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Modular Franchise

 Modular Franchise
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 Modular Franchise
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Modular Franchise
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Sometimes a creator or company will strike gold. A work (film, novel, etc) may spawn sequels, adaptations to other media, and a bonanza of merchandise. Usually, it'll take place in its own distinct universe, the author having significant autonomy, or the time and place keeping it off limit for crossovers, like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter.
However, sometimes the creator or company will try to replicate its own success, and come up with creations in similar genres. The similarities are noted and sooner or later the separate creations wind up crossing over with each other—either to pool resources that are individually flagging in interest, or just to enjoy the benefits of a crossover. This new Shared Universe is a pretty perfect fit, and eventually it's seen as one giant franchise. However, at some point they may want to reboot only one piece of their mega-franchise, or adapt the simplest, most distilled aspect as it was originally envisioned. Luckily, these properties started out as their own franchise, so they can certainly stand on their own. But what you have is a modular franchise—full of properties that can be self-sustaining on their own, but also easily and even organically marketed as a unit.
Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })Similar to Canon Welding, except usually done at a corporate level, and The Merch plays a much bigger role, if not the entire incentive.
See also Massive Multiplayer Crossover.
Examples:
 Modular Franchise
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Dropped link to Joker: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
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Joker
 Modular Franchise
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DBTropes
 Modular Franchise / int_1c5e55fc
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Modular Franchise
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The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension was an Unbuilt Trope parody of this concept, all the way back in The '80s when, while it was seen quite regularly in genre literature and comic books, it was practically unheard of in Hollywood filmmaking. The central gag of the film is that the viewer is watching an installment in a long-running series of pulp sci-fi movies with a backstory that is frequently referenced throughout via Continuity Nods and Mythology Gags... except that mythology doesn't exist, since this is the only work that this franchise ever produced. It effectively replicates how bizarre an individual installment in a Modular Franchise can look when viewed by somebody who isn't intimately familiar with the rest of the franchise.
 Modular Franchise / int_1c5e55fc
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 The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
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 Modular Franchise / int_25305527
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The .hack franchise started with a series of four games, and it's prequel anime. Then came the novels, and the manga, and the next couple anime, then the second trilogy (now tetralogy) of games, and so on, and so forth.
 Modular Franchise / int_25305527
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1.0
 .hack (Franchise)
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Modular Franchise / int_25305527
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The View Askewniverse, a series of stoner comedies written and directed by Kevin Smith. In light of the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they can be thought of as another Unbuilt Trope example, especially given the large number of comic book and science fiction references that Smith, a big-time fan of such, put into them. Unlike many of the examples on this list, these films take place in the real world amidst ordinary people without any overt sci-fi or supernatural elements (save for the religious comedy Dogma, which featured angels and demons as both protagonists and villains), the recurring plot threads, Continuity Nods, and Worldbuilding between films mostly concerning the day-to-day lives, interactions, and relationships of the characters.
 Modular Franchise / int_45fddd2b
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 The View Askewniverse
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Modular Franchise / int_45fddd2b
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Beginning with Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Universal Pictures started pitting many of their monsters against each other, to the point that they formed, for the most part, one cohesive universe with most of the action taking place in an Eastern German-ish Überwald setting. For years after, things like video collections, cartoons, and even postage stamps would sport a Universal Monsters logo featuring Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Bride of Frankenstein, the Mummy, the Wolf Man, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. In 1999, Stephen Sommers remade The Mummy, and upon its success combined most of the gothic monsters for 2004's Van Helsing, in the hopes of going through Universal's entire stable of beasties. It didn't work out, and neither did Universal's attempt to give another shot to The Wolf Man. Another relaunch was attempted with Dracula Untold and The Mummy (2017), with the latter explicitly intended to kickstart a full Universal cinematic universe, the Dark Universe. Unfortunately for Universal, though, The Mummy appears to have put the kibosh on that plan. The Mummy was released to poor reviews and didn't do too well at the box office, with the use of the "Dark Universe" logo before anyone cared about the Dark Universe being met with particular derision, and with the departure of producers Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan, plus the plug being pulled on Bride of Frankenstein preproduction, that appears to be more or less that for the Dark Universe for the time being.
 Modular Franchise / int_5189271b
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 Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
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And speaking of Marvel, the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings the Avengers corner of the Marvel U to movies and TV shows, having sub-franchises for Iron Man, The Mighty Thor, Captain America, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel; and various one-off films or series for other heroes.
 Modular Franchise / int_69d15cc0
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 Marvel Cinematic Universe (Franchise)
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Modular Franchise / int_69d15cc0
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The Avatar: The Last Airbender series has become a popular franchise that includes not only two animated series, but also several comics and even a novel and its sequel.
 Modular Franchise / int_72262aee
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1.0
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 Avatar: The Last Airbender
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 Modular Franchise / int_8258e260
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Super Mario Bros. has become modular after having so many successful spinoffs; besides all the games featuring Mario himself, there's the Donkey Kong series he originated from, the Wario series, the Yoshi's Island series, the Luigi's Mansion series, one-off games starring Princess Peach, Luigi, Toad, etc. And all these characters join back together for various multiplayer tiles like Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario Golf, etc. When Rare was working with Nintendo, the Banjo-Kazooie series and the Conker games were originally meant to take place in the Mario Universe, but when the company was sold to Microsoft, that became no longer true.
 Modular Franchise / int_8258e260
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 Super Mario Bros. (Franchise)
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 Modular Franchise / int_8bf307b3
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The Disney Mouse and Duck Comics follow the same basic rule as the Disney Animated Canon (see below), with all the characters inhabiting the same universe — but Donald Duck and his family primarily stay in the Disney Ducks Comic Universe, while Mickey Mouse and his friends have the Mickey Mouse Comic Universe, with the occasional crossover. There are also comic stories that are clearly part of the same universe but don't clearly take place with either Mice or Ducks — such as Chip 'n Dale's solo comics.
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 Disney Mouse and Duck Comics (Comic Book)
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 Modular Franchise / int_8df5521b
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Superman and Batman are individually massive cultural icons. They're also members of the Justice League of America, which consists of all of DC Comics' other major superheroes — including ones like Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and Supergirl who are popular in their own right. So you may see these characters playing out individually, or as a combo of the company's superhero line. While, as noted below, DC's big characters traditionally do cooperate well when they meet up, the fact is that cross-title continuity just wasn't much of a thing for the first several decades of DC's existence; so its big name, old guard heroes tend to each have a very solid standing as separate franchises in their own rights (whereas the Marvel characters were all playing in the same collective sandbox almost from their inception). Heck, back before the Crisis on Infinite Earths, half the point of the DC Multiverse was to give franchises like Shazam! and Freedom Fighters (DC) each their own sandbox to play in, leaving crossovers as an occasional novelty.
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 Superman (Comic Book)
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The DC Extended Universe is DC Comics and Warner Bros.' response to Marvel and Disney's success with their film universe (see "Multiple Media" above). While the initial effort tied things closely together — with many arguing too closely too quickly — after Justice League (2017) it shifted to making the various entries self-contained. So Aquaman (2018) alludes to events from that film, and SHAZAM! (2019) acknowledges Superman and Batman's existence, but you can understand each sub-franchise without seeing the others.
In a similar move, DC differs from Marvel by making movies that aren't part of their main film franchise at all, with Joker and The Batman set in their own separate universes.
 Modular Franchise / int_961b37e0
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 DC Extended Universe (Franchise)
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It even inspired an American version, the MonsterVerse, which featured a whole new King Kong for Godzilla to battle.
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 MonsterVerse
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The Disney Princess brand, which is primarily focused on the royal heroines of fairy/folktale-derived films from the Disney Animated Canon. Various direct-to-video productions, theme park shows, CDs, the live-action series Once Upon a Time, the video game series Kingdom Hearts, and so forth have presented the heroines together, and it finally occurred in canon during Ralph Breaks the Internet (a rejected concept for the "Pomp and Circumstance" segment in Fantasia 2000 would have done so earlier) .
 Modular Franchise / int_996a1020
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 Disney Princess (Franchise)
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Godzilla. Obviously, the Big G is the star of the line, but Mothra is important enough for her own subseries, and pretty much anything by Toho can be worked into a Godzilla film. And, of course, the big lizard himself can be crossed over with just about anything.
It even inspired an American version, the MonsterVerse, which featured a whole new King Kong for Godzilla to battle.
 Modular Franchise / int_9ff4a8d9
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 Godzilla (Franchise)
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The Cloverfield franchise is made up of (so far) three films and a tie-in manga, Cloverfield/Kishin, that are connected by an intricate Alternate Reality Game that serves as both the Viral Marketing for the series and most of the Worldbuilding. While the films are otherwise standalone (beyond all of them having the word "Cloverfield" in the title), most of the connections between them are revealed in various websites detailing the activities of corporations and institutions within their Shared Universe. Furthermore, while it's unconfirmed, various fan theories have attempted to canon-weld the series with other works produced by J. J. Abrams, particularly the TV shows Alias and Lost and the film Super 8.
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 Cloverfield
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Disney Mouse and Duck Comics (Comic Book) / int_c49c5f98
type
Modular Franchise
 Mickey Mouse Comic Universe (Comic Book) / int_c49c5f98
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Modular Franchise
 Van Helsing / int_c49c5f98
type
Modular Franchise
 Disney Princess (Franchise) / int_c49c5f98
type
Modular Franchise
 BBCHistoricalFarmSeries
seeAlso
Modular Franchise
 DisneyMouseAndDuckComics
seeAlso
Modular Franchise
 Elemental Gearbolt (Video Game) / int_c49c5f98
type
Modular Franchise