of Season One and first half of Season Two are set in 2020.
- The Doctor Who episodes "The Hungry Earth" and "Cold Blood" (that marked the return of the Silurians to the New Who series) are set in the small Welsh hamlet of Cwmtaff in 2020.
- Knights Of God takes place in 2020 when the United Kingdom is ruled by a fascist religious order.
Tabletop Games
- Cyberpunk 2020, as you can probably guess by the name, is set in the year of 2020.
Video Games
- The global conflict of Battlefield 4 is fought during 2020.
- Crysis takes place in August 2020.
- Endgame begins on August 2nd, 2020.
- EndWar takes place in 2020.
- The opening of IS Defense tells us it is set in 2020.
- Raid 2020 is set in the titular year.
- Time Commando is technically set in 2020, but your enemies come from every other time period due to time-distorting vortex.
Webcomics
- The Mini-Comic in Heartstopper called Adoption is set in June 2020.
- Shot and Chaser takes place on May 17, 2020.
Western Animation
- The Mitchells vs. the Machines takes place in late September 2020, as shown through the timestamps on the home video montage.
- Sealab 2020 is set in, well, 2020, and it focuses on the crew and their exploits around the said underwater research center.
- BNA: Brand New Animal takes place in 2021 as Michiru is confirmed via ID to have been born in 2003 and has her 18th birthday in the 4th episode.
- The epilogue for Your Name is set five years after 2016, placing it in 2021.
Films — Live Action
- The world of Johnny Mnemonic is beset by a global pandemic and hooked on the virtual internet in 2021.
Live Action TV
- In The Twilight Zone (1959) episode "On Thursday We Leave for Home", the rescue ship Galaxy 6 commanded by Colonel Sloane arrives on the planet V9-Gamma in order to bring its 187 inhabitants back to Earth. The settlement's leader Captain William Benteen decides to stay behind. It is also mentioned that Los Angeles is the biggest city in the world.
- In The Outer Limits (1963) episode "The Invisible Enemy", the M-1 is sent to Mars to assess the feasibility of colonizing it in the future. However, its crew never returns to Earth as they are killed by a Sand-Beast. The final transmission received by Earth is one of astronauts screaming.
Video Games
- Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. mostly takes place in 2021, after a prologue set across 2014-2015.
- Resident Evil Village: Looking at a baby picture of Rose in Chapter 1 reveals that it's set in February 2021, 4 years after Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, as Rosemary is stated to be six months old and was born in August 2020.
Western Animation
- Sealab 2021 takes place one year after its predecessor, focusing instead on the hijinks of a crew full of crazies, idiots and Dr. Quinn.
- Soylent Green is set in 2022.
Literature
- Submission occurs in the France of 2022.
Video Games
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II: Most of the game takes place from October 28th to November 4th in 2022.
- Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon takes place in 2022.
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- The majority of Avengers: Endgame takes place in the year 2023.
- Spider-Man: Far From Home is a direct sequel to Endgame.
- Half of X-Men: Days of Future Past takes place in this year (the other half in 1973).
Live Action TV
- The Last of Us (2023) begins in 2003 before jumping forward 20 years, where the bulk of the story takes place.
- Wandavision takes place roughly three to four weeks after Endgame, placing it roughly in early November.
- In The Twilight Zone (1985) episode "Quarantine", Matthew Foreman enters suspended animation on June 18, 2023.
Video Games
- Crysis 2 takes place in 2023.
- Songbird by Michael Bay takes place in the fourth year of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which COVID-19 has mutated into an even deadlier virus known as COVID-23.
Literature
- Doctor Who Expanded Universe:
- In the novel "Emotional Chemistry", the Eighth Doctor and two companions visit Moscow in 2024.
- The short novel "Artificial Intelligence" from the "Short Trips: 2040" anthology, stated Imogen Kelly Quaye, human teenager and Fifth Doctor's companion, was born on February 3, 2024.
Live Action TV
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier begins roughly six months after Endgame, placing it in April 2024.
- A Season 3 episode of The Flash (2014) has the titular protagonist Time Travel to this year. Not only that, but it was also the original year when the Red Skies Crisis was gonna take place until Time Travel shenanigans moved it to 2019.
- Star Trek:
- The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The High Ground" claims that Ireland was reunified in this year after a successful terrorist campaign, a line that was censored when this episode aired in the UK and Ireland.
- The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes "Past Tense Part I" and "Part II" feature the crew traveling back in time to a very '90s-looking 2024, when homeless people were kept in "sanctuary district" ghettos for, supposedly, their own good.
Video Games
- The conflict of Frontlines: Fuel of War occurs in 2024.
- Ghost Recon: Future Soldier takes place in 2024. Ostensibly, it also means H.A.W.X. 2 is set the same year, since the two are supposed to depict the same conflict.
- Jet Set Radio Future is set in 2024.
- Scud the Disposable Assassin takes place close to the 2025 "Mr Tough Guy Challenge".
Literature
- The Peshawar Lancers takes place in 2025, though the real turning point had been an asteroid strike in 1878.
- Rainbows End is set in San Diego, California of 2025.
- The Running Man is set in the year 2025.
Live Action TV
- Power Rangers S.P.D. is set in the year 2025.
- In The Outer Limits (1963) episode "The Duplicate Man", Henderson James has a duplicate of himself created by the Federal Duplication Bureau so that his clone can catch the Megasoid.
Video Games
- The Call of Duty: Black Ops II missions set in the future take place in 2025.
- Ghost Recon Breakpoint takes place in 2025.
- Homecoming, 2026: A Whateley Universe fanfic about the titular homecoming at Whateley Academy.
Literature
- Numbers 2: The Chaos
- Space station Observation had been crippled by a malfunction in 2026.
- There Will Come Soft Rains is set in 2026, years after a nuclear war.
- The Distant Finale of Digimon Adventure 02 takes place in 2027, 25 years after the final battle with MaloMyotismon.
- Ghost in the Shell: Arise begins in 2027. Despite being a separate continuity just like everything else in the franchise, it takes a prequel approach to show how Motoko Kusanagi formed together the elite group of agents that would become known as Section 9.
Films — Live Action
- Babylon A.D. takes place in 2027.
- Captive State follows from the alien invasion of 2019 in 2027.
- Children of Men is set in 2027.
Live Action TV
- Revolution is set in 2027.
Visual Novels
- Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is set in 2027.
Video Games
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution takes place in 2027.
- Homefront occurs in 2027.
- Hotel Artemis takes place in Los Angeles, in June 2028.
- Robocop 2014 is set in 2028.
Visual Novels
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice is set in 2028.
Video Games
- Blood II: The Chosen takes place in 2028.
Video Games Films — Live Action
- Logan is set in 2029.
- In Planet of the Apes (2001), Captain Leo Davidson is a crew member aboard the space station Oberon in 2029.
- Terminator: 2029 is a key date in the early films of the franchise, being the Robot War-stricken Bad Future time-travellers initially come from.
- The Terminator involves two time-travelers from 2029 — the eponymous Killer Robot and the human soldier who's been sent to protect the robot's target.
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day also features the Bad Future war in the opening.
- Terminator Genisys, an attempted Continuity Reboot of the above, also involves the same two time-travelers from 2029.
Literature
- Vulcans Hammer takes place in 2029.
Video Games
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, a direct sequel to Human Revolution, takes place two years later, in 2029.
- The events of Homefront: The Revolution occur in 2029. It also takes place in a different timeline to the original Homefront.
Western Animation
- Amphibia's Distant Finale is set approximately 10 years later in 2029 on Anne's 23rd birthday.
Works made or continuing during the 2020s:
- Anime and Manga of the 2020s
- Comic Books of the 2020s
- Fanfics of the 2020s
- Films of the 2020s
- Literature of the 2020s
- Music of the 2020s
- Professional Wrestling of the 2020s
- Series of the 2020s
- Tabletop Games of the 2020s
- Theatre of the 2020s
- Video Games of the 2020s
- Visual Novels of the 2020s
Advertising
Art
- Mystical Medleys: A Vintage Cartoon Tarot by Gary Hall
Asian Animation
- All Saints Street (adaptation began on April 1, 2020)
- Happy Heroes (premiered in 2010, continuing into 2020s as of Season 13)
- Jet and the Pet Rangers (2020)
- Lamput (premiered in 2017, continuing into 2020s as of Season 3)
- Mechamato (2021)
- Simple Samosa (premiered in 2018, continuing into 2020s as of Season 2)
Eastern European Animation
Film — Animated
- "Creation Of The World" ("Stworzenie świata")
- The Deer King: The Promised Journey With Yuna
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Movie: Mugen Train
- The eighth Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf movie (2021)
- The fourth and final movie of the Rebuild of Evangelion series (Evangelion 3.0+1.0) was released in 2021.
- Hotel Transylvania: Transformania was released digitally in January 2022.
- Onward
- Raya and the Last Dragon was originally set to be released over Thanksgiving weekend in 2020, but later pushed back to the spring of 2021 due to the pandemic.
- SCOOB! premiered digitally in May 2020.
- The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is set to be released in 2023.
- Superman: Red Son was released in 2020.
- Trolls: World Tour was one of the first animated films released during 2020's COVID-19 pandemic.
- How Do You Live?, Hayao Miyazaki's first film since 2013 and Studio Ghibli's first film since 2014, is set to release in Japan on July 14, 2023.
Hanguk Manhwa Aenimeisyeon
- Catch! Teenieping (premiered March 2020)
Pinball
- Avengers: Infinity Quest (2020)
- FunHouse: Rudy's Nightmare (2022)
- Godzilla (Stern) (2021)
- Guns N' Roses (Jersey Jack) (2020)
- Led Zeppelin (2021)
- The Mandalorian (2021)
- Rick and Morty (2020)
- Rush (2022) (2022)
- Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (2023)
- Stranger Things (2020)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Stern) (2020)
- Toy Story 4 (2022)
Radio
Sports
- The rebooted XFL, Vince McMahon's own football league, had its inaugural season in the spring of 2020. After being cut short by the coronavirus pandemic, the league was sold off. Its new owners plan to start up again in 2023.
- The rebooted USFL, owned by Brian Woods under a new company name after the previous USFL owners let go of most of that league's trademarks in 2014, held its inaugural season in the spring of 2022. For its inaugural season under the revival, all eight teams playing in that season, including the Birmingham Stallions, will play their games in Birmingham, Alabama under two different stadiums.
- Olympic Games:
- The Summer Olympics were held in Tokyo in 2021, and will be held in Paris in 2024 and in Los Angeles in 2028. This will be the first decade in which all the host cities had previously held the Games (Tokyo hosted the 1964 Games, Paris did it in 1900 and 1924, and L.A. held the 1932 and 1984 Games).
- The Winter Olympics took place in Beijing in 2022 and will take place in Milan / Cortina d'Ampezzo in 2026. This decade will mark the first time a city has hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics (Beijing having previously hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics). Cortina is also a repeat host, having hosted the 1956 Winter Games by itself.
- The World Cup:
- The men's FIFA World Cup was held in Qatar in 2022 and will be held in the United States alongside a number of games in Canada and Mexico in 2026 (the U.S. hosted the 1994 Cup and Mexico held the 1970 and 1986 championships).
- The FIFA Women's World Cup will be held in Australia and New Zealand in 2023, the first of the women's edition to have multiple host nations. The 2027 women's host is likely to be announced in 2024. The 2027 women's host is likely to be announced in 2024.
- Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway. Opened in 2020.
- Super Nintendo World: First location to open in spring 2021.
- Universal's Epic Universe. Set to open in 2023.
- Universal Studios Beijing is set to open early on in the decade.
Web Animation
- Bidoof's Big Stand: Premiered January 11, 2022.
- Grej
- Humans-B-Gone!: First episode released October 23, 2021.
- Internecion Cube
- Let's Split Up
- Littlesprout's Stories
- Murder Drones
- Pokémon: Hisuian Snow: Premiered on May 18, 2022.
- Pokémon Evolutions
- Red vs. Blue
- Red vs. Blue: Zero (2020)
- Red vs. Blue: Family Shatters (2021)
- Satina: Original short film was uploaded in 2019.
- The Twins (2022)
Web Original
- 20020
- Bosun's Journal
- Card Force Infection
- The History of the Seattle Mariners
- make up a guy
- The Mook Maker
- Pale
- Projector: First episode premiered in November 7, 2010.
- Seen and Not Heard: Started July 2020.
- Ward: First chapter published on September 11, 2017.