A Not So Secret Multiverse Movie War
An infinite number of strategies for an infinite amount of universes
Is there a universe where the multiverse isn’t a concept 🤔? Well if there is, it sure isn’t this one, because the multiverse is all the rage in our reality. Certainly for the superhero genre it is the latest cinematic frontier being explored.
The multiverse refers to the idea that there are infinite parallel universes that constitute reality. For decades it has been utilized as a concept in comics (and occasionally in video games). Due to how unwieldy comic mythology can get in terms of their canon, the multiverse acts as a loose organizing principle. It allows different stories to be crafted for the same characters, settings, and mythologies to coexist, and all be valid across different periods of time in a variety of styles.
The multiverse gives creatives the freedom to inject their own vision of these beloved stories, and not necessarily be beholden to any single continuity. Comic publishers have also used multiversal events (stories that cut across various universes) to reset their main storylines, and streamline their canon when their mythologies get too convoluted. And yes it is also a strategy employed by publishers to reinvigorate fan interest and sales.
Currently, the multiverse is the premier setting for the cinematic superhero stage. The major franchise holding studios - Warner Bros. Discovery / DC, Disney / Marvel, and Sony / Spider-Man have all weaved the multiverse in varying capacities as part of their cinematic narratives. Some with more success than others.
The multiverse can be a potent strategy. It provides the option to wield nostalgia by infusing elements of an incredibly rich past 一 comic, cinematic, or otherwise 一 into modern stories. It gives leeway to be more inventive in style, characters, narrative, and etc. given an infinite possibility of universes. Most importantly, if these studios use the multiverse concept successfully, the superhero cinematic genre can take the next step in its evolution.
The first phase was genre blending, combining superhero archetypes with various other genres: westerns, spy thrillers, sitcoms, etc. Next, the multiverse is a storytelling device capable of dynamically resetting and reinventing timeless narratives. It also helps activate nostalgia by rejoining apparently lapsed storylines, costumes, scores, and casting decisions. And it invites wild contradiction when different iterations of the same mythos collide with one another. Above all, the multiverse is a demonstration that superhero mythology not only persists, but remains an arena for innovation.
As a device, the multiverse itself cuts across the industry. However, not all multiverses were created equal. Presently the most interesting contrast can be found between the cinematic representation of the multiverse between DC, Marvel, and Sony’s Spider-Man.
DC
DC’s multiversal strategy was an attempt to clean up a struggling franchise. The former DC Extended Universe’s (DCEU) tribulations are well known. The quick recap is that when Warner Bros. shifted from Zack Snyder’s vision (a.k.a. the Snyderverse) to the leadership of Walter Hamada and Jim Lee in 2018, the two leaders sought to use the multiverse to course correct the direction of the former DCEU1 away from a singular vision based on Snyder’s movies. If you’re interested in a slightly longer recap, please read my previous post - Marvel vs. DC - Cinematic Strategy (Part 1).
Hamada and Lee leveraged the multiverse to justify films and TV shows based on DC mythology irrespective of whether or not they were in a single connected universe. As a result, that is why movies like Todd Phillips' Joker and Matt Reeves’ The Batman exist. As well as TV shows like Doom Patrol and Titans on Max streaming service, and the Arrowverse on the CW network.
On an overarching level, Hamada and Lee tried to simultaneously sustain a main cinematic continuity loosely continuing off the Snyderverse foundation with the additions of Aquaman, Shazam, and others. The two also had larger multiversal ambitions for the mainline. The plans I’m about to lay out are based on rumors, but there are some breadcrumbs that lend it credence.
Purportedly, The Flash was to act as a soft reset point within the DCEU. This is somewhat plausible as the movie adapts narrative elements from the famous Flashpoint comic storyline. In Flashpoint, a butterfly effect caused by the Flash creates a multiversal relaunch of DC’s continuity. The Flash movie echoes this concept, and it reintroduces fans to Michael Keaton’s Batman from Tim Burton’s 1989 and 1992 films. Keaton’s Batman was to take a larger role in the DCEU as evidenced by his cameo in the now canceled Batgirl movie2. At some point down the line there were plans to culminate the DCEU in a Crisis on Infinite Earths-like event led by Henry Cavill’s Superman for a harder reset3. For those unfamiliar, DC comics utilized that storyline to consolidate various universes into a new streamlined continuity. *For Arrowverse fans, this may sound familiar as the TV series also adapted a Crisis event for similar purposes.
Presently, this will all remain speculation. Perhaps the most important call out is, like the comics, the utilization of the multiverse as an organizing principle for a messy narrative. Hamada left Warner Bros. Discovery in 2022, and James Gunn and Peter Safran are now Co-CEOs of DC Studios. The new duo rebranded the DCEU into the DCU (DC Universe) and are enacting a new vision, which on another shameless plug, I expound more on in Marvel vs. DC - Cinematic Strategy (Part 2). Gunn has explicitly stated that there will be allowances for Elseworld tales outside of DCU continuity as well, but other than that it’s too early to tell how the new DCU will thoroughly wield the multiverse concept.
Marvel
To the surprise of no fan, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is the most organized and deliberate executor of the multiverse cinematic concept. After the wildly successful Infinity Saga, they dubbed the following three phases of MCU content - the Multiverse Saga. They already started exploring the idea of the multiverse in Avengers: Endgame from the threat of branching universes via time travel. To date the MCU has already launched several of their planned multiverse themed content with more to come.
Additionally, the multiverse will come in handy for the MCU after regaining the rights to several properties. In particular, the X-Men and Fantastic Four after Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, and in fact, the reports are that the upcoming Deadpool 3 movie has a multiversal plot. As well as the rights to the Defenders: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Punisher, and Iron Fist, from their partnership with Netflix. Via the multiverse, the MCU could either explicitly or implicitly incorporate elements (actors, origin stories, plot points, etc.) of the previous films and shows these properties were part of, go in an entirely new organic direction, or charter a middle ground.
The last of which seems to be occurring as the MCU utilized actors from the Netflix Daredevil show. Notably, Vincent D'Onofrio’s Kingpin appeared in Hawkeye, and Charlie Cox’s Daredevil in Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk. The two are also starring in the MCU’s upcoming quasi-reboot Daredevil: Born Again.
The central antagonist for this saga is a powerful multiversal villain - Kang. There are two key Avengers team-ups in the Multiverse Saga - Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars. Secret Wars in particular, named after the eponymous comic story, is one of the most notorious multiversal events in Marvel’s history.
There aren’t many details available yet on how the movie will adapt the comic storyline, but the most recent comic iteration of Secret Wars had Marvel heroes and villains battle as reality collapsed when universes collided with one another, also known as “incursions”. If you’ve seen Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, you can see the groundwork being laid here. The MCU is leveraging the multiverse to craft their next grand epic and broaden the scope of their cinematic universe.
Spider-Man
Sony is the steward of one notable superhero. Admittedly, the wall-crawler is one of the most iconic universe jumpers. Sony’s goal with the multiverse is to expand the limits of the Spider-Man franchise in order to get more runway out of its mythology given Sony doesn’t have as recognizable and established a roster as Marvel and DC.
In fact, due to their partnership with Marvel to incorporate Tom Holland’s Spider-Man into the MCU, multiple live-action Peter Parkers could create ambiguity with fans. This is why they’re attempting to build a separate shared universe of films based on the Spider-Man rogue gallery, which was kicked off by Venom. If you’ve seen the end credit scenes for that movie, the sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Morbius, you’ll see evidence of these villains from the Sony universe crossing over into the MCU universe. There isn’t a full roadmap of how these multiverses will play off one another yet, but they’ve opened up the possibility.
On Sony’s other Spider-Man initiatives, the animated Spider-Verse executes on the multiverse magnificently! In my humble opinion, it is one of the best and most innovative representations of the concept in any medium. The animated Spider-Verse does share characters from the 2014 Spider-Verse comic event, but from my perspective the films are on another level.
Spider-Man: Into and Across the Spider-Verse elevate the multiverse concept not just as a setting, but with an inventive style of animation, a rich variety of countless Spider-Men and Women, and having deep thematic through lines about fate and Spider-Man’s coming-of-age story that resonates across various universes. Last shameless plug 😛, if you’re interested in diving deeper into this topic in my previous post Into The Spider-Verse of Innovation! With its animated Spider-Verse, Sony can craft a myriad of stories each with a distinctive style of animation and set in different universes. So on one hand, Sony is figuring out its live action multiverse play, but on the other hand its animated depiction is best-in-class.
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I hope you’re not tired from all that universe hopping across these different franchises, because I think these franchises are just getting started in the multiverse. And as you can see there’s still work to be done to shore up these multiversal narratives.
Warner Bros. Discovery / DC || If the rumors are true, I applaud their ambitions to salvage the DCEU. However, the patience needed to realize that particular multiverse vision ran out due to the deterioration of film quality and goodwill with fans. For their sake, Gunn and Safran cannot repeat the same mistake with the DCU. A solid foundation is required before the complexity of the multiverse should be introduced.
Disney / Marvel || As usual the MCU is ever expanding its limits, and what better than using an infinite number of universes to do so. They need to be wary of their usual pitfall which is a convoluted and demanding overarching narrative for fans to keep up, and at the expense of each individual story.
Sony / Spider-Man || Sony needs to be more deliberate with its multiverse ambitions. They need to provide a stronger vision of why the Spider-Man rogue gallery movies even need the multiverse. Pandering to the MCU isn’t enough. Lastly, please give us more animated Spider-Verse content, we want to explore more of these other Spider-Men and Women!!
With all that being said, the fact that these stories exist is incredible. There’s a movie that brings together a live action portrayal of three different Spider-Men, and another movie with two different Batmen! Not only that, these respective movies imbue redemption for previously polarizing franchises - Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man and Michael Keaton’s Batman films.
In some instances the multiverse is even being utilized as an arena for a thematic study of fate. Both Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and The Flash craft stories where the protagonists (and even antagonists) must accept that not all events can be changed no matter how much power they might possess. The animated Spider-Verse takes it one step further, and even embarks on an ideological exploration between idealism and nihilism in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The same movies that have Spider-Ham, an anthropomorphic pig version of Spider-Man! Hilariously delightful!
The superhero genre has always been a playground for the fantastical, and now the innovative possibilities are even greater in movies and television with the multiverse. The studios are racing through the multiverse and the competition is heating up. Hopefully we live in the universe where they all succeed, and not the one where we get multiverse fatigue…