The 9 Cinematic Universes Currently in Development

When Joss Whedon’s The Avengers hulk-smashed the box office in 2012, studio execs all over the world suddenly took an interest in long interconnecting universes on the big screen. Post-credits stings, cameos, and crossovers are the new currency in Hollywood, and every studio wants to get involved.

Now, three years later, there are nine rival cinematic universes in the works, all vying for a way into the wallets of the world. Fantastical action franchises like Transformers and Star Wars may sort of seem like a logical fit, but the buck doesn’t stop there – comedies like 21 Jump Street and animations such as The LEGO Movie are also being expanded into sprawling cinematic universes.

To help you a little with your inter-universe travel plans, here’s our guide to all the shared universes Hollywood is lovingly preparing for us…

Classic Horror

Studio: Universal

Key films so far: Dracula Untold

What’s coming up? Untitled Mummy film, Untitled Van Helsing film, Untitled Wolf Film, Another Untitled Film

Key personnel: Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Chris Morgan

Universal is bringing back what many deem the ‘original’ shared universe, by aptly resurrecting the likes of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, Van Helsing, and Wolf Man. Messrs Kurtzman, Orci, and Morgan have brought in screenwriters Jon Spaihts and Aaron Guzikowski to help churn out some screenplays.

Untitled Mummy Film will drop next, in March 2017 (er, probably with a different title). It’s rumored, but hardly confirmed, that Charles Dance’s master vampire character from Dracula Untold could well be the Nick Fury of the team. He intoned the words "let the games begin" at the end of Dracula Untold, after all.

It’s probably worth noting that a new Frankenstein movie hasn’t been mentioned yet in any official announcements, but we’re not sure why. Maybe they’re saving him for phase two?

DC Comics

Studio: Warner Bros/DC Entertainment

Key films so far: Man of Steel

What’s coming up? Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Justice League Part One, The Flash, Aquaman, Shazam, Justice League Part Two, Cyborg, Green Lantern, Untitled Batman Standalone, Untitled Superman Standalone

Key personnel: David S. Goyer, Zack Snyder, Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder, Patty Jenkins, Phil Lord, Chris Miller, James Wan, David Ayer

DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. have announced an immense amount of films as part of their bid to topple Marvel Studio’s superhero cinematic dominance of the post Dark Knight trilogy years.

Some see this a cash-driven grab for power, but it’s hard to be skeptical about the talent they’ve brought in, particularly the decision to hand The Flash movie (not linked to the TV show, but definitely focusing on Barry Allen) to Lord and Miller of Jump Street and The LEGO Movie.

Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will see Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Ben Affleck’s Batman, Jason Momoa’s Aquaman, Ray Fisher’s Cyborg, and Henry Cavill’s Superman on screen together for the first time, as a launching pad for a sizeable slate which is planned out until June 2020.

Batman v Superman and David Ayer’s Suicide Squad both arrive in 2016, and we’d wager that their success will determine whether the latter films all get made. Announcing the likes of Cyborg before you’ve rebooted Batman was a gutsy move, but it could well pay off if there’s enough quality control going on.

Ghostbusters

Studio: Sony

Key films so far:  Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II (although they may no longer be canon)

What’s coming up? Untitled Paul Feig Ghostbusters Movie, Untitled Drew Pearce Ghostbusters Movie

Key personnel: Paul Feig, Drew Pearce, Channing Tatum, Read Carolin, Peter Kiernan

Paul Feig’s female-focused Ghostbusters movie (starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon, with Chris Hemsworth as their receptionist) will be first out of the gate here. It seems like Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II will not be considered canon for this new film.

Feig told Entertainment Weekly that “I love the first one so much I don’t want to do anything to ruin the memory of that. So it just felt like, let’s just restart it because then we can have new dynamics. I want the technology to be even cooler. I want it to be really scary, and I want it to happen in our world today that hasn’t gone through it.”

Additionally, Sony has made a new internal branch of their company, dubbed Ghost Corps. Drew Pearce and Channing Tatum are producers of this project. Pearce is writing a male-centric Ghostbusters movie, with Tatum strongly expected to star. Their top choice director’s chair inhabitant(s), according to rumor? That’d be Anthony and Joe Russo of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Community fame (soon to take on an Avengers: Infinity War double bill).

The fact that Sony has announced a sub-company with ghost in the title suggests that there will be many more movies after these two. We’ve been told to expect four, but we’ll keep you posted as we hear more.

Jump Street

Studio: Sony

Key films so far: 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street (also, the 21 Jump Street TV series is still canon, fact fans!)

What’s coming up? 23 Jump Street, Untitled Men in Black Crossover, Untitled Spin-Off

Key personnel: Phil Lord, Chris Miller, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Rodney Rothman, Neal H. Moritz, Michael Bacall, Lucia Aniello, Paul Downs, Lizzie Molyneux, Wendy Molyneux

We’ve not heard a single complaint about bringing Lord, Miller, Tatum, and Hill back together after the whopping double whammy of 21 Jump Street and 22 Jump Street. A straight sequel is expected, as well as a Men in Black crossover (yep, really!), and a female oriented spin-off.

"Well, it's very, very early on in this crazy fever pitch,” said Miller of the Men in Black idea, “but it's definitely a really interesting concept that makes you think. Talking about it, developing it with Jonah and Channing and Rodney and the studio, we can't just do the 'hey, it's the same thing again' shtick because we did that already."

Lucia Aniello, Paul Downs, Lizzie Molyneux, and Wendy Molyneux have all been working on the female-fronted spin-off, but we don’t know much more about it at this stage. We do know that all 27 films from the 22 Jump Street closing credits are canon, though. Well, according to Miller that is… he may have been joking.

LEGO

Studio: Warner Bros.

Key films so far: The LEGO Movie

What’s coming up? The LEGO Movie Sequel, The LEGO Batman Movie, Untitled Ninjago Film, Billion Brick Race

Key personnel: Phil Lord, Chris Miller, Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Jason Segel, Drew Pearce, Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman, Seth Grahame-Smith, Jason Stern, Chris McKay

Before its release, even the staunchest anticipator of The LEGO Movie couldn’t have predicted it would go this well. Lord and Miller’s hilarious animated triumph was a big hit with the box office, critics, and (from the ones I know) families, too.

With that holy trinity of approval, it’s no surprise that a universe is being built (arf) on the foundation brick (arf again) of The LEGO Movie. A straight sequel is being produced and written by Lord and Miller (the busiest talent on this list, by far), with the original’s animation director Chris McKay advancing into the role of director.

There’s also the spin-off movie for Will Arnett’s Batman, another spin-off focusing on LEGO’s Ninjago characters (not seen in the first film), and a film called Billion Brick Race. The latter of those is from Jason Segel and Drew Pearce, who will write and co-direct together. We don’t know what it’s about yet, besides some sort of race.

Valiant Comics

Studio: Sony

Key films so far: None

What’s coming up? Bloodshot, Harbinger, Bloodshot 2, Harbinger 2, Harbinger Wars

Key personnel: David Leitch, Chad Stahelski, Jeff Wadlow, Eric Hessier, Matthew Vaughn, Jason Kothari

In lieu of their plans for a Spider-Man universe of intertwining spin-offs (which have been put on hold for the time being, if not forever), Sony has picked up the rights to some Valiant Comics properties instead. In a ballsy move, they announced five films straight off the bat.

The first of these is Bloodshot, about a former soldier with a wiped memory who gets injected with nanites that give him advanced techo-wizardry, healing abilities, and shape shifting powers (he’s the grey one in the image above). After the first Bloodshot movie, we will get Harbinger, about a team of villains led by evil telekinetic type Toyo Harada (the yellow-eyed one at the front of the picture).

Each of these films will get a sequel, and then a big crossover will follow, called Harbinger Wars. Here, Bloodshot will fight Toyo’s Harbinger gang. The involvement of John Wick duo David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, as well as Kick Ass alumni Matthew Vaughn and Jeff Waldlow (they’re all working on Bloodshot, in some capacity) has us anticipating plenty of violent action.

Star Wars

Studio: Disney

Key films so far: Star Wars Episodes I-VI (The Clone Wars TV show and film, and Star Wars: Rebels, are also canon)

What’s coming up? Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars Episode VIII, Star Wars Episode IX, Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One, Untitled Second Anthology Film

Key personnel: Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Rian Johnson, Lawrence Kasdan, Bryan Burk, Gareth Edwards

So, after decades of wondering whether George Lucas would ever make a follow-up to Return of the Jedi, Disney have now swooped in, bought the rights and fast tracked a new series of films. In fact, they’ve got two series in development. There’s straight sequels in the form of The Force Awakens, Episode VIII, and Episode IX, plus an additional series of spin-offs under the banner of Star Wars: Anthology.

J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan wrote The Force Awakens, which is due out this December. It will follow on thirty years after Return of the Jedi, bringing back Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, and Kenny Baker, alongside a new cast of youngsters consisting of Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Lupito Nyong’o, and Domhnall Gleeson. Max von Sydow, Andy Serkis, and Gwendoline Christie have also joined the cast.

Just before Christmas 2016, Gareth Edwards' Rogue One, the first Anthology film, will be released. It will focus on the rebel mission to steal the first Death Star plans. May 2017 will see the release of Rian Johnson’s Episode VIII, a second Anthology film will follow at some point (no longer directed by Josh Trank, and believed to focus on Boba Fett), and finally Episode IX (penned by Rian Johnson) will land in 2019. After that, we wouldn’t expect Disney to stop making Star Wars movies, if everything’s gone well.

Transformers

Studio: Paramount

Key films so far: Transformers – Transformers: Age Of Extinction

What’s coming up? As many as ten films. Rumored to include Bumblebee’s origin story and a trip to Cybertron. Also, Transformers 5

Key personnel: Akiva Goldsman, Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg, Robert Kirkman, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, Jeff Pinker, Zak Penn, Andrew Barrer, Gabriel Ferrari, Steven DeKnight, Ken Nolan, Geneva Robertson-Dworet

That list of key personnel should be enough to tell you that Hasbro and Paramount are planning to roll out (geddit?) a hell of a lot of Transformers films in the coming years. It will start with Transformers 5 in 2017, with plans apparently afoot for as many as 10 films within the Transformers mythos after that.

Paramount’s approach is interesting. They’ve assembled a writing room with a pooled-together CV that includes The Walking Dead, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Ant-Man, Pacific Rim, Pacific Rim 2, Lost, Fringe, Netflix’s Daredevil, and Black Hawk Down. Writer/producer Akiva Goldsman of A Beautiful Mind, I Am Legend, and I, Robot is leading this pack.

"All of the writers will come away from this exercise with a movie treatment to write, including Goldsman. Those writers will then have first crack at writing the scripts for treatments that meet the approval of Paramount, [Michael] Bay, [Steven] Spielberg, Hasbro, and the producers," according to Deadline. This impressive collection of talent could be an interesting way to rejuvenate a franchise that has become increasingly based on explosions and not much else, despite its unstoppable skills as the box office.

Marvel

Studio: Disney/Marvel Studios

Key films so far: Marvel’s Phase 1 (Iron Man up to The Avengers), Marvel’s Phase 2 (Iron Man 3 up to Age Of Ultron). Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, and Agent Carter are canon, as well

What’s coming up? Ant-Man (technically the concluding chapter of Phase 2), Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Untitled Spider-Man film (shared with Sony), Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2, Inhumans

Key personnel: Confirmed for phase 3 - Kevin Feige, James Gunn, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Scott Derickson, Amy Pascal

And finally, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is showing no signs of slowing down, as you’ve surely come to expect. In fact, the third phase of Marvel movies will be the biggest yet, with two Avengers movies and another huge crossover in the shape of Captain America: Civil War.

Expanding and enhancing the world even further, Doctor Strange will introduce us to the mystical Marvel realm, Thor: Ragnarok is likely to feature an Asgardian apocalypse, Black Panther will see Marvel’s first African-American headliner, Captain Marvel will be Marvel’s first female-fronted movie, and the Inhumans film will probably take us back through time to the birth of an ancient super-powered society.

Marvel’s small screen adventures are growing, too – there will be more Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter, as well as season 2 of Daredevil (featuring Punisher!) and new Netflix shows based around Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, followed by a big Defenders crossover.

It looks like everyone else will be playing catch-up for quite a while. We’ll keep this article updated with any more cinematic universe news.