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The Verse is usually referred to with a show or franchise identifier (such as "Buffy Verse", "Whoniverse", "Potter Verse", etc.). It is a crafted combination of setting-elements that define the rules for how the world works and sometimes provides for sharing of characters and Continuity across more than one series. A Shared Universe refers to a fictional universe with multiple authors.
In terms of how things work within the universe, the Buffy Verse is set up by Mutant Enemy in such a way that Our Vampires Are Different in a (fairly) uniform fashion, and certain characters can move back and forth between shows and refer to events on the other show as if they are in the same world. Such things are often defined in the Universe Bible, the one true repository of Canon. These bibles may be condensed to a Universe Compendium, or published as a Universe Concordance. Some universes, the shared variety especially, have a pretty strict and orderly Canon. Others, especially those with many authors, spread across different media and over a long period of time, go all over the place. Most of them reside somewhere in-between.
Many 'verses have a thriving life in Expanded Universe form and spawn Tie In Novels, movies, comics and Fanfic. However, these spin-offs may or may not count as Canon.
It is interesting to note that Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction credits Orson Scott Card as the inventor of this term. He, however, says someone simply put the word Enderverse on a book jacket, and Card was credited for it. "The thing is, I hate that word. I didn't coin that word. And yet because it's on the title of a book of mine, my name is attached as if I made it up." Is it more likely then that the Trope Namer is Firefly (See below for details).
One notable thing about the creation of crossover verses is that it is usually easy to link two or more works which contain no Speculative Fiction elements or major departures from actual history, but doing so with Speculative Fiction works can be difficult because the settings are more likely to contradict each other. For instance, the characters from two Dom Coms, or two Westerns, or even a Dom Com and an action drama can typically all bump into each other with no logical problem. But to declare that, say, Star Trek and Babylon 5 exist in the same world is very awkward because both have detailed future histories, catalogs of nearby alien races, and rules about physical laws which bear little to no resemblence to each other. This can be a headache for s.f. franchises (hi DC!) who try to merge unrelated verses together into a single whole.
A Shared Universe refers to a fictional universe written by more than just one or two people. Expanded Universe means a kind of secondary canon to the main Canon, in other media. See also the closely related term Canon. See also Canon Welding and Alternate Continuity.
Verse Pages[]
- Academy of Superheroes
- BattleTech Expanded Universe
- The Bourne Series
- Buffy Verse
- Chrestomanci
- CSI Verse or the Jerry Bruckheimer Verse- home to CSI, CSI: NY, CSI: Miami, Cold Case, and Without a Trace.
- Cthulhu Mythos
- The DCU: The Superman and Batman Comic Book continuities belong in this. The DC Animated Universe has its basis in this continuity while Tangent Comics and Wildstorm Universe comic book universes have connections to it. More recent movies exist under the DC Universe Original Animated Movies label, but don't share a "universe" as such.
- DCLAU: The Disney Channel Live Action Universe.
- Disney Channel Animated Universe
- Disney Mice and Ducks Comics: This is a Modular Franchise and Shared Universe consisting of:
- Dragaera, the world on which Steven Brust sets the majority of his novels. The Khaavren series takes place over about a thousand years, with the Taltos series some 400 years after that. The placement of Brokedown Palace in the timeline is uncertain; unlike the two others, it takes place outside the Empire.
- Final Destination Expanded Universe
- Freedom City: "The World of Freedom," the default setting for the Mutants and Masterminds role-playing game.
- Freedom City Play By Post: The largest and most active Freedom City game on the Internet.
- Halo
- David Weber's Honor Harrington
- Leijiverse: Shows and mangas created by Leiji Matsumoto, such as Galaxy Express 999, Captain Harlock, and Space Cruiser Yamato
- Matsumoto is known for not caring about continuity. The rule of thumb is that every time a character appears, somewhere in the Leijiverse, another part of the story is being invalidated...
- Mai Franchise
- 616
- Ultimate Marvel
- The New Universe
- The Ultraverse (after Marvel bought Malibu Comics)
- MC2
- Marvel Cinematic Universe
- It's worth noting that for about thirty years, the Marvel Universe included the entirety of the Conan the Barbarian verse. While many other established, licensed verses have been peripherally tied to the MU (the worlds of The Elric Saga, Doctor Who, and the Transformers have all been shown to be part of the larger Marvel Multiverse), only Conan was integrated quite so solidly into Marvel Earth's history, with ties to the Serpent Crown, the evil wizard Kulan Gath, Namor's Atlantis, etc. Marvel no longer owns the comic book rights to Conan, and can no longer directly mention that section of Marvel Earth's history.
- Metabarons Universe
- Nasuverse, the 'Verse of Kinoko Nasu, including Fate Stay Night, Tsukihime, Kara no Kyoukai, their sequels, spinoffs and some other writings. Notable because it is a unified universe, but contains only the tiniest of crossovers between the main lines. Also a massive headache in terms of Canon, since while the several main franchises share a common universe, the main works are multipath games that are inherently Alternate Universes... or something.
- Nick Verse: Nickelodeon equivalent to the DCLAU. The basic Nick Verse is comprised of Drake and Josh, Zoey 101, ICarly and. Victorious.
- The extended Nick Verse also includes Big Time Rush and The Naked Brothers Band and every actor who played a role on any of those shows as well as the cast of All That due to a Throw It In attitude to continuity which means Celebrity Paradox is averted and all the characters who look like the stars are considered separate people.
- Noon Universe
- Overside
- Phile Verse
- Potter Verse
- Power Rangers [1]
- The Slender Man Mythos
- Stargate Verse
- Star Wars Expanded Universe. Often referred to as the Galaxy Far, Far Away, or the GFFA for short. This was referenced in the Expanded Universe when a new government was named the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances (eventually the Galactic Alliance).
- The Strangerverse
- Surrealverse
- Tortall Universe
- Transformers Aligned Universe
- Trek Verse (canon)
- The Star Trek Expanded Universe is not a single coherent 'verse, but does contain some within it, such as the
- Star Trek Novel Verse (a large subset of the Star Trek Expanded Universe with generally consistent continuity)
- The Ultraverse
- Unicron Trilogy
- The View Askewniverse
- Walkyverse
- The Warcraft Expanded Universe
- Disney Animated Canon
- The Whateley Universe, which now has something like 16 Canon authors writing over 20 different main characters, as well as a slew of fanfic authors (who are collected on the same site).
- Whoniverse, a sprawling continuity inhabited by Doctor Who and its spinoffs. Known for being wildly internally inconsistent; fortunately, no one much cares.
Anime and Manga[]
- The universe centered on the CLAMP school
- And, in a larger sense, the entire CLAMP multiverse (as shown in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle).
- The Tenchiverse — home to the Tenchi Muyo! OVA series, Tenchi Muyo! GXP, Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari and, reportedly, Parallel Trouble Adventure Dual.
- "Turn A Space" as a way of uniting all Mobile Suit Gundam series preceding Gundam SEED into one continuity. Named after Turn a Gundam, which attempted to do this as a last hurrah for the franchise.
- The name comes from the supposed original concept of Turn a Gundam, wherein creator Yoshiyuki Tomino intended to unite every anime he had created into a single universe; this is often used in lieu of the original nickname "Turn A Bang" (since Turn A was part of the "Gundam Big Bang Project" of 1999).
- The "Turn A" in the title describes an inverted "A", the mathematical symbol meaning "For all", used in equations describing statements that apply to every member of a set.
- The Pretty Cure multiverse.
- Oddly enough, the brightly coloured, Hot Blood-filled Super Robot series GaoGaiGar and its sequels are said to take place in the same world as the twisted Real Robot/horror hybrid series Betterman.
- The Blameverse of Cyberpunk / Body Horror manga master Tsutomu Nihei. So far consisting of, in rough chronological order:
- Noise
- Blame!
- Blame^2
- Netsphere Engineer
- When his later manga Biomega came out, it was widely believed to be an even earlier prequel, due to various similarities, including an organization known as Toha Heavy Industries appearing in both, but according to Word of God, Biomega has its own continuity.
- The Akamatsuverse (aka the Negiverse), which seems to encompass Mahou Sensei Negima, Love Hina, and A.I. Love You.
- Several works of Shirow Masamune seem to take place all in the same universe, at different points of time. Ghost in the Shell is set in the 2030s (depending on the adaptation), Real Drive in 2061, and Appleseed about 100 years later. While no direct connections are made, Dominion, Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell all feature the small arms manufacturer Seburo, which is usually the brand of choice for the main characters. The TV adaptation of Ghost in the Shell has even further ties to Appleseed, with references to The American Empire/Imperial Americana, Poseidon Industries and Bioroids. Real Drive not only features prosthetic bodies, Operator androids, and cyberbrains from Stand Alone Complex, but delves a bit deeper towards the benefits and problems to having or not having a Cyberbrain and being connected to the net in a society that depends on it. It also mentions a technological advancement of The Japanese Miracle radiation scrubber technology that Gohda invented.
- The Naritaverse, for lack of a better term, entails the four light novels Baccano, Vamp, Etsusa Bridge, and Durarara, written by Ryougo Narita. There is only some overlapping here and there, though, and never enough to change plot lines.
- Key Visual Arts's Season verse of Kanon, AIR, and Clannad.
Comics[]
- Image Comics originally tried doing that. The first few issues of their early titles had Continuity Nods to other titles, and there were a few outright crossovers. But as time went on, every Image partner focused on their own titles, creating de-facto sub-universes that had less and less to do with each other. Marc Silvestri's and Jim Lee's titles maintained their connections longer then others, but eventually, even that feel by the wayside.In 1997, Wildstorm Universe, Top Cow Universe and Rob Lielfeld's Extreme Universe were written out of Image Universe via what can be best described as Reverse-Crisis on Infinite Earths in the Shattered Image mini-series (not to be confused with the more tongue-in-cheek Splitting Image mini-series). Since then, there have been a number of Image crossovers, but each creator was free to decide just how much that counts in their continuity.
- The Kirkmanverse contains of Invincible, Invincible Presents: Atom Eve and Rex Splode, Astounding Wolf-Man, The Pact, Guarding the Globe, Brit, Capes, Tech-Jacket, Haunt, Superpatriot: America's Fighting Force, and Superpatriot: War On Terror. Pretty big for a fictional universe written by one guy.
- The Motterverse: Consists of Mr. X, Electropolis and Terminal City, all created by Dean Motter.
- Corey Lewis's one-shot graphic novel PENG takes place in the same universe as Lewis's graphic novel series Sharknife. Rocky Hallelujah, the main character of PENG, is the younger brother of Sharknife's protagonist Caesar Hallelujah. Additionally, Scott Pilgrim makes a one-page cameo in PENG, so if you really want to, you could consider that series as part of the same universe as well.
- The Dreddverse consists of Judge Dredd and its various spinoffs, primarily Judge Anderson, Low Life, Armitage, Shimura, and The Blood of Satanus. Strontium Dog was shoved in sideways in "Top Dog" and "Judgement Day". Nobody's sure whether the Millsverse is part of it.
- The Millsverse consists of everything Pat Mills wrote in British comics, including such strips as ABC Warriors, Nemesis the Warlock, Invasion!, Savage, and Flesh. The Dreddverse may be a subset, Depending on the Writer.
- Chimaera Studios' superhero comics always took place in a shared universe, but it wasn't obvious aside from a few cameos/references until Chimaera Studios released its first team book, Consortium of Justice and used to connect a few other titles.
- Arguably, the Scrooge McDuck comics (and, by extension, the shows DuckTales and Darkwing Duck) are in their own universe, with shared elements and even a few crossover characters. At one point they even tried a crossover with the then entire Disney Afternoon cartoon series then extant.
- Said crossover was the five-part story The Legend of the Chaos God, which ran in Disney Adventures in the 1990s. The story linked DuckTales and Darkwing Duck with Tale Spin, Goof Troop, and (with some fudging) Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.
- The 2017 reboot of DuckTales has featured the following connections: Goofy showing up to help Donald Duck with getting a family portrait (connecting to A Goofy Movie), The Three Cabelleros, Don Karnage and his pirate crew, and Chip & Dale: Rescue Rangers.
- Fables is a surprisingly very large and expanded universe not created by a major company. It includes the main series Fables, Peter and Max: A Fables Novel, Jack of Fables, The Literals, Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, Fables: The Last Castle, Cinderella: Fables are Forever, Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love, and Fairest.
- The DC Universe and Marvel Universe are two of the most widely recognized universes in comics.
Film[]
- All of Quentin Taraninto's films take place in the same universe.
- Vincent and Mr. Blonde from Pulp Fiction and Resivior Dogs are supposed to be brothers.
- Big Kahuna Burger a fictional fast food chain has been in Pulp Fiction and From Dusk Till Dawn. Apple Cigarettes has also apeared in many of his films.
- Aliens, Predator, and Aliens vs Predators according to Fox are all in the same universe. This includes all the movies, comics, books, and video games.
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe includes Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor,Thor 2, The Incredible Hulk, and Avengers. More are planned.
- The View Askewniverse consists everything Kevin Smith made that had Jay and Silent Bob. It includes Clerks, Clerks 2, Mallrats,Chasing Amy, Dogma,and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
- Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Army of Darkness have been in one universe starting with Freddy vs Jason.
- The Verse: In a 1999 Premiere article, Hughes himself declared that Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Buellers Day Off, and Planes, Trains and Automobiles are all a part of the same universe. Sadly, the crossover possibilities were never explored in film.
John Hughes: When I started making movies, I thought I would just invent a town where everything happened. Everybody, in all of my movies, is from Shermer, Illinois. Del Griffith from Planes, Trains & Automobiles lives two doors down from John Bender. Ferris Bueller knew Samantha Baker from Sixteen Candles. For 15 years I've written my Shermer stories in prose, collecting its history. |
- It's long been speculated that Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, and Home Alone also take place in the Shermerverse, since those movies were written (but not directed) by Hughes and feature similar themes.
- Weird Science explicitly takes place in Shermer (Lisa is seen teaching the Shermer High gym class at the end), though it has its own Speculative Fiction internal logic that is inconsistent with the other canon Shermerverse movies.
Literature[]
- The Enderverse is the Trope Namer, although technically the creator wishes it never was (see the summary of the trope above), which includes Ender's Game, the Speaker For The Dead trilogy, the Enders Shadow side series, and Ender In Exile, as well as a number of short stories and comics. It is far from the first example, however.
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is more like a multi-media set of alternate continuities.
- Lampshaded in Mostly Harmless, which explains away all the different continuities by talking about how the universe is just one path through 'The Whole Sort of General Mish Mash', constantly changing position. A similar solution was used by Discworld in Thief of Time.
- The Duniverse, setting of Dune and its sequels.
- Robert A. Heinlein had The Future History, a chronology spanning from the 1950s to many centuries into the future. It was written from 1939 to 1987, meaning parts of it were Alternate History by the end. It turned into a multiverse (The World As Myth 'Verse) near the end, with a set of crossovers that brought some of his non-Future History stories into The Verse. (Not to mention crossovers with the Oz series, Alice in Wonderland, and all fiction ever written. It got weird.)
- Stephen King's 'Verse, which spins around The Dark Tower. Almost every novel he has ever written makes some small mention to at least one of his others.
- He is even a part of his own 'Verse, referred to, for example, as "That fella up in Bangor who can't write a sentence without the F-word."
- Lampshaded in Misery, in which writer Paul Sheldon has trouble starting a new book without his concordance.
- He is even a part of his own 'Verse, referred to, for example, as "That fella up in Bangor who can't write a sentence without the F-word."
- The PG Wodehouse verse in which the gentlemen of the Jeeves and Wooster, Blandings Castle and Psmith series know each other, often through the Drones Club. Specific links include Leave It to Psmith, in which Psmith and Freddie Threepwood team up for a Zany Scheme at Blandings Castle; and The Code of the Woosters, in which Bertie Wooster mentions Freddie as one of his acquaintences.
- Larry Niven is noted for two popular settings in particular, Known Space, and The Magic Goes Away. His penchant for co-authors means that many angles on these settings have been written.
- Niven and co-author Steven Barnes have created at least one distinct Verse together, that of Cowles Industries' Dream Park. The Descent of Anansi is set there, along with the three Dream Park novels and a role-playing game.
- Tortall, home to (so far) Song of the Lioness, The Immortals, Protector of the Small, Daughter of the Lioness, and Provost's Dog quartet/quartet/quartet/duology/trilogy.
- The Circle Universe, home to Circle of Magic, The Circle Opens, and Will of the Empress quartet/quartet/book. Ole' Tammy likes her quartets, she does.
- There's evidence in the first book of the first Circle Of Magic quartet that Tortall and The Circle Universe are connected--just a few hundred years apart from the events in each.
- David Eddings has several:
- Belgariad Universe, home to The Belgariad, The Malloreon, Belgarath the Sorcerer, and Polgara the Sorceress.
- Elenium/Tamuli universe, home to (surprise, surprise) The Elenium and The Tamuli.
- The Dreamers Universe, home to God-knows-what.
- Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian and King Kull series take place in the same 'verse, with Conan's Hyborian Age forming after the great cataclysm that destroyed Kull's Atlantis. Kull has a guest appearance in the Bran Mak Morn story "Kings of the Night," linking it to Howard's historical stories. In addition, his modern day Conrad and Kirowan horror stories are linked, as Thoth-Amon's Ring of Set makes an appearance in "The Haunter of the Ring." It's arguable that all of Howard's stories occupy the same 'verse.
- Not to mention the stuff that ties into Lovecraft's universe.
- All of Christopher Moore's novels take place within the same universe, with locations and characters (both major and minor) taking on new, often very different roles in other books. This reached a peak during You Suck (itself a sequel to Bloodsucking Fiends), where a scene from A Dirty Job was retold from a different point of view. This is also the first time where a crossover with one of Moore's earlier novels doesn't make sense unless you read the book in question.
- The Strugatsky Brothers' Noon Universe.
- William Faulkner set most of his works in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County and often crossed over characters, making this Older Than Television.
- Erich Maria Remarque also did this; characters from All Quiet on the Western Front appear or are referenced in his later works.
- Bret Easton Ellis's novels. The narrator of Less Than Zero (Clay) appears in The Rules of Attraction, and narrates one chapter. One of the narrators of The Rules of Attraction (Sean Bateman) appears in American Psycho. The narrator of American Psycho (Patrick Bateman) appears in Glamorama, whose narrator, Victor is a minor character in The Rules of Attraction. Characters from Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction and American Psycho also appear in the short story collection The Informers.
- While the Cthulhu Mythos is generally defined as an Expanded Universe, the "mythos proper", the elements that HPL (usually set in Lovecraft Country) himself wrote about, constitute a 'verse within the universe. Other writers have their own 'cycles' within it. Lovecraft himself just didn't care about continuity or consistency.
- Lovecraft deliberately sought to invoke the feeling of ancient mythology with his mutually inconsistent explanations — if mythology from thousands of years ago is a mess open to wide variety of interpretations, then how would mythology several billion years old develop?
- Jim Butcher's urban fantasy series of books, The Dresden Files, is commonly referred to by fans as the Dresdenverse. So is the TV series of the same name (also referred to as "TV-verse"). Incorporating elements from both the books and the TV series in fanfic is referred to as "comboverse."
- It turned into an Ascended Meme in the tabletop RPG. Considering the Painting the Fourth Wall and Literary Agent Hypothesis stuff going on with the RPG rulebooks, this means one of the characters is referring to his own universe that way, which the titular Harry Dresden finds really weird.
- Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga is also referred to as the Vorkosiverse.
- Many of the fiction works of Andrew Greeley — including but possibly not limited to the Bishop Blackie, Nuala Anne McGrail and Angel books, plus The God Game — appear to all take place in the same shared universe.
- JRR Tolkien's Arda/Middle-earth: The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion. (Aaand all further material Christopher Tolkien saw fit to publish: e.g. in the Unfinished Talesof Numenor and Middleearth and the whole, twelve tome History of Middle Earth. One of the best realized and most extensive Verses in history.
- Asmiov's Robot/Empire/Foundation 'verse. Contains nearly everything he ever wrote. And everyone's lost count of how much he wrote.
- The various serial novels of LessThanThree Comics are all based in the <3-Verse.
- Several of Sinclair Lewis's novels take place in the fictional state of Winnemac (surrounded by Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana).
- The Alternate History 1632 by Eric Flint is often referred to as the 1632-verse, or the Ring Of Fire-verse, to distinguish it from the author's other alternate history series (including 1812).
- The Humanx Commonwealth, Alan Dean Foster's best known Space Opera setting and home to the Flinx and Pip series of novels.
- The Sprawl in William Gibson's first trilogy (and possibly his second as well) plus two short stories.
- Much of James Alan Gardner's writing takes place in The League of Peoples Verse.
- Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea: The Earthsea Trilogy (A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore), as well as Tehanu, The Other Wind, Tales from Earthsea and the short stories which introduced Earthsea, The Rule of Names and The Word of Unbinding.
- Ms. Le Guin also created the Hainish Universe, aka the Ekumen. Among the more well-known are The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness and The Word for World is Forest, though there are many others. A few works, such as The Eye of the Heron may or may not be set in the Hainish Universe.
- All of Brandon Sanderson's adult fantasy, save the two Wheel of Time books he's published on behalf of the deceased Robert Jordan, take place on different worlds in the same universe, known as the Cosmere. This is not made clear in the books themselves (although several contain hints) but is information provided by Word of God.
- Daniel Handler has said he intends to write more books about the ASOUE universe, not about the Baudelaires.
Live Action TV[]
- ABC Soaps All My Children}, One Life to Live, and General Hospital, as well as the cancelled Port Charles, have one universe complete with canon immigrants and Crossover storylines.
- The Firefly 'verse (series, movie Serenity, and upcoming MMORPG (Nevermind that, last official news was in 08) . Notable for the fact that the characters refer to their own universe as "the 'Verse".) The terms "Jossverse", "Whedonverse" and "ME-verse" (ME = Mutant Enemy, Joss Whedon's production company) have been used to refer to both this and the Buffy Verse, despite there being no connection between the two in canon.
River: "No power in the 'Verse can stop me..."
—* Kaylee was actually the one who coined that phrase, though River is certainly the one for whom it means more.
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- Oddly enough everything takes place in one really big solar system.
- According to maps of the 'Verse you can buy, it's actually several systems consisting of a total of five stars.
- Oddly enough everything takes place in one really big solar system.
- Holby City: Casualty, Holby City and Holby Blue.
- The Law & Order Verse, home to:
- Law & Order (aka The Mothership)
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
- Law & Order: Criminal Intent
- Law and Order Trial By Jury
- Conviction
- Deadline
- Law & Order: Crime and Punishment
- In Plain Sight (via a crossover with Criminal Intent)
- Homicide: Life On the Street
- Hawaii Five-O
- Various international versions
- John Munch is pretty much a universe of his own.
- Which potentially includes (of all things) The X Files, Arrested Development, The Wire, and Sesame Street (that's right, SESAME STREET) in the Law & Order Verse.
- Eventually it becomes a snowball effect. One doctor from St. Elsewhere showed up years later on Homicide and then another doctor from St. Elsewhere showed up on the Homicide movie. Carla, Norm and Cliff from Cheers appeared on an episode of St. Elsewhere. Frasier and Lilith from Cheers and Frasier also appeared on Wings.
- Which potentially includes (of all things) The X Files, Arrested Development, The Wire, and Sesame Street (that's right, SESAME STREET) in the Law & Order Verse.
- JJ Abrams' "Abramsverse", for the lack of a better word, has so far been shown to be one of the most expansive verses on television. Shows which are more or less found in this verse are Alias, Lost, Fringe, Person of Interest, as well as some movies which he was behind, including (and probably not limited to), Cloverfield, the 2009 Star Trek movie, and Super 8. Common things found throughout most of these: The Slusho beverage brand, Apollo candy bars, Dharma Initiative, Oceanic Airlines, Massive Dynamic, Charlie's (of Lost) band Drive Shaft, and some very mild character references and crossovers.
- NCIS shares the same universe as spinoff NCIS: Los Angeles, parent program JAG, and the mostly-unrelated First Monday. With the exception of NCIS: Los Angeles, all of these were created by Donald P. Bellisario, and it at least shares a few characters.
- As of May 2012, NCIS: Los Angeles apparently shares the same 'verse as Hawaii Five-0, and by extension Law & Order.
- In the Disney Channel Live Action Universe, the following shows have been established, through numerous crossovers, to exist in the same universe:
- That's So Raven — The oldest. Forms the first piece of That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana, the first crossover.
- Cory in The House — A spinoff of That's So Raven, with a few characters from said show (including Raven herself) making guest appearances. Has a crossover with Hannah Montana in the episode, "Take This Job and Love It", the second crossover.
- The Suite Life of Zack and Cody — Forms the centerpiece of That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana.
- The Suite Life On Deck — A spinoff of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, in which a number of characters from said show make guest appearances and, like its parent show, forms the centerpiece of Wizards On Deck with Hannah Montana, the third crossover.
- Hannah Montana — Forms the last piece of both That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana and Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana.
- Wizards of Waverly Place: Forms the first piece of Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana.
- I'm in The Band — Has a crossover with The Suite Life On Deck in the episode, Weasels on Deck, the fourth crossover. [2]
- Since Selena Gomez shows up as herself on an episode of Sonny With a Chance, it's possible that every show above is a fictional show in the Sonny With a Chance universe. Or, Sonny With a Chance isn't connected to the other universe at all.
- Another odd thing is that Selena Gomez has a character on Hannah Montana as Hannah's rival and a completely different character in Wizards of Waverly Place.
- That's So Raven — The oldest. Forms the first piece of That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana, the first crossover.
- Crossover episodes between Warehouse 13 and Eureka, in which Fargo visits the Warehouse and Claudia visits Eureka, place the two shows in the same universe.
- Lindsay Wagner's Warehouse 13 character Dr. Vanessa Calder appears in the Alphas episode "Never Let Me Go" bringing that show into this universe as well.
- The Happy Days universe includes itself (but not necessarilly it's parent show Love, American Style) Laverne and Shirley, Mork and Mindy, Joanie Loves Chachi and the short lived Blanksie's Beauties and Out of the Blue. This means that angels, time travel and aliens all exist in the same universe as the Fonz and Ralph Malph.
- The Whoniverse, comprising Doctor Who, Torchwood, and The Sarah Jane Adventures. It's also got a massive Expanded Universe.
- The "TGIF-verse," which is comprised of Perfect Strangers, Full House, Family Matters, Step by Step, Hanginwith Mr. Cooper, Boy Meets World, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Clueless, Teen Angel, and You Wish.
- Due to many Channel Hops and Crossovers, the universe also includes Moesha, Meego, The Hughleys, The Parkers, and Girlfriends.
- The Babylon 5 universe includes the TV movies made for the series, its spin-off series Crusade, the abortive pilot Legend of the Rangers, and the Lost Tales direct-to-video release.
- The CBS-verse, which consists of The Bob Newhart Show, Murphy Brown, The Famous Teddy Z, High Society, Ink, Love And War, The Nanny, Can't Hurry Love, Everybody Loves Raymond, The King of Queens, Becker, and Cosby.
- And speaking of CBS, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and Green Acres were established to exist in the same universe. The latter two were even in the same town, although interaction between the casts was limited to general store owner Mr. Drucker (a regular on both series) and the occasional cameo.
- Bones and The Finder share a 'verse. Bonesverse, perhaps?
- NBC's 80s sitcoms The Golden Girls, Empty Nest and Nurses all share the same universe.
- The Golden Palace would also be in that universe.
- The Office and Parks and Recreation were intended to be set in one universe, but this idea was dropped. The original UK version of The Office is still part of the same universe, though, as judging by Ricky Gervais's cameo as David Brent.
- Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, and Young Hercules are all part of the same universe. As well as the 5 movies that came before the Hercules.
- Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, Models Inc as well as the reboots of 90210 and Melrose place are in the same universe.
- The X Files, Millennium, and The Lone Gunmen all exist in the same universe. The first and last are the most obvious; with the Lone Gunmen being an X-Files spin-off, though characters go back and forth between all three series and there is at least one cross-over episode.
Tabletop RPG's[]
- Dungeons and Dragons features not just multiple universes (called Campaign Settings) but multiple cosmologies still, the potential for crossover is there (In one of the video games, for example, a group of knights from Dragonlance end up trapped in the Forgotten Realms, while numerous references to the Planescape setting are made. In fact, part of Planescape's purpose seems to be not just to allow such crossovers, but to say that stranger things can and indeed do happen every day on the planes.)
- The Spelljammer setting had characters from one world travelling to others in 'spaceships', and Ravenloft had characters from different settings finding themselves in its D&D world.
- The Rifts Megaverse is a collection of universes consisting of Rifts' Earth, The living planet known as Wormwood, the Space Opera Three Galaxies universe, as well as Earths for each of Palladium's other games, such as the Palladium World (High Fantasy), Heroes Unlimited (Superheroes), and Nightbane.
- The Third Imperium background to the science-fiction role-playing game Traveller.
- In the Old World of Darkness, all games theoretically take place in the same universes, occasionally making references to monsters and concepts in other game lines within the verse. This is still true in the New World of Darkness, but is given less emphasis between gamelines.
Video Games[]
- The laws of physics and various cultures depicted in the Myst games and books is often called the D'niverse (pronounced done-ni-verse) after the most prominent race in the storyline. Technically, it's actually a multiverse, connecting smaller universes called Ages...
- Final Fantasy XII, its sequel Revenant Wings, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics Advace and Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (The latter two primarily due to character overlap) and Vagrant Story all take place within the world of Ivalice.
- "The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII". And Squeenix is trying to emulate that success with the "Fabula Nova Crystallis" project.
- The above Final Fantasy examples are actually examples of a multiverse spanning the entire Final Fantasy series.
- And there is also the ending of the sequel to Final Fantasy IV where the last boss is the Creator goddess who apparently made both the worlds of Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy IV as well as having the power to summon creatures from the other Nintendo-era FF Games.
- Don't forget that hints have been dropped by writer Nojima that Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy VII are connected, with the former happening thousands of years after the latter. And these examples haven't even touched on things like the Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy IV dragoon parallels or Gilgamesh of Final Fantasy V being a dimensional traveler.
- Oddly, Final Fantasy X-2 seems to imply that the latter happens thousands of years after the former. Either there's a compendium error somewhere or quantum physics is even squishier in the world of Squeenix than aforethought.
- The above Final Fantasy examples are actually examples of a multiverse spanning the entire Final Fantasy series.
- The Donkey Kong and Mario series are in the same universe. They started as enemies after all and DK still shows up in Mario spin off games.
- Oddly enough, a subversion, inversion, or straight play in a video game, depending on who you ask: Aquaria. In fact, whether or not the Verse is the world around the main character eventually plays something of a major point in the plot. Not really a fandom trope, so much as a nice twist of words, though sooner or later there's bound to be Fanfic...
- Nippon Ichi's games such as Disgaea all take place in one Universe, one that you actually explore and learn more about in Makai Kingdom and also includes non-demon worlds such as the one seen in La Pucelle.
- Then again, La Pucelle includes plenty of references to the Netherworld, so...
- Don't forget the two distinct 'verses in the Tales (series). The "Destiny" 'verse contains Tales of Destiny and its direct sequel, Tales of Destiny 2 (though not Tales of Eternia). The "Aseria" 'verse contains Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon, Tales of Phantasia: Summoner's Lineage, Tales of Symphonia, and Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World.
- The main Pokémon games take place in different regions of the same world. This becomes obvious with the presence of two regions in Gold, Silver, and Crystal and references to regions of past games in later games.
- All of the first four generations are actually in different regions of the same country, the equivalent of Japan in that universe. Starting from Black and White Versions, the series moves to a different country, apparently based on the USA.
- The Elder Scrolls has such a detailed and in-depth verse that it probably comes closest of almost any game to being the video game version of The Lord of the Rings, when it comes to creating a well fleshed out and realized world.
- The Irem arcade games In the Hunt, Undercover Cops, Air Duel and Gunforce 2 all takes place in the same post-apocalyptic universe and feature the D.A.S as the bad guys.
- Street Fighter and Final Fight, along with the lesser known Slam Masters, all seem to take place in the same world. The most obvious evidence to this are appearances of various Final Fight characters as playable fighters throughout the Street Fighter games beginning with the Street Fighter Alpha series, as well as Mike Haggar's appearance in Slam Masters. But even before the release of Street Fighter II, Mike Haggar was referenced as a "former Street Fighter" in the intro to the first Final Fight and the Slam Masters cast are mentioned in Hugo's ending (a Final Fight transplant himself) in Street Fighter III 2nd Impact. One concept art for Street Fighter Alpha even shows that Birdie was a former tag partner to Titanic Tim from Slam Masters.
- Rival Schools may also be part of this shared universe, depending on one's opinion. On one hand, there are plenty of Street Fighter references in the Rival Schools. The most obvious one is the presence of Sakura in the first Rival Schools, but there are also obscure ones as well such as the fact Hinata claims to be a practitioner of the "Ken Masters' style of Karate" in Nekketsu Seishu Nikki 2. On the other hand, there are also contradictions (such as Sakura's different blood type) that prevents Rival Schools from fitting neatly into the Street Fighter canon.
- It's not yet as obvious as the examples above, but the When They Cry verse is starting to take form after Umineko no Naku Koro ni. Future games may still expound on it.
- The Super Smash Bros. Universe includes all the Nintendo series as fictional video games, and is in some way related to the Real Life Universe through Master Hand (possibly Crazy Hand as well).
- Virtually every series made by Nippon ichi falls into two distinct verses: The world of Atelier, and the Netherworlds, which are a combination of Marl kingdom, La Pucelle, Disgaea, Phantom Brave, Makai Kingdom, Soul Nomad, and several others that were not even known to be in correlation including a few cancelled videogames with characters who cross into other games. Not only are these games taking place within the same universe, but most characters find it perfectly natural for everyone to just randomly go to and fro between series as either cameo shots, secondary characters, or main characters, and often reference these fourth wall breaking aspects regularly. One character in particular, Overlord Baal, frequently makes his appearance as the Bonus Boss of any Nippon Ichi game involving a netherworld, and everyone knows who he is.
- Operation Flashpoint and Arm A are generally believed to take place within the same timeline, while Take On Helicopters has some crossover with ARMA II : Operation Arrowhead (the standalone expansion for ARMA II), in the form of one of the main characters having been a combat pilot during the events of Operation Arrowhead, along with appearances by the PMCs Vrana and ION from one of OA's DLC campaigns.
- The Sims series, the Sim City series, Streets of Sim City, SimCopter, SimGolf, and, arguably, the My Sims series, all share the same universe.
- Also, the appearance of Steve, who is the same spaceship as the one from SimCity 2000, could mean that Spore could be in (and vastly expand) the universe as well.
- Persona 4 occurs two years after the events of Persona 3, with guest appearances by a couple characters from the latter. A young Yukiko also appears in the female path of Persona 3 Portable. In addition, a television program in 3 implies that the two games exist in the same universe as Persona 2.
- 3 also mentions that the Kirijo group was once part of the Nanjo group, a reference to a party member from the original Persona. The end of the Snow Queen Quest in that game has text which states "Eternal night will fall again so long as people seek to turn hope to despair." Sound familiar?
- And then there's the "Man Drinking Alone" who shows up in the female protagonist's route in Portable. He's actually the main character of Catherine, and drops references to that game's plot. Babel in that game also strongly resembles Tartarus.
- Valve's two series Half-Life and Portal almost certainly inhabit the same continuity.
- The Tom Clancy games by Ubisoft is hinted to have taken place in the same continuity.
Webcomics[]
- The Wotchiverse, setting for the Web Comic The Wotch and it's various derivatives (Cheer!, Triquetra Cats, and possibly Abstract Gender). It is also shown to share continuity with webcomics with different authors (Accidental Centaurs and possibly more).
- The three major works of John Allison, Bobbins, Scary Go Round and Bad Machinery are all set in the fictional English town of Tackleford, sharing many cast members with each other.
- The Narbonverse: Narbonic, Li'l Mell, and (confirmed by Artie's appearance in "If I Ran The Zoo") Skin Horse.
- All webcomics in the International Comic Continuity take place in what is affectionately referred to as the IC Cverse.
- All BDSM-themed adult webcomics created by the artist Erenisch takes place in the same universe. The Erenischverse is a dystopian world reshaped by a "Compulsory Female Slavery Law" in 2022.
- Megatokyo, Mac Hall, and Apple Geeks apparently inhabit the same universe, as crossovers have happened several times. This is especially apparent with Megatokyo and Applegeeks, where regular characters Junpei and a Rent-a-Zilla from Megatokyo played a major role in a story arc in Applegeeks. Sadly, only Megatokyo remains of the three as of 2012.
- To Prevent World Peace is a webcomic that tries to merge basically every single magical girl cliche into a single, unified Verse. With Genre Savvy villains in the mix, naturally.
Web Original[]
- The Breeniverse, the setting of Lonelygirl15, Kate Modern, LG15: the resistance and numerous spin-offs of uncertain canonicity.
- The "MUniverse" is the setting of Tales of MU and its spin-off and side stories. Some readers are not shy about being more interested in the setting's history and cultures than the main storyline. Part of a multiverse, as artifacts lost in a teleport mishap showed up in the author's other stories.
- Many, if not all, That Guy With The Glasses series seems to be set in the same 'verse owing to the number of crossovers between them, but a special note must be made for Atop the Fourth Wall and The Spoony Experiment, seeming to have the most points in common, most prominently Big Bad Dr. Insano.
- The Chaos Fighters universe, which is currently unnamed yet. It current encompasses two planets, Lefrad and Ketruin while Earth and Lerius are given a mention.
- The Slender Man Mythos is a somewhat loosely tied Verse, in that while Slendy himself ties everything together, the stories aren't typically tied together otherwise aside from the odd character commenting on other blogs. However, there's also the Everyman HYBRID Sub-Verse, which has expanded to include "Wicked Sticky Alex" and Can You See the Words. Evan made a brief cameo in the TJA Projects, and its recently been crossing over with Tribe Twelve and Dark Harvest. Oh, and the HYBRID guys are at least aware of Seeking Truth). Now all we need is for Jay or Alex to show up...
- The Randomverse is a very....random verse, containing The Insane Quest, The Death Series, Smile for The Camera, and TV Tropes the Adventure.
- The Academy of Superheroes universe is a superhero universe with hundreds of stories and even more characters.
- The "Parody Universe" is the universe where all the Hitler parodies from the Downfall scenes (and some spinoffs like Stalin parodies) takes place. The whole thing tend to get into Mind Screw territory due to the various amounts of parody videos that exists and Wild Mass Guessing is the norm in making sense of it.
- Sonic for Hire and Mega Man Dies at the End are in the same universe starting with the Mega Man Dies at the End episode On the Lam which shows Sonic trying to escape from the prison Mega Man busts Wily out of. This is confirmed even more when a Sonic for Hire episode has Mega Man appear and has him mentioning events from the last crossover as well as leading directly into the next Mega Man Dies At The End episode.
Western Animation[]
- The DCAU.
- The South Park universe contains itself and That's My Bush.
- The original Space Ghost cartoon was set in the same universe as Dino Boy, The Herculoids, Shazzan, Mighty Mightor and Moby Dick.
- Space Ghost Coast to Coast on the other hand, is set in the same world as Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Brak Show, Perfect Hair Forever, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law and Twelve Ounce Mouse. Maybe a Multiverse. Adult Swim-Verse? Williams Street-Verse?
- May also include Sealab 2021.
- The Fuzzy Door Universe contains Family Guy, American Dad and The Cleveland Show.
- The universe of Jhonen Vasquez, creator of Invader Zim And Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.
- The Transformers franchise has an odd sort of 'verse, in that it's a multiverse rather than a universe.
- The 80's cartoon apparently exists in a shared continuity, of sorts, with the G.I. Joe, Inhumanoids, and Jem cartoons. There have been character cameos, and each show has the reporter/journalist (and Geraldo Rivera parody) Hector Ramirez.
- Cobra Commander also makes a cameo in Only Human.
- The Inhumanoids are an interesting case because in the Gen 1 Shattered Glass continuity they remain villians.
- The Warner Bros Animated Universe, also known as the Looney Tuneiverse (or Looney Tune Land as it was named in Space Jam), is the home of the characters from Looney Tunes and its spin-offs, as well as those from Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and Pinky and The Brain, Histeria!, Freakazoid!, and Road Rovers.
- The Spiez-verse, which currently includes Totally Spies, its Spin-Off, The Amazing Spiez, and Martin Mystery.
- The Klasky Csupo-verse, which consists of Rugrats, its Spinoffs, All Grown Up and Angelica and Susie's Pre-School Daze, Aaahh Real Monsters, The Wild Thornberrys, and Rocket Power.
- Arguably Duckman as well.
- The shows Dexters Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls have provided several clues over the years that they inhabit the same universe. Samurai Jack and Sym-Bionic Titan may as well, but it's not verified.
- The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Underfist, and Evil Con Carne are all in the same universe as proof by Skarr being on both shows and numerous other Evil Con Carne characters having cameos.
- With the Chaos God story arc in the Disney Adventures series, Darkwing Duck, DuckTales, Tale Spin, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Goof Troop all take place in the same universe. Arguably, Quack Pack as well.
Fan Fiction[]
- The Order of the Gray Demons, centred on Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Fanfic Birds of a Feather by Solid Shark. Somewhat notable amongst Fanfic 'verses for having multiple authors and contradictory accounts.
- As mentioned in Comics, DuckTales and Darkwing Duck, having inherited the Disney Ducks Comic Universe. Arguments have been made for including Tale Spin as well; Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers although Dale did mention watching cartoons featuring a big dumb duck and there was one alternate universe that 'borrowed' Darkwing's adventures--and then turned to steal the Rangers'.
- The Oneiroi Series and its various branching realities.
- The DAYDverse based on an alternate-POV telling of Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows.
- All of the Doctor Who fics on Richs Comix Blog, including The 10 Doctors, are all self-contained within their own universe. This fan-verse also includes Forever Knight and Jem via crossovers.
- There is The Verse shared by the Mega Crossover fancomic Roommates and its various Spin Offs (Girls Next Door, Down the Street and many more) by multiple authors. It's also known as the Buildingverse by the fans.
Other[]
- This is what connects the Brick Joke to its punchline.
- ↑ Makes an occasional Shout-Out to Dagobah and Gallefry, suggesting some crossover or possibly a shared setting with the Star Wars Expanded Universe and the Whoniverse.
- ↑ I'm In The Band stands out among the live action Disney shows, as it is the only one not in the Disney Channel lineup (instead, it is part of Disney XD's lineup), as well as the only one to be filmed in High-Definition from the beginning (The Suite Life On Deck, Wizards of Waverly Place and Hannah Montana switched from Standard-Definition to High-Definition in Seasons 2, 3 and 4 respectively).