6 Shared Cinematic Universes You Might Not Know About
Sure, everyone knows about the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) because it’s pretty much everywhere, but there are a lot of other cinematic universes out there that most folks might not know about.
Here are 6 other cinematic universes that you should explore!
1. Quentin Tarantino films
There are obvious connections between Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs because characters have the same last name (Vega).
But in 2016, the director said that all of his films are actually set inside the same universe. For example, Tarantino said about his two Kill Bill films and From Dusk Till Dawn (which he wrote and starred in): “So basically when the characters of Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, when they go to the movies, Kill Bill is what they go to see. From Dusk Till Dawn is what they see.”
It’s all connected, people!
View this post on Instagram
2. E.T. and Star Wars
Directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas cleverly put references to each other’s blockbuster movies into their own films.
The alien in E.T. recognizes a little kid dressed up as Yoda as a pal from back home.
And in 1999’s Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, aliens that look suspiciously like that little guy in E.T. are seen in a senate meeting.
3. Pixar movies
Pixar is really good at this kind of stuff.
For example, the Pizza Planet truck has appeared in every single Pixar movie. And the toys from Toy Story make appearances in Up and Monsters, Inc.
There’s even an interesting fan theory by a writer named Jon Negroni that connects Toy Story to Brave to Monster’s, Inc. to WALL-E, but the jury is still out on that idea…
View this post on Instagram
4. Stephen King movies
Stephen King’s books have been turned into dozens of movies and TV shows since the 1970s and his writing and the subsequent movies and TV shows have recurring places like Castle Rock and Derry and recurring characters like Randall Flagg.
View this post on Instagram
5. Spy Kids and Machete
Danny Trejo for the win!
The rugged actor who has become an icon in recent years plays the same character in Machete and Spy Kids, both directed by Robert Rodriguez.
And if you’ve seen these movies, you know they were made for very different audiences…
View this post on Instagram
6. Trading Places and Coming to America
Director John Landis and actor Eddie Murphy teamed up to make Trading Places in 1983 and Coming to America in 1988.
The connection?
In Trading Places, Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche play rich investment brokers. Five years later in Coming to America, Eddie Murphy’s character gives two homeless men, played by Bellamy and Ameche, a bunch of cash on the street.
The dialogue Bellamy and Ameche speak makes it certain that they are the same two characters from the previous film.
