Looking at the recent surge in superhero films, I can't help but feel old. There was once a time where we would get one, maybe two if we were lucky, a year. It was an event. I remember seeing the first Spider-Man opening weekend – the original Tobey Maguire one. We all had to wait for them to announce they were even doing a second one. Fast forward to 2016. This year alone, we have four superhero films, two each from Marvel and DC. This mass production of countless comic book movies is thanks to Marvel, who took one of the biggest gambles in film history, jumpstarting the shared universe model of filmmaking. But how did Marvel, a publisher who at one point was losing money on a regular basis, create a multiple-billion dollar franchise, and what did that do for film?

The shared universe concept isn't new. Universal Studios established their classic monster movies to be in the same world, characters and creatures crossing over into each other's films – Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, and the ultimate crossover, Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. In the years following, directors and studios would sneak in small references to other works, such as John Hughes saying that the family in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles lives down the the street from the Benders (their son, John, having appeared in The Breakfast Club), and George Lucas including a group of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial aliens during a Senate meeting in Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace. However, the comic book film shared universe can be traced back to the Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher Batman series. A quick line in Batman Forever established the city of Metropolis existing within this film universe. Then, in 1998, when Burton signed on to direct Kevin Smith's ill-fated Superman Lives, Burton rewrote much of the script, but kept a short scene in which Batman would have had a small cameo, played by Michael Keaton. DC would later attempt a Batman Vs. Superman in 2003, where the two heroes would get spin offs, and Justice League Mortal, to be directed by George Miller, and the plan was again to do spin-offs out of this film. None of these projects made it past pre-production, Superman Lives being a few months away from filming when it was canceled.

Meanwhile, all was not well at Marvel. In the 1990s, no thanks to the speculator market, the company began falling financially. To recoup losses, they started selling film rights to their characters. As time went on, rights reverted back due to studios not wanting to work on a genre that was percieved as a disaster, as films like Batman and Robin and Steel almost rang the death bell. By 2006, Marvel had jumped back to the top, and their character rights were still somewhat scattered. Rights to X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Daredevil were held by 20^th Century Fox, while Sony held onto Spider-Man and Ghost Rider. Avi Arad, realizing they held rights to Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and co-owned Hulk with Universal, decided to get a group together to plan out these films to be connected, leading up to an Avengers film. The rest is history – Robert Downey Jr., a washed-up has-been actor was cast as Iron Man, and despite not even having a finished script, the film went into production, releasing in 2008 alongside Hulk reboot The Incredible Hulk. Due to the success of Iron Man, the Tony Stark cameo in the end of The Incredible Hulk officially showed the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be happening. In 2009, Disney bought Marvel, and with that, following the end of the Paramount contract, Disney would distribute all MCU films. Slowly, the films threw in little references and cameos from previous works, such as Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Each project was produced independently from each other, but would occasionally meet up. As time went on, this did begin hindering filmmakers working for Marvel, but that is a story for a different time.

Fast forward through Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Thor. Two actors, Edward Norton and Terrance Howard, did not reprise their roles as Bruce Banner/Hulk and James Rhodes/War Machine in the sequels over money and creative issues. In 2012, Marvel released The Avengers, and proved that this concept would work. They immediately started work on other projects and sequels, all building up to Avengers: Infinity War and its follow-up, due for release in 2018/2019. Meanwhile, Marvel spread their universe into television, and began getting rights back to certain characters, including Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Ant-Man, and made a deal with Sony to co-own Spider-Man. However, usually the characters didn't cross over into each other's movies, unless it was an Avengers movie – that is, until Captain America: Civil War, where Captain America and Iron Man went to war with each other, dividing the Avengers and establishing a new tone for the franchise going forward. As per Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, “it's all connected”, except for when it's not – look at the pre-Civil War films compared to Batman v Superman, which deals with the exact fallout of Man of Steel, and likewise for Suicide Squad. Civil War showed that yes, these solo films can include the others and not feel like another Avengers, something Marvel hopefully will continue to do.

So what did all this do for Hollywood? It showed there was potential to create entire universes of films and television, all connected and integrated, as well as generating more money for the studios. Disney has announced a similar style with Star Wars, where in addition to the main “saga” line of films, we will be seeing a Star Wars Anthology series, telling different stories of the galaxy far far away. Sony also considered doing their own Spider-Man universe, but after the critical and financial failure of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the deal with Marvel was made, leading to the second reboot and third leading actor in ten years. They also are considering a Ghostbusters universe, but in a similar situation to The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the money from the surprisingly well-received reboot was not what they had expected. DC Comics has jumped in, doing a similar method to their earlier attempts – introducing characters like The Flash, Wonder Woman, Batman, Cyborg, and Aquaman before their solo films in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Godzilla, King Kong, and possibly Pacific Rim are often in discussion about connecting their franchises. Even Universal is attempting to remake their shared universe of monster films, starting with Dracula Untold, and leading up to a Van Helsing reboot. Quinten Tarrentino has also said that his films are pretty much in the same world, with characters being related or otherwise connected to other characters across his works, creating a more subtle shared world.

The shared universe concept is nothing new. It has been done long before Marvel Studios worked on The Avengers, and it will be done long after Marvel drives the superhero genre into the ground. While sometimes, it just shouldn't happen (who really needs a Silmer-focused spin off of Ghostbusters), it can lead to countless directors and writers and actors working on multiple projects at once, all able to do their own thing, but still have ties to a previous work. It also can get a bit annoying, having to see the previous MCU movies to understand what exactly happened in Captain America: Civil War and where each character and situation is when the film opens. But at the same time, those who have seen the last few movies will get the in-jokes and references, and the little references to “the incident” will make more sense. Either way, the shared universe concept allows for something for everyone among their projects – somebody who was not interested in Star Wars: The Force Awakens may be interested in a gritty war film like Rouge One: A Star Wars Story. Even attempting to make this work was a gamble, and it is still paying off, not just for Marvel, but for any franchise ready to show more than just a single aspect of a world.