The Ultimate "Challengers" Timeline
Updated: October 20, 2024
I kept seeing some confusion in the fandom regarding the timeframe of certain events in the film, so I started working on this as a way to clarify theories and map out everything as accurately as possible. If you notice any mistakes, or know of a canon event that I missed, please don't hesitate to let me know!
Relationship-o-metric:
Art and Patrick were friends for approximately 6 years, 6 months and 16 days (2391 days).
Patrick and Tashi were in a relationship for exactly 5 months and 20 days (173 days).
Art and Tashi have been in a relationship for approximately 8 years, 11 months and 19 days (3275 days).
Some pointers and notes:
Art, Tashi and Patrick are all confirmed to be 31 years old in the final script of the film.
Lily is confirmed to be 5 years old in the final script of the film, so she would've been born sometime in 2014.
The American school year starts in mid/late August or early September, and ends in mid/late May or early June, depending on state. We do not know where the Mark Rebellato Tennis Academy is located.
The majority of boarding schools start their academic program in middle school (6th grade). Art and Patrick would've been 11 years old then. We can infer that they either: befriended each other on their first year at the academy, and later asked to be placed together as dorm mates for their second year, or that one (or both) of them started attending the academy a year later (7th grade), though I think that's unlikely.
Stanford follows the quarter system (not semesters). Most students start the academic year in late September (Autumn Quarter), and must complete 12 quarters to graduate.
Stanford also does not revoke athlete scholarships due to injuries. So it is highly likely that, since Tashi couldn't go pro, and she still had her scholarship, she stayed in college until she graduated.
Since Art was playing a Masters 1000 tournament in 2010 (which require a high player ranking), we can assume that he either: left Stanford to go pro at one point, or he was allowed leeway to skip classes and compete professionally.
The film ends on August 4, 2019. They had no idea what was about to happen in December 2019. In 2020, the vast majority of tennis events were cancelled due to the pandemic, so that's a potential topic to tackle in fic, I guess.
