6 Crazy 'Shared Universes' Hollywood's Actually Making

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The Bond-Verse, James Bond-Verse

Recently, the rights to the James Bond franchise went up for sale. And rather than simply draw up their own sociopathic spy characters with British accents and bland names, corporate giants like Amazon and Apple were trying to get their paws on 007. Why? Well, with both companies looking to dominate streaming, rumors surfaced that they wanted to create a sort-of Bond universe, in which every nook and cranny of Bond's fictional world could be explored -- probably with characters actually named "Nook" and "Cranny."

MGM/UA Entertainment Co.At last, the Octopussy origin story absolutely no one was asking for.

Spinning Bond off into a TV universe could allow producers to, say, give Bond's American pal Felix Leiter his own show. Or how about a sitcom about how teen Blofeld resents his adopted brother James? Universal ended up snagging the rights to Bond, and sure enough, they recently announced their own streaming service. So it's not inconceivable that a Bond-verse is still in play. The most prominent rumor seemed to suggest that a Bond spinoff wouldn't focus on Bond himself, but rather a young female agent, who could be set up in the next movie. And since a lot of people think Bond is going to kick the bucket in the upcoming film, this would allow the producers to take the franchise in a fresh direction without taking the bold step of gender-swapping Bond.

While nothing has been officially announced, it certainly seems like a possibility, especially with Bond rival Jason Bourne similarly spinning off into a TV series, Treadstone. And let us not forget that the Bond universe has previously expanded to tell the story of Bond's illegitimate, umm, nephew. Yeah, nephew ...

Related: 5 Annoying 'Shared Universe' Movie Tropes

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The Cereal Monster-Verse

One of the biggest failures in the cinematic universe game was Universal's "Dark Universe," which announced a slew of new monster movies and even put together a slick logo, all before waiting to see if anyone liked their new Mummy movie ... which they did not. Apparently, at least one company is betting that the real reason that didn't work out was their creatures' conspicuous lack of powdered sugar.

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The Filthy-Urchin-Filled Dahl-Verse

For parents who would rather shove an iPad in their kids' faces at bedtime than endure the painful monotony of reading, Netflix is planning to bring the world of Roald Dahl to life. And by "life," we mean a shitload of TV shows. Netflix spent a "nine-figure sum" for 16 Roald Dahl books -- and keep in mind that's before any production costs, just for the rights to tell the stories of various filthy children escaping abusive homes with the help of creepy but magical strangers.

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The Grisham-Verse

For those who love the Marvel Cinematic Universe but wish the Avengers were scrappy Southern lawyers putting everything on the line for one big case, we have good news. Hulu is launching two John Grisham adaptations that will share the same continuity. The shows will be based on The Rainmaker from 1995 and Rogue Lawyer from 2015 (by which time we'd all forgotten that John Grisham was a thing). They'll be written together in the same writer's room.

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The Lovecraft Remake-Verse

H.P. Lovecraft is best known as the author of such horror classics as The Call Of Cthulhu and At The Mountains of Madness -- and also for being an internet troll before the internet. If you grew up in the '80s, though, you might associate Lovecraft with a bunch of crazy horror movies his works inspired, most famously Re-Animator (about a medical student who can bring dead tissue back to life, not Disney remaking its cartoons).

Empire International PicturesWhich you probably remember as "That movie with the sexual predator severed head."

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The Spider-Man-less Spider-Verse

If Into The Spider-Verse taught us anything, it's that the key to a great Spider-Man movie is to cram in as many goddamn Spider-People as humanly possible. But for some reason, we're due to get a whole bunch of Spider-Man movies with no Spider-Man whatsoever. Sony still has the rights to the iconic superhero. And while they've partnered with Marvel to integrate Peter Parker into the MCU (where he can lead fun John-Hughes-like adventures while occasionally being horribly murdered), that still leaves a whole host of side characters who could each star in their own movie.

Most recently, the blockbuster hit / gritty reboot of The Mask known as Venom proved that audiences would turn out for a movie about a Spider-Man villain without Spider-Man showing up. And because the folks over there seem to like money, it doesn't look like they're going to stop. First off, we're getting a movie about Morbius the Living Vampire, starring Jared Leto and a bunch of people who are about to hate Jared Leto. Leto's already been stoking fan excitement, posting a Twitter video of himself shaving, presumably because flossing footage would have been too damn exciting.