Long Running Film Franchises Trying to Go The “Marvel” Route — And How They’ve Fared So Far
In 2012 when Marvel Studios’ The Avengers debuted and officially established the Marvel Cinematic Universe, few could have foreseen how this would change not only the superhero movie landscape, but franchise filmmaking as a whole. Now it’s not enough to simply map out a planned trilogy or extended saga focusing on one character or a small group of characters. Now studios desire to create their own cinematic universes and reap the massive commercial and financial success that comes with it. Each attempt has seen varying degrees of success, some doing pretty well overall (MonsterVerse, The Conjuring Universe), some having fluctuating results (DC Extended Universe), and some that don’t even take off (Dark Universe). However, it’s one thing to conceive a franchise as a cinematic universe right off the bat. It’s quite another to turn an already well-established film franchise into one, “branching out” so to speak. In this scenario you already have a successful film series with much of the groundwork laid out for you. Now you just need to build upon what’s already there; an addition of new stories set in that same universe that people would want to see. The only question is, can you?
Here are four film franchises that have attempted to emulate Marvel and how each have fared in their own right.
Star Wars
Since their purchase of LucasFilm in 2012, Disney has been attempting to reshape Star Wars into something comparable to their Marvel division with varying results overall. While Star Wars did have something of a larger universe going beyond the main storyline already due to the Expanded Universe tie-in content (books, comics, video games, etc), the Ewoks movies, and the Clone Wars TV series, there had yet to be anything attempted akin to what Marvel had achieved. Disney and LucasFilm initially planned to go about this by having their sequel trilogy supplemented with anthology movies and spinoffs each year, similar to how Marvel Studios generally releases 2–3 movies each year. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was the first and most notable attempt at a universe expansion under Disney, and is widely seen as the most successful attempt so far. The next attempt, Solo: A Star Wars Story didn’t see quite the same success. Due to studio interference and a time crunch Solo didn’t quite reach the full potential that it could have (or perhaps should have considering who the character is to Star Wars). While the general consensus with critics, fans, and casual audiences seemed to be that it was “fine,” it flopped at the box office, becoming the first ever Star Wars movie to do so. On top of that, diminishing returns on the sequel trilogy suggest most audiences and fans have grown detached and disinterested in Star Wars and its’ future (for various reasons), ultimately leading to Disney and LucasFilm deciding to put all new movies on hold for a few years.
Despite these setbacks however, there may yet be possibilities for the future of the franchise, at least on the small screen. The Disney+ series The Mandalorian was widely seen as a return-to-form for the franchise, and a welcome expansion of the Star Wars mythos. A second season has already been confirmed, as well as a other Disney+ series such as an Obi-Wan Kenobi series (originally a planned movie that got retooled into a show), a Cassian Andor series, and other currently unspecified shows that aim to focus on unexplored areas of the Star Wars canon.
While they are currently working to build a strong small-screen presence, Disney and LucasFilm will eventually give the big screen another go with new movies to expand the Star Wars mythology such as Star Wars: Rogue Squadron directed by Patty Jenkins, a Star Wars movie directed by Taika Waititi, and a Star Wars movie produced by Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige (I guess they figured may as well tap the source of the shared universe trend), and various other movies down the line. How these movies and shows will do remains to be seen, but at least there is still some hope for the “Star Wars Cinematic Universe.”
Harry Potter (Wizarding World)
First taking flight in 2001, the Harry Potter film franchise originally solely focused on Harry and co, with the fantastical world they live in being the main draw of the series. In more recent years this film universe has begun to branch out Marvel-style under the name “Wizarding World” with the Fantastic Beasts series, and possibly other connected movies in the future (fingers crossed for a Voldemort and/or Dumbledore movie), with J.K. Rowling presumably filling the role of their “Kevin Feige.”
At first the Wizarding World seemed to be off to a good start. It had the original Potter saga serving as its’ foundation, and Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them was well received by critics, fans, and mainstream audiences overall, and fleshed out this film universe beyond what’s already been seen in the previous movies. Its’ sequel Fantastic Beasts And The Crimes of Grindlewald however, was not only deemed a disappointing followup but also a low point for the Harry Potter series both commercially and financially. But I’m open to the possibility that the sequel was merely a fluke, like Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 2, and that the series could still recover from this one blow. Furthermore, despite this setback, the Harry Potter films still have a stellar track record. Only one truly disliked entry out of ten total films hardly undoes the entire series when viewed as a whole. Let’s just hope they can keep it that way.
Fast & Furious
First kicking it into high gear in 2001 as little more than “Point Break but with cars,” the Fast & Furious series has since evolved into one of Hollywood’s biggest blockbuster tentpoles, and now has its’ eyes set on becoming a full-fledged cinematic universe a la Marvel. Hobbs & Shaw was the first attempt at world expansion for the Fast & Furious franchise, complete with an MCU-style supervillain in Idris Elba’s Brixton Lore. Following the conclusion of the main series with Furious 9 and 10, the franchise will continue to expand with a female led spinoff (almost definitely starring Michelle Rodriguez), a Hobbs & Shaw sequel, and presumably other separate storylines as long as the series remains a box office draw.
Initially I was perhaps the most skeptical about Fast & Furious of all franchises trying to replicate Marvel as its’ premise didn’t really seem to lend itself to the shared universe concept. Despite how big the franchise has become it still ultimately boils down to little else besides big action stars coupled with cool cars and fun set pieces, after all. But the more I think about it the more I think it actually makes perfect sense for one simple reason- the cast and crew love their fans. Why does this matter, you ask? Because so do the cast and crew at Marvel Studios, and look how far each respective franchise has come because of this. The Fast & Furious filmmakers even went so far as to take on fan suggestions. Ultimately, it is fandoms (coupled with a mutual respect for the fans) that are the driving force behind the most successful film franchises. Thus I am now convinced that the only way the “Fast & Furious Cinematic Universe” could genuinely fail would be if the cast and crew stopped caring about their fans and their wishes, which doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon.
Transformers
Say what you will about the overall quality of these movies, but no one can deny that the Transformers film series makes money. A lot of it. And the Marvel Cinematic Universe makes even more money than that. So of course it was inevitable that the filmmakers would try their hand at a “Transformers Cinematic Universe.”
In 2015, Michael Bay assembled a writer’s room that was tasked with conceiving this universe, and they supposedly came up with 14 stories total. With all these stories prepped and ready to go, now all Paramount and Hasbro needed was for Transformers: The Last Knight to be a hit. And why wouldn’t it? The sequels each made between 800 million to a billion dollars at the box office despite always being panned by critics and most fans, so they must have figured this one would too. But for whatever reasons their luck finally ran out as the fifth entry not only didn’t reach previous numbers but became a box office low for the series both domestically and globally. This in turn led to pretty much all planned movies being scrapped. All but one, however, that was already in production at the time. That one being Bumblebee (2018).
Due to a lukewarm box office, it was initially thought that Bumblebee would be one last swan song before Transformers called it quits on the big screen. But strong sales in home media and positive word-of-mouth now suggest that Bumblebee may become a saving grace for the franchise. A sequel has been confirmed, and at least some of the cancelled movies are being reconsidered.
There is one major question lingering for the future of Transformers on the big screen, however, that being whether Bumblebee is a prequel or a reboot for the franchise. While initially conceived as a prequel, most evidence now suggests it’s likely both a prequel and something of a soft reboot, as it has nods to the first movie yet also some clear differences from the former continuity. That and Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura has described the next movie as being a “fusion” of Travis Knight’s movie and the Michael Bay series.
Regarding the future film slate of Transformers, what is currently known is that there will definitely be a Bumblebee 2. Other movies currently under consideration are an Optimus Prime solo movie and a Beast Wars movie based on the 90s cartoon of the same name, as well as an animated movie detailing the history of the planet Cybertron.
One scenario proposed by some fans is that Bumblebee could even retroactively become the launchpad for Paramount and Hasbro’s other planned universe, the “Hasbro Cinematic Universe.” Though presumably for now Hasbro’s Snake Eyes movie is still the intended starting point for that one. Guess we’ll have to wait and see what ends up happening.