Everybody loves a shared universe, right? At least that’s what Hollywood has thought since 2012. Ever since the success of the first Avengers film, studios have been scrambling to see what franchises they have under their control that could make for a valid shared universe. Here are a few examples of Hollywood’s attempts.
DC Extended Universe - Also redubbed the “Snyderverse” after director Zack Snyder. Beginning with 2013’s Man of Steel, and expanding out into other franchises as of 2016, DC’s shared universe didn’t manage to create the same box office gold as Marvel’s. Both Batman v Superman and Justice League failed at the box office, causing Warner Bros. to abandon future crossover films, as well as future films featuring these versions of Superman and Batman. That being said, although zealous fans accost Warner Bros. daily on Twitter to “#restoretheSnyderverse,” the fact is it’s alive and well, with other films in the franchise - Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad, and Shazam! - all receiving further entries. What fans really mean is “Make more Justice League films.”
Star Wars - In addition to creating their sequel trilogy to continue the saga of the original films, Disney also made the decision to create anthology films that would take place around the Star Wars universe, and to make a film every year. This worked out very well with their first such film in 2016, Rogue One, but their second, Solo, flopped at the box office, and the film-a-year strategy died. Still, other anthology films are in the works, including Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron and an untitled film from Taika Waititi.
Wizarding World - All this means is that Harry Potter got a spinoff. One spinoff, the Fantastic Beasts series, starting in 2016, with no other franchise running concurrently with it. Still, Warner Bros. treats this like it’s own little shared universe, opening each film with the logo “Wizarding World.” Weird.
MonsterVerse - Again, this a “shared universe” with only two franchises involved. After Godzilla was a box office success in 2014, Warner Bros. created Kong: Skull Island in 2017, set in the same world, with the idea of Godzilla and Kong squaring off in a future film. They did, in this year’s Godzilla vs. Kong, and no further entries in the universe have currently been revealed to be in the works.
Dark Universe - This one is a sad tale. 2017’s The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise as the hero, Sofia Boutella as The Mummy, and Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, was intended to be the first in a universe of Universal monsters that would continue with Bride of Frankenstein starring Angelina Jolie as The Bride and Javier Bardem as The Monster, and an Invisible Man film starring Johnny Depp. There was even a group photo of all these actors together, though this was later said to have been photoshopped.But the Mummy bombed at the box office, and the other films were scrapped, despite the sets for Bride of Frankenstein already being under construction!The truth is that this may have been the universe with the most potential. After all, the Universal monsters had the original shared universe, long before The Avengers, with Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, and the Wolf Man having previously crossed over in House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula (1945), and, of course, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). It would have been nice to see something like this play out onscreen again, but only if it was done well. And given the quality of The Mummy, well….We may have actually dodged a bullet.
SpiderVerse - With Spider-Man currently appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe via a deal with Disney, Sony decided to develop their own cinematic universe using whatever supporting characters they had the rights to, i.e. his villains. Hence, we got Venom in 2018, which confirmed in a post-credits scene that it took place in the same multiverse, if not the same universe, as that year’s animated feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, confirmed that this multiverse also includes the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and we will see more in this multiverse unfold with next year’s Morbius, based on another Spidey villain.
Now, admit it. Some of these are stretches. An entire universe built around Spider-Man villains? Calling one Harry Potter spinoff the “Wizarding World?” Hollywood is still very eager to reap the fruit of the idea of the shared cinematic universe, but they seem to be ignoring some of the ones with the greatest potential. Let’s take a look at some of the ones wit the biggest potential.