Building a Film Universe

As a lifelong comic book fan, I've always enjoyed the shared universes that were created by Marvel and DC. The best thing was that in any given Spider-Man comic, any member of the Marvel Universe could show up, whether in a starring role or just in a cameo. You might see an issue where he teams up with the Punsiher, when all of the sudden in the background, you see Bruce Banner walking along pondering his troublesome existence as the Hulk. Plus you would get a footnote telling you to buy the latest issue of The Incredible Hulk to see why Dr. Bruce Banner was in New York this month.

Since comic book films gained popularity 8 years ago with the release of X-Men, many fans have been clamoring for interconnectivity between the films. It seems like it would be easy for DC characters since all their films are put out by Warner Brothers, but nothing has come of that yet. Not even the slightest hint that either exists in each other's world. Maybe they mentioned Metropolis in Batman Forever, but that's about it. Spider-Man and Ghost Rider were both put out by Sony and no connections were made there. Brian Cox's X2 character made his way into a photograph in Fantastic Four and Elektra spun off from Daredevil, but these were a far cry from any real suggestion that these characters existed on the same planet let alone the same universe. Daredevil couldn't even mention the Daily Bugle because it was a Fox movie and Sony had any Daily Bugle rights because of Spider-Man.

Sure, Marvel was making a ton of money licensing these movies, but they lacked in creative control and didn't have the option of linking the properties because none of the studios would want to give up any of "their" characters. Now, with Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, Marvel is bringing the Marvel Universe to the big screen. Nick Fury cameos at the end of Iron Man and Tony Stark is supposed to pop up in the new Hulk film along with Captain America's Super Soldier serum. What Marvel is doing is building what could potentially be the biggest film franchise ever. If all of these films are considered part of one gigantic story, they can put out any number of sequels per year, featuring different characters, with little nods and cameos that place each film in the larger universe. Eventually if it grows enough, Fox and Sony might want to let the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man play too. Imagine a film where every Marvel hero teams up to take on a gigantic space god in purple helmeted Galactus instead of a shitty cloud! I would need a new pair of pants for every frame of film. 

P.S. Fuck Blade and Ghost Rider. They can keep to their mopey, supernatural selves. Unless they show up in a Dr. Strange movie. Then that might be pretty cool.*

*If they recast both parts.