Marvel Studio’s upcoming film slate of Iron Man II, (2010) Thor (2011) and Captain America (2011) will lead up to the Avengers (Featuring all three characters and probably the Hulk) in 2012.
Marvel’s movie universe began in 2008 with Iron Man and the Hulk. The Marvel spy group SHIELD appeared in both movies. “The Avengers Initiative” was mentioned in Iron Man’s post credit scene. Hulk had references to Captain America, and Tony Stark/Iron Man appeared at the end. This is the first time a shared film universe was made from the ground up. There are other shared film worlds, but they weren’t initially designed to be such. The four I know of are;
Universal Monsters
Universal Studios was famous for it’s Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), and Wolfman (1941) movies. 1943 saw the movie Frankenstein meets Wolfman, and the two met Dracula in 1944s House of Frankenstein and 1945’s House of Dracula. Universal made other movies like the Invisible Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Mummy, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. They are also considered Universal monsters, but during that time never met Dracula, Wolfman, or Franksenstein.
The three monsters met in various media throughout the decades, including a failed attempt to start a franchise with 2004’s Van Helsing movie. In 2010 a remake of Wolfman also flopped. No further re-makes have been announced. A horror based film universe with these characters would have been cool.
Godzilla
The Godzilla franchise started in 1954. He once fought King Kong, and met Rodan and Mothra, prior to which both monsters had their own movies.
Also included in the Godzilla-verse are characters from the following Japanese monster/science fiction movies;
Atragon
Battle in Outer Space
Dogora
Frankenstein Conquers the World
Gorath
The Mysterians
Space Amoeba
Varan the Unbelievable
The War in Space
Friday the 13th/Nightmare on Elm Street.
In the 80s the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises were developed by Paramount and New Line. The two companies actually planned a crossover at the time, but plans fell through. New Line acquired the F13 rights and made Jason Goes to Hell in 1993. At the end of that movie Freddy’s gloved hand is seen reaching out of the ground, and his laugh is heard. The two officially met in 2003’s Freddy vs Jason. The timelines from both films are presumed to have merged. Two comic book mini-series served as sequels and included Ash from the Evil Dead series. Also of note is that various supporting characters from F13 and NOES films appear in the second comic book crossover.
Aliens vs Predator
Though they fought in comics and video games for years, the two monsters didn’t meet on the silver screen until 2004. A sequel followed in 2007, but since then it’s been announced that both creatures are each getting another solo movie. Again, like Freddy vs Jason, it can be assumed that both timelines are one. That doesn’t matter too much as the Alien series took place in the future, and the Predator movies were in the present. AVP was the first movie where Aliens appeared in the present day.
Now let’s take a look at the three shared film worlds I think could be possible.
Hasbro-verse.
Hasbro, between it’s own properties, and the properties of other companies it bought since the 80s, owns a large number of franchises. These franchises cover many genres from military action, to hard science fiction, fantasy, etc. It’s most famous properties are Transformers and G.I. Joe. Lesser known characters that could fit with those two include Inhumanoids, Go-bots, and M.A.S.K. Other properties they own that wouldn’t fit as well, but could be whole film series themselves include Dungeons and Dragons, Magic the Gathering, and Alternity. They also own more obscure 80’s toy properties like Sectaurs, Visionaries, and Silverhawks.
Transformers and G. I. Joe of course have their own films now, but they all could have, or could still meet in the future.
The Slasher-verse.
Take Freddy vs Jason up a notch. New Line also owns Texas Chainsaw Massacre. If they got the rights to Halloween, (which was rumored at one point) there could be one cool fright filled world. Throw in others like Pumpkinhead, Chucky, and something to tie them together like Hellraiser and you’ve got a truly disturbing universe.
DC Comics film world.
We’ve all spent years wondering why this hasn’t happened yet. No point in rehashing it again.
Hard Coal Studios 