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Why Massive Fictional Universes Are the Future of Film and Television | DataDrivenInvestor
The Emmy nominations were only recently announced, but a winner has already been announced: comic book adaptations. But it’s more than that, with WandaVision’s success this year ( at 23 nominations, it’s 1 behind co-leaders The Crown and The Mandalorian), we’re seeing the success of the massive fictional universe (MFU) in an unlikely space: prestige entertainment. One could point to Watchmen’s massive success ( a whopping 26 nominations with 11 wins) as a harbinger of things to come, but that project was an expansion of Alan Moore’s singular vision, largely untethered from any MFU ( even if it was eventually folded into it). But with these latest developments, it’s clear more than ever that MFUs (a big part of which is comic books) remain on the rise.
Right now, the only MFUs are Marvel, DC, and Star Wars. An easy way to test this theory is by looking at which fan wikis are the largest — there are other massive databases but they’re either about real-life things (like logos or military history) or video games (which could become extremely valuable, but the nature of video game narratives has made them difficult to adapt to other media).
There are many reasons this change may feel surprising. Partially it’s because these MFUs, with their fantasy and science fiction…
