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Shared Universe
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Shared Universe (trope)
Cleveland, Stan and Peter pointing guns at each other.

"You think you're the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you've become part of a bigger universe. You just don't know it yet."
— Nick Fury, Iron Man

When The 'Verse is shaped by multiple creators writing independently, such as how many different comic book titles can be set in a collective continuity. This makes it easy to have a Crossover. In contrast, a single TV series with multiple writers is just the Verse with subcontractors. Likewise, when different continuities by the same author are tied together later by an Intercontinuity Crossover, that's Canon Welding.

As a rule, simply having a Crossover is not enough to qualify as a Shared Universe, as those tend to be standalone stories and have no further connections beyond that. Major events should be referenced across the different projects or characters are mentioned as having their own adventures somewhere else.

The nature of the Shared Universe — multiple independent creators creating one continuity — can easily lead to a Continuity Snarl if it lasts a long time and the different creators don't take care to keep things straight. If a Shared Universe starts relying too heavily on continuity, especially if it's obscure or too reliant on each work in the Verse, a Continuity Lock-Out may occur. When creators disagree on the direction the Verse should take, they may fight Armed with Canon. If some corners of the continuity are "off limits" to some characters to avoid theme-drift or plot derailing, then Superman Stays Out of Gotham.

When they go back centuries, and even further and further, long before copyrights and trademarks, the Shared Universe turns into one or more actual mythologies. Compare with The 'Verse, Expanded Universe, Canon. Contrast with Shout-Out.

When two works are considered to share a universe by the fandom, see Fanon Welding. Not to be confused with Public Domain Canon Welding, which is when an official work uses Public Domain assets and presents it as a Shared Universe.

Subpages

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Several of Aka Akasaka's works occur in the same universe. This was established in a chapter of Oshi no Ko wherein Ruby mentions having had a photoshoot done by one Kaguya Shirogane. Later on, Renai Daikou features mentions Frill, Abiko, and Sweet Today from Oshi no Ko as well.
  • BURN THE WITCH (2018) and Bleach take place in the same world. They're more connected than you'd think, as Wing Bind is revealed at the end of the pilot to be an English branch of Soul Society.
  • A truly bizarre case is GaoGaiGar and Betterman, which take place in the same universe despite the former being a Super Robot Reconstruction and the latter a Real Robot horror series. The two even have an official crossover novel.
  • Case Closed and Magic Kaito exist in the same universe. In fact Kaito Kid is a reoccurring nemesis for Shinchi Kudo/Conan Edogawa, and is even his Evil Twin of sorts. Technically YⱯIBA would be in the same universe too, although that's more of a Show Within a Show.
  • Both Cat's Eye and City Hunter (both created by Tsukasa Hojo) have referenced each other's protagonists at times, implying they're set in the same universe. The Kisugi sisters (protagonists of Cat's Eye) eventually showed up in City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes.
  • Dragon Ball: Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump, and Jaco the Galactic Patrolman (plus its short spin-off Sachie-chan Guu!) share a universe; the main characters from all three series even met each other in a filler episode of Dragon Ball Super. Neko Majin is set here, though its parodic nature makes it canon status dubious, and Pola and Roid, Tomato, Girl Detective, Jiya, and Wonder Island all connect to Dr. Slump via cameos, placing them here too. Various other limited series and one-shots from Toriyama such as Cashman are possibilities given the vast scope of universe and very similar designs for technology and characters, but that could just be Toriyama recycling (like how Satan in Sand Land happens to look exactly like Dabra from Dragon Ball).
  • Hayate the Combat Butler and Seiyu's Life!.
  • Idol Angel Yokoso Yoko and Idol Densetsu Eriko - this is confirmed when Ichijuin from Eriko shows up in Yokoso Yoko as Kyoko's manager.
  • Cowboy Bebop, Carole & Tuesday, Samurai Champloo, and Space☆Dandy all are stated as taking place in the same universe by Word of God for all of them. While Cowboy Bebop and Carole and Tuesday are set primarily in the same timeline and area, with some commonalities between them, the latter two are respectively an Alternate History and set in an area of space where aliens freely exist. Take of that what you will.
  • Kengan Ashura, How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?, and ST☆R: Strike it Rich all exist in the same world, with one of the main characters of Heavy Dumbbells being the sister of a character in Kengan, while the protagonist of Strike it Rich goes to the same school as the main cast of Heavy Dumbbells.
  • Implied in Isekai Quartet. Aqua figures out that Ainz, Subaru and Tanya all hail from Japan just like Kazuma, suggesting they all come from the same world.
  • Jesus by Kyouichi Nanatsuki was followed by Yami no Aegis and both series received sequels, Jesus: Sajin Kouro and Aegis in the Dawn, made in collaboration with Hiroshi Takashige in 2009. As such, Takashige's Until Death Do Us Part serves as the conclusion of their shared universe's events.
  • Leiji Matsumoto has the aptly named Leijiverse. It is a connected universe of sorts, since continuity has never been his thing. But you get Harlock showing up on the Galaxy Express, Cosmo Warrior Zero saw the hunt for Harlock from the other side. Yamato would have had a Harlock encounter, but it was cut for time (but the Yamato has shown up in the background in some of Harlock).
  • Oreimo and Eromanga Sensei take place in the same universe. Not surprising, as they're both written by the same author. It wasn't too obvious in the beginning, but was made very clear when Kyousuke, Kirino, Kuroneko, and Saori make a cameo in Episode 11 of Eromanga Sensei.
  • Shimeji Simulation: The cameo appearance of Chito and Yuuri in Chapter 48 reveals that Shimeji Simulation is set in the same universe as Girls' Last Tour, albeit taking place 1000 years later, as it is a Stealth Sequel.
  • Sword Art Online has a line of spin-offs labeled Sword Art Online Alternative, each written by different authors, set within the same universe, with their own sets of characters. These include Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, Sword Art Online Alternative Clover's Regret, Sword Art Online Alternative Gourmet Seekers, and Sword Art Online Alternative Mystery Labyrinth. Although they each focus on different games and characters, the events from Sword Art Online are constantly mentioned in the other series. Accel World appears to exist in the same universe too, but it's set 21 years in the future from SAO so it's a lot less apparent until later volumes which mention key concepts and names.
  • Takuma Yokota has established a shared universe between his various series starting with the short story Koganeiro and continuing with the serialized series Sesuji wo Pin! and Shudan! which contain grown up versions of the characters from Koganeiro as supporting characters. The Story Between a Dumb Prefect and a JK with an Inappropriate Skirt Length is also confirmed as taking place in the same universe when Michikage and Naomi from Sesuji are brought in as professional dancers to help with the school's cultural festival.
  • Teasing Master Takagi-san and Fudatsuki no Kyouko-chan by the same author are in a shared universe. Mina, Sanae, and Yukari from Ashita wa Doyoubi make cameos in one chapter of Fudatsuki no Kyouko-chan, while Mina Hibino herself is likely related to Haruka Hibino from Kyouko-chan.
  • The Yu-Gi-Oh! universe consisting of the NAS adaptation and at least some of its spinoffs.
  • Yui Kamio Lets Loose shares continuity with Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan as Ryuji Keikain appears at Yui's behest in Chapter 14 and returns in the final chapter of the series.

    Audio Plays 

    Comic Books 
  • The Amalgam universe, a short-lived crossover between DC and Marvel. It had several canonical crossovers and a few characters who break the fourth wall in a way that essentially links the two universes.
  • Archie Comics, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Josie and the Pussycats are all a part of one Archie universe and frequently crossover.
  • DC Comics:
    • The DCU is an example of this, with multiple monthly titles who might not even have the same creative team month to month. Quite frequently, certain characters will make appearances in each other's books, and that's not getting into the numerous Crisis Crossovers.
    • The Elseworld titles Batman: Two Faces (a retelling of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde where Bruce Wayne is Dr. Jekyll and the Joker is Mr. Hyde) and The Superman Monster (a retelling of Frankenstein where Lex Luthor plays the part of Victor Frankenstein with Superman serving as the monster he creates) are indicated to take place in the same continuity, as both stories have a Framing Device of Commissioner James Gordon and Peregrine White exchanging tales.
    • All of the Hanna-Barbera Beyond comics were originally intended to be an example of this, though this quickly fell by the wayside as each new creative team and book ignored this idea in favor of freely doing their own standalone takes on their given properties.
  • DC Thomson comics, particularly The Beano, do this constantly. For added parental bonuses, there are also cameos of characters from discontinued comic strips (or even comic books!) that appear as well for a brief gag or for nostalgia purposes.
  • The action heroes of Future Quest are part of a multiverse, though it is shown that Jonny Quest, Birdman and Mightor exist in the same Earth.
  • Image Comics has had a handful of examples:
    • Virtually all of the early Image Comics titles were set in the same universe, with the stars of any given book often making guest appearances in another or ahving their origins tied to characters from other series. Spawn's killer, for example, is Chapel from Youngblood (Image Comics). However, one of the core ideas of the company was and always has been creator ownership. This caused a Continuity Snarl no less than twice; Once, when Rob Liefeld picked up his characters and left to create Awesome Comics, necessitating that Spawn's killer be retconned to be Jessica Priest, and again when Jim Lee took his properties and made his Wildstorm Studios into a DC imprint, which required an entire crossover, Shattered Image, to excise the WildStorm characters from continuity.
    • Invincible shoulders a lot of weight when it comes to establishing a larger Image universe. Big events (like the funeral of the Guardians of the Globe or the Invincible War) feature just about anyone who's anyone in the company at the time. At one point Mark was even a member of the Pact, a team consisting of him, Zephyr Noble, Firebreather, and Shadow Hawk.
    • After IDW lost the license to Transformers and G.I. Joe, the rights were acquired by Robert Kirkman's imprint Skybound, who proceeded to introduce their own Hasbro Shared Universe titled The Energon Universe. Featuring not just Transformers and G.I. Joe titles but a brand new IP called Void Rivals.
  • Judge Dredd and its spinoffs share a universe with Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper, Harlem Heroes and their respective spinoffs. Earlier stories also suggested that Invasion!/Savage, ABC Warriors, Ro Busters and Flesh were part of this universe, but these have subsequently been retconned out.
  • Marvel Comics has created several universes that are extensively contributed to by multiple writers. Some were always connected to other settings via The Multiverse - and a few had connections added retrospectively.
  • The Massive-Verse, primarily published through Image Comicsnote , is a shared universe that began with Radiant Black in 2021 before formally launching in 2022 with a one-shot crossing the three characters over, and its second series, Rogue Sun, launching after. All three of its primary creators are fans of Sentai who have worked on licensed comics for Sentai properties, and it is a big part of the visual design of the universe. A later Crisis Crossover would feature a cameo appearance from Medieval Spawn, implying some sort of connection with the Image Universe.
  • The Nacelle Company is aiming to establish a "Nacelleverse" with a common universe between a number of obscure 80s and 90s IPs. Including Robo Force, Sectaurs, Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa, Biker Mice from Mars, and The Power Lords.
  • Ninja High School and Gold Digger (Antarctic Press) loosely share a universe and occasionally engage in crossovers or use each other's villains.
  • Revolution has establishing the Hasbro Comic Universe at its core; Transformers, G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., Action Man, Micronauts (IDW) and ROM (the latter two separate from their older Marvel histories). In addition, Word of God has Jem in the same universe, just not in the crossover because slice of life music and armed men and metal aliens do not mix well, and also that My Little Pony isn't a part of it (yet).
  • Gilgamesh the Immortal is part of a shared universe with several other works written by Robin Wood, such as Nippur of Lagash (a comic about the adventures of a warrior in ancient Mesopotamia) Or-Grund (about the adventures of a barbarian hero in a world of Sword and Sorcery), Raycon (an astronaut who after a space journey that lasts centuries, returns to a post-apocalyptic planet Earth), among others, all have in common the presence of The Primordials, an alien race Always Chaotic Evil obsessed with destruction and conquest. Inconsistencies abound, but that's because this universe was accidental and unplanned from the beginning.
  • Robot Archie would have crossovers with The Spider (Lion) and The Sludge. It would also reference the Steel Commando who had his own crossover with Captain Hurricane, making all five comics part of the same world.

    Comic Strips 
  • Safe Havens and On the Fastrack, both comics done by Bill Holbrook, take place in the same universe and have on occasion crossed over with each other (a major point being Fastrack funding the mission to Mars Samantha of Safe Havens is planning). This has actually been downplayed in recent years, especially since it's been hinted the comics don't take place at the same time (the Mars story arc began in 2020 in Safe Havens, while it didn't start until 2025 in On The Fastrack, long after the SH cast returns to Earth).
  • Little Orphan Annie and Dick Tracy, given how the Fully Absorbed Finale of the first was handled.

    Fan Works 

    Film — Animation 

    Film — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • Cthulhu Mythos: A famous and early example of this; professional fanfiction set in his world is not only published, but was also acknowledged and supported by Lovecraft before his death.
    • Originally the stories of Conan the Barbarian shared the same universe with the Cthulhu myths, since Robert E. Howard and Lovecraft were great friends, although currently, apparently for legal reasons, this is no longer possible.
  • The Wild Cards Super Hero books were designed as Shared Universe Anthologies from the ground up.
  • Bordertown is a city between the "real world" and Faerie. It was originally created by Terri Windling, but Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Charles de Lint and several other writers have written stories set there.
  • 1632 was originally to be a one-off novel, but due to favorable fan response went beyond that, later expanding into The Grantville Gazette, one of whose main goals is to give previously unknown authors a way to be published, and paid for their work at professional rates instead of less generous fanzine ones. Unlike with many anthologies, the contributions from other authors affect the "main" story line works. There are very few aspects that are truly forbidden to these authors, primarily those where it would interfere with the prerogatives of Eric Flint, the series creator.
  • Thieves' World was a dark fantasy Shared Universe created by Robert Asprin in the late 1970s. It had contributors like Poul Anderson, John Brunner and Marion Zimmer Bradley and generated 12 anthlogies of short stories, seven official novels and a bunch of roleplaying adaptations before writing stopped in 1989, with a short revival in the early 2000's. It preemptively dealt with Continuity Snarl with a preface framing story about an old timer talking to a new arrival in the city about how one should not believe everything in the stories one hears, as everyone spins the stories to fit their agendas, to make themselves sound more important in a good story, or less to blame in a bad one, and two people telling the same story may have wildly different variations.
  • Unwoven Literary Universe: Monarch One, the High School AU of the Unwoven Fragment (read: sub-series) was fully integrated into the series starting with Unwoven 2019. The same book also confirmed that Anthropomorphized was set in the same universe as well.
  • The universe of the Bolo super-tanks, originally by Keith Laumer, has been shared by everyone from John Ringo to Mercedes Lackey.
  • The Russian Death Zone series is worked on by several known Russian sci-fi authors and is loosely based on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. Unfortunately, this tends to create certain lapses in continuity. For example, in Andrey Livadny's novels, the Order is portrayed as a rational group that believes in the existence of an otherdimentional point known as the Node based purely on empirical evidence. In Roman Glushkov's books, they are fanatics spouting religious nonsense about the Holy Node before sacrificing themselves for the cause. It could be explained that these are different members of the Order interpreting their teachings, if they were not using the same characters.
    • Other major differences involve the very nature of the Zones. For example, in Livadny's novels, there is no plant or animal life in the Zones, as anything exposed to the scorgs gets "upgraded" (i.e. it becomes a weird mix of flesh and metal bearing little resemblance to the original). Rust by Aleksey Kalugin shows the Moscow Zone full of plant and, occasionally, animal life with only a few examples of bio-tech mixes. Kalugin's nanobots (the word "scorgs" is never mentioned) only care about consuming metal and reanimating machines.
  • The Liavek anthology series- stories by several different authors, set in and around the city of Liavek. Apparently the setting started out as a RPG invented by Will Shetterly for his writer's group, The Scribblies; they later fleshed out the setting and produced five volumes of short stories (and a few poems). Two of the authors, John M. Ford and Pamela Dean, later wrote more stories in the same universe.
  • The Midnight Rose collective, a group of British SF writers, published several shared-universe anthologies in the early 1990s, with settings including Temps (tongue-in-cheek superhero stories) and The Weerde (shape-shifting aliens are the source of all the world's myths and conspiracies). Contributors included Stephen Baxter, Neil Gaiman, Mary Gentle, David Langford, Kim Newman, and Charles Stross.
  • Merovingen Nights was an anthology series set on the planet Merovingen, in an islolated corner of C. J. Cherryh's Alliance/Union universe.
  • Heroes in Hell was an anthology series with a concept similar to Riverworld: all the dead wind up together in Hell, where they pick up where they left off when still alive.
  • The universe of the Malazan Book of the Fallen was jointly created by Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont, and both authors have written their own novels for the setting. This setting is home to:
    • The Malazan Book of the Fallen: Erikson. The main ten-novel sequence comprised of three major Rotating Arcs that eventually converge into a central Myth Arc dealing with the Crippled God.note 
    • Tales from the Malazan Empire: Esslemont. Six loosely-connected novels that deal with events not part of the Malazan Book of the Fallen's major arcs, though they are very significant to the broader world and sometimes pick up lingering threads from the other series.note 
    • The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach: Erikson. A series of largely satirical novellas chronicling the misadventures of a pair of eccentric, homicidal necromancers and their put-upon manservant.note 
    • The Kharkanas Trilogy: Erikson. A Prequel in the Lost Age trilogy primarily dealing with the Tiste and the civil war that led them to become sundered into the Tiste Andii, Tiste Edur and Tiste Liosan peoples and led them to invading the main world of the series. note 
    • The Path to Ascendancy: Esslemont. Prequel series (initially a trilogy, later expanded to a projected six novels) chronicling the early adventures of Kellanved and Dancer and how they would eventually come to found the Malazan Empire. note 
    • Tales of Witness: Erikson. Sequel Series to the Book of the Fallen (initially a trilogy, later expanded to a projected four novels) picking up some time after it ends and focusing on the aftermath of its events, in particular the legacy of Karsa Orlong. note 
  • The '80s Magic in Ithkar anthologies were more of a shared setting; all the stories started with the setting of Ithkar Fair, detailed in the anthology prologues, but other than that each author's stories were free-standing, sharing no characters, events, or settings beyond those established in the prologues. Most notably, one story ended with the Fair being shut down due to plague; this was not reflected in any of the others.
  • The SporeWiki Fiction Universe began life as a Spore fan fiction continuity but eventually separated itself. It's shared between multiple writers and is open to anyone willing to write for it.
  • Galactic Crucibles, which also originated as Spore fan fiction, is a shared Space Opera universe between numerous authors with a large focus on worldbuilding. Interestingly enough, it is implied to be part of the same multiverse as the SporeWiki Fiction Universe.
  • As well as The Infernal Devices prequel series, The Mortal Instruments is said to be set in the same universe as the Modern Faerie Tales by Holly Black. Val and Luis from Valiant are the homeless kids Clary sees in the first book and Simon listens to Stepping Razor, Ellen's band from Tithe.
  • The Ur-Example of a Shared Universe book is The Bible, although it is chiefly notable as an object lesson in the importance of having an editor.
  • Rick Riordan's various mythology series The Camp Half-Blood Series (actually three different series), The Kane Chronicles, and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard all take place within the same universe, the Riordanverse. The Kane Chronicles contains several hints towards this end, culminating in a crossover. Magnus Chase is actually Annabeth Chase's cousin. This usually doesn't affect the series much, as by-and-large the various gods and mythologies avoid interaction in a sort of deliberate Mutual Masquerade, but later books tend more and more towards inter-connectivity, with characters from one series showing up in another.
    • This is currently set to be averted with the 'Rick Riordan Presents' series of books, which while edited by Riordan and using similar themes will not be explicitly in the same universe, at least at the start.
  • Philip Jose Farmer's "Doc Savage" books have a number of other writers' fictional characters exist in the same continuum, using the device of a comet that struck a group of people leaving a party, resulting in their offspring becoming many famous characters from fiction. Since many of these creations were still covered by copyright at the time, one wonders how he got away with it!
  • As mentioned below in Multiple Media, the Dungeons & Dragons setting Forgotten Realms is notable for having over 70 novel series all set in the same world with minimal Continuity Snarl. The Other Wiki has a page
  • Stephen King is fairly notorious for this amongst fans of his work, with nearly all of his novels containing either major or minor references to each other and sharing the overall connection of The Dark Tower series. It's recently further expanded to include references to the works of his son Joe Hill.
  • Isaacs Universe is a shared setting created by Isaac Asimov in the 1990s, totaling five books. Three volumes were anthologies of short stories edited by Martin H. Greenberg (contributing authors included Poul Anderson, David Brin, Hal Clement, George Alec Effinger, Karen Haber, Janet Kagan, Rebecca Ore, Robert Sheckley, Robert Silverberg, Allen Steele, Harry Turtledove, and Lawrence Watt-Evans). The novels Fossil by Hal Clement and Murder At The Galactic Writers Society by Janet Asimov are also set in the same setting.
  • Every Bret Easton Ellis book shares the same world, with old characters making appearances in later books. For example, in The Rules of Attraction, one of the main characters is Sean Bateman; his brother, Patrick Bateman, has a chapter in the book and later became the main character in American Psycho, where Sean had a minor appearance. Story of My Life by Ellis's friend Jay McInerney is also set in this world, due to the appearance of the protagonist Alison Poole in Glamorama as Victor's girlfriend.
  • The anthology series Tales from the Year Between sets each of its volumes in a new universe; each of its worlds is created from scratch by the contributors of that volume, and is then owned jointly by all contributors. Any one of the people who helped create the world is permitted to write their own work within it, with no need to go through the official volumes.
  • The short story "Time and Time Again" by H. Beam Piper, in which the 43-year-old Allan Hartley's mind is sent back in time to his 13-year-old self's body in 1945, is set in the same universe as two later Piper works, "The Mercenaries" and "Day of the Moron". Both stories, which take place in 1965 and 1968 respectively, refer to President Blake Hartley, indicating that Allan's plan to get his father elected in 1960 was successful and an Alternate Timeline was created. In "Time and Time Again", Allan planned to raise capital for his father's campaigns by using his knowledge of future developments in chemistry to establish a company that will overshadow IG Farben. "The Mercenaries" reveals that Blake served as the President of the chemical company Associated Enterprises before his election but the real power lay with Allan. Kato Sugihara speculates that the same is true with respect to the government.
  • "He Walked Around the Horses" by H. Beam Piper, in which Benjamin Bathurst slipped into an Alternate Universe in which the American and French Revolutions never happened, is set in the same universe (or rather multiverse) as Piper's Paratime series. The first official Paratime story "Police Operation" features an implicit reference to the events of "He Walked Around the Horses", describing the situation but not mentioning Bathurst by name. In that story, Tortha Karf says, "I picked up a fellow on the Fourth Level, just about where you're operating, and dragged him a couple of hundred parayears. I went back to find him and return him to his own time-line, but before I could locate him, he'd been arrested by the local authorities as a suspicious character, and got himself shot trying to escape. I felt badly about that."
  • "Fear Street" by R. L. Stine is an anthology of 100+ standalone novels - barring the occasional sequel or trilogy - that nonetheless all take place in the same town, allowing characters and locations will recur over multiple books. Some of the most fully realized characters never starred in their own book, but had minor appearances in enough books to make up for it.
  • Many of Gabriel García Márquez's works are set in or around the fictional city of Macondo, somewhere in Colombia.
  • Frost Dancers is implied to be in a shared universe with a previous book called Hunter's Moon (1989). In that book, foxes believe in a predator afterlife called the Perfect Here. In Frost Dancers, it's said that the spirits of predators like stouts try to tempt recently deceased hares to go to Perfect Here with them. If hares go with them, they're forced to feed predators for all eternity.
  • The works of Arthur Machen are implied to all share a universe, though it's never made explicit, but rather hinted at by the recurring locales (Edwardian London or the English countryside— or both) and references to Mr. Dyson, his most recurring character who starred in multiple short stories and a novel.
  • George MacDonald Fraser's novels Black Ajax and Mr American explicitly take part in the same universe as his most famous creation, Flashman, which in turn takes place in the same universe as Tom Brown's Schooldays. In addition, Flashman himself encounters Colonel Sebastian Moran (one of Sherlock Holmes's adversaries) in Flashman and the Tiger, resulting in an alternative perspective of "The Adventure of the Empty House" - implying that Holmes's cases take place in the same universe as Flashy's many misadventures. This gets more complicated when you factor in the Holmes continuation novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, in which Holmes and Watson encounter the hero of The Prisoner of Zenda which is explicitly stated to be a work of fiction in the Flashman universe (the result of Flashy drunkenly retelling the events of Royal Flash to a journalist called 'Hawkins').
  • The Chronicles of Narnia: Thanks to a single throwaway line, we know that the series take place in the same universe as the Sherlock Holmes stories. In The Magician's Nephew, which is chronologically the first story in the series, the narrator mentions that the events of the book were happening at the same time that Mr. Sherlock Holmes was still taking cases in Baker Street.
  • Initially, The Never Mythos and The Kindness of Devils were two separate franchises that had no relation to one another short of a Shout-Out here and there. Eventually, the authors decided to combine both franchises into The Neverkind Saga, and various crossovers involving characters from both series' happen quite often.
  • Whateley Universe: There are about a dozen authors writing about twice that many main characters. And that doesn't count the Fan Fic.
  • Xanadu (Storyverse): The setting was designed for any author to write stories for, and most stories are written by different people. It's also common for other authors' stories to reference each other, although one of the setting's rules prohibits major events that other author would be obligated to include in order to limit constraints on new stories.
  • Almost all of the stories from P. G. Wodehouse are implied to happen in the same universe: the same places or institutions (such as the Drones Club or Blandling Castle) are referenced in multiple books with different characters, and the main characters of a given book are often referenced or appear in a small role in others.
  • Brandon Sanderson has a shared universe in which the majority of his books take place, known as The Cosmere. While each series has wildly different magic systems, they all use very similar mechanics and as the series progresses, some more concrete rules that apply to all magic will become apparent. There are also very frequent character crossovers, most notably Hoid, a man key to the overarching story connecting every series.
  • Ashley Herring Blake's most notable series, the Bright Falls Trilogy, is stated to exist in the same universe as her Clover Lake books, as the romance book being adapted into a movie and shot in town in Dream on, Ramona Riley'' is adapted from one of Iris Kelly's books, and Iris herself makes a cameo later on.
  • Chuck Tingle's horror novels— Camp Damascus, Bury Your Gays (2024) and Lucky Day (2025)— contain references to each other. It's most prominent in Lucky Day, which mentions both the Kingdom of the Pine Cult from Camp Damascus, and Harold Brothers studio from Bury Your Gays.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Poobala.com's Crossovers & Spinoffs has the most comprehensive list of television connections, featuring, among other things, 39 shared television universes. For example, Group 1 includes All in the Family, Archie Bunker's Place, Blossom, Checking In, Diff'rent Strokes, ER, The Facts of Life, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Gloria, Good Times, Hello, Larry, In The House, The Jeffersons, Maude, Out All Night, 704 Hauser and Silver Spoons.
  • Stephen Colbert has confessed that, as far as he's concerned, The Colbert Report shares a universe with Strangers with Candy. In fact, Tim Meadow's black Republican character, P.K. Winsome, is the exact same character as Tim Meadow's opportunistic grief councilor Percy Kittens from Strangers with Candy.
  • Kamen Rider: The Showa-era shows all exist in the same universe as evidenced by the presence of a common enemy called "The Great Leader", who is eventually revealed to have been the leader of all the evil organizations the Riders faced throughout the 70s, with constant crossovers between Riders of the era being commonplace. At the start of the Heisei era, Kamen Rider Agito has hints of being in the same universe as its predecessor Kamen Rider Kuuga, but the producers pointedly avoided making it a direct sequel to prevent Continuity Lock-Out. Kamen Rider Decade in 2009 seemingly ended with the Rider shows being merged into a single universe, with past Riders showing up to help out if a crisis gets too big for the current guy to handle; specifically, the Movie Wars series Crossover films links every series from Decade onwards in a single universe by having the current Rider and his immediate predecessor (and sometimes others, depending on which actors are willing to return) join forces. There's also the additional element of Foundation X, a sinister organization first established in Kamen Rider Double as funding the research of various power sources and occasionally serving as villains (most commonly in Movie Wars); it seems the intent was that they would be the Heisei-era equivalent of the Great Leader, but this concept was mostly done away with following Kamen Rider Fourze.
    • Kamen Rider Build is the first modern-era show not to be a part of the "Decade universe", because its backstory (in 2007, Japan was split into three separate countries by the sudden appearance of mysterious "Skywalls") is completely incompatible with any other Rider series. In order for the requisite Movie Wars crossover with Kamen Rider Ex-Aid to even take place, the plot had to involve reality-warping shenanigans. Its finale, however, has Sento fuse his universe with another in an attempt to erase Evolto, this being presumably the "Decade universe".
    • Subverted, Deconstructed and Defied by Kamen Rider Zi-O. The Heisei Riders are from 20 incompatible worlds that the show's Big Bad merged together as part of an evil plan to Ret-Gone them all and take their powers for himself and rule over his own world. Similarly, the villain of the movie makes it his business to erase the inconsistencies of the Heisei Era by replacing it with a newer, more coherent version with himself and his minions as the protagonists. Although Sougo defeats both handily, he still separates the worlds, as the merging has progressed to the point where paradoxes are theartening to destroy them. End of an Era indeed... However, that hasn't stopped future crossovers from happening with the implication all main Kamen Rider series take place in the same world.
    • Archaia's graphic novel adaptation of Cyborg 009 got into the mix by revealing that Foundation X was one of the financial backers of Black Ghost, the organization that created the Double-0 Cyborgs. The company had plans to develop this into a Shared Universe for all of Shotaro Ishinomori's works (they also referenced Skull Man and said they would have done a Kikaider series next), but plans fell through because Archaia and Ishinomori Productions couldn't agree on the direction of the series.
  • Super Sentai also is a shared universe with frequent crossovers. It also shares a universe with several other Tokusatsu shows including Kamen Rider (though this can create a snarl since not all Kamen Rider shows share a universe as previously stated) and Metal Heroes. An exception is Uchu Sentai Kyuranger, which takes place in its own universe, since in that show Earth has already been taken over by the villains with no other heroes to stop them, although it is considered part of the same continuity, and so the Kyurangers have been part of a few crossovers where they entered the main universe. Other exceptions include the spin-off shows Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger and The High School Heroes which both take place in universes where the other Super Sentai series are shows within the show, though it isn't made clear if they are in the same or different universes. Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters was also originally intended to take place in a different universe from the previous Sentai and other Toei shows, but this idea was dropped after the show was Retooled.
    • The 45th anniversary series Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger depicts all the previous series as each being in a separate universe, even though this contradicts what was established in the Gokaiger. This likely means that each Sentai show has its own universe, but Gokaiger and other crossovers take place in a universe with its own versions of most of the other teams. Or that Gokaiger is the "prime" universe with all the Sentai teams, and the worlds in Zenkaiger are alternate universes each with only one Sentai team. Avataro Sentai Donbrothers is a sequel to Zenkaiger but how the two shows are connected is currently unclear because Kaito from Zenkaiger is a supporting character in Donbrothers, but has an entirely different personality, although episode 26 implies that he remembers the events of Zenkaiger, hinting that it is an alternate timeline. So now it seems that Super Sentai is retiring the shared universe and switching to a shared multiverse. It also no longer seems to share a universe with Kamen Rider, as Kamen Rider Saber + Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Super Hero Senki shows that Super Sentai and all the previous Kamen Rider seasons are works of fiction in the world of Kamen Rider Saber but interestingly, Kamen Rider Revice is a show in the world of Donbrothers, yet Donbrothers also shares a universe with Kamen Rider Den-O. This also is supported by the film Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger: 10 YEARS AFTER which is a sequel to Hurricaneger but takes place in an alternate continuity that ignores all of the events that happened to the Hurricaneger characters in crossovers following the show, so it takes place in the Hurricaneger universe, but not the main universe. Then, however, the following series, Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger, at first seems like it diverges even further by taking place in a world very different than ours which resembles a Medieval European Fantasy... Before it's revealed to be a Stealth Sequel to Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger.
  • Like the shows they are adapted from, the various seasons of Power Rangers are shown to exist in the same Universe. This was most obvious in the early years of the series, which had one, continuing storyline culminating in Power Rangers in Space. Later seasons tend to downplay this, but the various crossovers and reappearing characters establish that the universe is the same. However, Power Rangers RPM and takes place in an Alternate Universe, something not made obvious until its crossover with Power Rangers Samurai. Power Rangers Dino Charge is also confirmed to take place in an Alternate Universe in the Power Rangers Ninja Steel Milestone Celebration episode Dimensions in Danger. That episode also states that Rangers from the main timeline have developed and distributed transportal devices to cross dimensions in case of emergency. It's stated that overusing them can destabilize the Morphin' Grid, but considering Ninja Steel ended with the team using one to attend a Christmas party in the Dino Charge world, it's safe to say that any future crossovers won't be too difficult.
  • JAG, First Monday, NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans, the new Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum P.I. (2018) are a shared world, as evidenced by Kensi's presence in Hawaii, and later Sam and Callen's trip to Hawaii, followed by Chin Ho and Danno's visit to Los Angeles, as well as Magnum's team working a case with the 5-0 Task Force. And now it's further established that Scorpion is now part of this verse, thanks to the Scorpion team's visit with Hetty. MacGyver (2016) is now a part of that universe, after the Five-0 team referenced a phone call from the Phoenix Foundation.
  • The Filmways-produced Petticoat Junction and Green Acres were both set in the town of Hooterville, and characters from each gravitated to the other fairly regularly.
  • "The Girls Of Hollywood High," the second of two Poorly Disguised Pilots (for a proposed series about Texan private detectives called Eyes Of Texas) which aired as BJ And The Bear episodes, established that this shares a universe with another Glen A. Larson series - at one point the female PIs pay a visit to the Los Angeles Coroner's Office. John S. Ragin and Robert Ito turn up as the characters they play on that particular series, but Jack Klugman, alias Quincy, M.E., is conspicuously (and given how he felt about Glen Larson understandably) absent.
  • Most of the series produced by Jack Webb take place in the same universe, including Dragnet, Adam-12, Emergency! and the short-lived Robert Conrad vehicle, The D.A.
  • Magnum, P.I. had two crossover stories that concluded on Simon & Simon and Murder, She Wrote.
    • Simon & Simon also had meetings with Whiz Kids.
    • Murder, She Wrote also shares a universe with an obscure 1949 film-noir called Strange Bargain; 40 years after the movie, Jessica Fletcher helped uncover the real killer from the original movie.
  • Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life and Hello, Larry.
  • Diagnosis: Murder shares a universe with Matlock (Matlock defended Dr. Jesse Travis in a murder case), Mannixnote  and Mission: Impossible (due to an appearance by Barbara Bain as Cinnamon Carter).
  • Barnaby Jones shares a universe with Cannon, as shown in the former's pilot episode (Cannon is friends with Barnaby's soon-to-be-murdered son).
  • The Whoniverse, consisting of Parent Show Doctor Who and its spin-offs K-9 and Company, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood, Torchwood: Children of Earth, Torchwood: Miracle Day, and Class (2016), and (at least the quasi canon parts of) Big Finish Doctor Who and K9.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Spin-Off series Angel shared a universe, albeit with only a few cross-overs. The canon was thoroughly welded back together in the sequel comics.
  • Once Upon a Time (2011) got a Spin-Off in Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. Given that Wonderland starred a protagonist from Victorian England (Alice), whereas Storybrooke had a protagonist from modern-day NewYork, it was up in the air how connected the two series would be. However, the writers decided to pull a big ol' Timey-Wimey Ball and have major characters interacting with one another across the two series and times. The Knave of Hearts from Wonderland is first seen breaking into Granny's diner in Storybrooke before somehow going to Victorian England to convince Alice to break out of the insane asylum she's being kept in. Then in the third episode, he's shown as one of Robin Hood's (a significant character in the third season of OUAT) Merry Men.
    • Actually it's not Time Travel. Alice, like Cruella De Vil, comes from a land where it is just perpetually Victorian England. We learn in the 4th season that some lands of storytelling are just stilted in certain periods, where the inhabitants aren't aware of the year. That being said, Once Upon a Time is just one big shared universe between live action Disney, literature, and fairytale pieces.
    • One episode of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland included the Sarlacc in a list of monsters, implying that its cosmology might also feature events that happened a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
  • NBCUniversal has their own universe based on series they produced, established by the Cloud 9 store from Superstore making cameo appearances in The Mindy Project, Good Girls, I Feel Bad and Kenan.
  • Most of NBC's 90's sitcoms were clearly supposed to take place in a shared universe from the network:
    • Cheers had one direct and well known spin-off in the form of Frasier, but both shows also shared the same universe with Wings, which was created by former Cheers showrunners David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee, who would subsequently go on to create Frasier. While several Cheers characters appeared in both Wings and Frasier, there were never any cross-overs between the latter two shows; there was a plan to have Wings character Antonio in the first season of Frasier, but it was canned after actor Tony Shalhoub refused to go along with it, and while he did appear in an episode of Frasier, it was as a different character.
    • The "Blackout Thursday" stunt began with the characters from Mad About You causing a city wide blackout that affected Friends and Madman of the People.
    • Friends had two crossovers with Caroline in the City, with the title character appearing in an episode of Friends while on the same night Chandler Bing appeared in an episode of Caroline in the City. Ross Geller also appeared in an episode of The Single Guy while an episode of Hope & Gloria had the title characters meet Phoebe.
    • Caroline in the City also had a crossover with The Single Guy, with Jonathan Elliot appearing in the same episode as Chandler Bing from Friends. Meanwhile there were some implications that is shared a setting with Frasier.
    • Mad About You at first appeared to share the same world as Seinfeld, but later episodes would establish both shows as being fictional in the other's world.
    • Caroline in the City also crossed over with Friends, with Chandler appearing in the former show and Caroline in the latter. As Niles and Daphne also made an appearance in one episode of Caroline, which subsequently connects the above shows with each other.
  • Maxine and Kyle from Living Single appear in an episode of the UPN sitcom Half & Half, at that point having been married with a child.
  • The Arrowverse, a Fan Nickname for a shared universe between a series of DC shows on The CW (officially, it's "The CWverse"). The franchise started with Arrow and has produced a total of four sister series: The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, and Superman & Lois. The 'verse has also expanded to include short web animation series Vixen (set in the main 'verse) and Freedom Fighters: The Ray (set in an alternate universe). Supergirl, which was originally aired on sister channel CBS, was crossed over with The Flash in an episode of the first season and eventually hopped to The CW, and by extension Arrowverse, for good when CBS decided not to renew the series. All shows crossover frequently; outside of individual episodes, there's been an annual crossover event since 2014 which sees most of the characters team up to battle a shared threat.
    • Constantine was originally an unrelated show (it being aired on NBC) but was retroactively added to the Arrowverse after the series was cancelled. The titular character guest starred in an Arrow episode that aired after his show ended, but negotiations for further appearances dragged on for two years before he finally made his proper appearance in Season 3 of Legends of Tomorrow. Constantine would become a cast member of Legends starting with Season 4.
    • The 1990 iteration of The Flash, which aired on CBS, was also made a part of the multiverse retroactively when John Wesley Shipp's Barry Allen appeared in Season 5 of The Flash. Shipp has previously been part of the recurring cast of the 2014 series since the beginning, but he plays different characters.
    • Black Lightning notably did not start out as part of the Arrowverse, even though it is a DC show, shares the same executive producer, and is aired on The CW. Word of God said that the show was never developed as an Arrowverse series in mind, since coordinating its production would have been a nightmare (it is filmed in Atlanta, while the Arrowverse is filmed in Vancouver). This changes with Crisis on Infinite Earths, however - not only does Jefferson Pierce make his crossover debut, but it ends with the main CW shows becoming a Merged Reality.
  • Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. A Muppet Family Christmas also had characters from Fraggle Rock appear. Mr. Rogers appeared in an episode with Big Bird and vice versa.
  • Bobbie Fleckman, was the manager of the band that was making a music video in Maxwell Sheffield's house where Fran Fine was living/working as The Nanny. Fran went to high school with Frank Barone, who was friends with Doug Heffernan before he moved to Queens, New York.
  • Danny Thomas is the centerpiece of a major Sitcom Shared Universe.
  • Joked about In-Universe on Mystery Science Theater 3000 The bots spin an elbaroate yarn about how there is an entire Carnival Magic universe comprised of prequels, sequels, spin-offs and a reboot. Hilariously, Jonah actually believes them.
  • Law & Order:
  • Freeze Frame Bonuses and Word of God have heavily hinted, if not confirmed, that The Office (UK), The Office (US), Parks and Recreation, and The Good Place are in the same universe.
  • Frankie Drake Mysteries and Republic of Doyle have a linked universe through the guest appearances of characters from Murdoch Mysteries in both shows.
  • Stargate SG-1 acted as a continuation of the film Stargate, and the series Stargate Atlantis expanded the universe to a new galaxy with a new cast. Later, Stargate Universe would expand the mythology of the Stargate series even further.
  • Every Star Trek series and spinoff is in the same universe, and the biggest change in continuity was the new timeline introduced in Star Trek (2009).
  • Shonda Rimes has a couple of these now. Grey's Anatomy exists in the same universe with spinoffs Private Practice and Station 19. Sort-of with Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder. The OC is also implied to be in the same universe as Summer's dad gets a job at Seattle Grace in one episode.
  • Ultra Series has expanded a Multiverse and lore of the franchise on multiple instances:
  • The ABC soap operas Loving, All My Children, One Life to Live, and General Hospital. Several noteworthy crossovers frequently happened between the first three shows (in particular in the early '90's between Loving and All My Children, and in the mid-2000's between All My Children and One Life To Live), as they were all created by Agnes Nixon, set in small towns in Pennsylvania, but filmed in New York City. Although General Hospital didn't participate as often—it was filmed in Los Angeles and set in upstate New York—several scenes and storylines made it clear that it was included.
  • The CBS soaps The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful have had numerous characters repeatedly crossing over from one to the other, most famously Y&R's resident psychopath Sheila Carter, who wreaked havoc on both shows. The now defunct soaps As the World Turns and Guiding Light never participated, but Y&R's Michael Baldwin appeared on both, making it clear they were included.
  • The series Normal People, Conversations with Friends and Fleabag share the same universe since the short film where Connor and Marianne confess to the "Hot Priest".
  • The Australian/American drama Pine Gap features the American aircraft carrier USS Bartlett, which seems to indicate that it is set in the same universe as The West Wing, in which a President Bartlett played a prominent role.
  • The Vampire Diaries Universe, consisting of The Vampire Diaries and its spin-offs, The Originals and Legacies. The first two actually aired concurrently from 2013 to 2017.
  • The Inside Man, an Edutainment Show about IT security, possibly has one with Restricted Intelligence, another program by the same company about HIPPA training, as both feature the Bland-Name Product SnapPenguins, a parody of SnapChat.
  • Riverdale has a series of spinoffs called the Archieverse, Initially it included direct spinoffs The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Katy Keene but when Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa took over the Pretty Little Liars Universe with Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, he wasted no time integrating the universes together with Kevin Keller even being cousins with Millwood resident Greg.
  • Metal Heroes doesn't have complicated a relationship with this as either of its sister shows, but it's still an interesting case.
  • The three installments of the Chouseishin Series all take place within the same world. Several Gransazers make cameos in Genseishin Justiriser, and Chousei Kantai Sazer-X features multiple aliens and monsters who previously debuted in Gransazer and Justiriser.

    Multiple Media 

    Radio 

    Tabletop Games 
  • Subverted by Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000; they were long rumored to exist within the same universe and galaxy, Fantasy's planet being a single planet existing outside the scope of the galactic warfare of the wider galaxy of the 40k setting. A common theory was that Sigmar, founder of the Empire in Warhammer Fantasy and somewhat of a demigod was a Primarch, one of the God-Emperor of Mankind's genetic sons who was somehow lost on the planet. This theory had hints going for it in the very earliest editions of 40k, but the pointlesness of it (mainly the fact that it renders all the epic struggles of Fantasy irrelevant) as well as the variety of continuity issues it caused (such as it being stated or shown multiple times in no uncertain terms that the Chaos Gods were badly struggling to take a single preindustrial planet in Fantasy) saw any connection being dropped. The End Times books indisputably joss any theorized connection through their brief look at the wider universe and the Realm of Chaos.
    • Subverted again in the End Times campaign of Warhammer Fantasy, a group of heroes venture into the Realm of Chaos and encounter a "silvery knight speaking a strange accent", hinted as being Grand Master Kaldor Draigo, a Space Marine lost on the Warp in the 40k setting. This turned out to be a Relictor Stormcast Eternal from Age of Sigmar, the sequel to Warhammer Fantasy. The Realm of Chaos does mess with time after all
  • Twilight: 2000 and 2300 AD both share the same historical background, with World War III taking place in the late '90s. Twilight: 2000 is in the immediate aftermath, and 2300 AD says what happened during the next 300 years of human history. Although it would be fun to contemplate a group of grizzled WWIII veterans encountering the Kafer from 2300, there weren't any crossovers in the printed adventures, and the two systems had incompatible game mechanics.
  • Earthdawn and Shadowrun, both by FASA, are also set in the same universe. Earthdawn is said to be the Fourth World, while Shadowrun is the Sixth, several thousand years later. There are shared characters between the two games, including several dragons and a few immortal elves. Shadowrun has been hinting for some time in its Meta Plot that the Horrors, the primary adversaries in Earthdawn, will soon return to destroy the world. The ties were much stronger when FASA was producing both games, and were downplayed after FASA folded.

    Toys 
  • Hasbro toylines:
    • The Action Figure File Card for the C.O.P.S. (1988) character Checkpoint established that his father was a member of an US Army special force unit active throughout the 80's and gave him the name "Wayne R. Sneeden III", the same name as G.I. Joe's Beachhead. The toy bios for COPS were written by Larry Hama, who also wrote most of the character profiles and Marvel comic book issues of G.I. Joe A Real American Hero.
    • The GI Joe 25th Anniversary toyline featured a figure named "Specialist Trakker" whose bio established MASK and VENOM as divisions of GI Joe and Cobra. This is a case of Retroactive Continuity as MASK was made when Kenner was still a competitor to Hasbro and thus was obviously not made with the idea of slotting it in the GI Joe universe.
  • Many LEGO play themes take place in the same shared universe thanks to many Crossover comics and video games. Just to scratch the surface, some examples include:

    Visual Novels 
  • School Days, its sequels, and several other related visual novels are all part of a shared setting called the 0verflow Universe. Nearly every character is part of the same Tangled Family Tree, due to the actions of a certain serial womanizer/rapist.

    Web Animation 

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 

Alternative Title(s): Shared World

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