Hollywood may have been operating under an entirely different assumption ever since Kevin Feige changed the game with the release of Iron Man in 2008, but not every major property has to bend over backwards to fit itself into a shared universe.
The DCEU is arguably at its best when being less concerned with trying to tie everything together, while the jury is still very much out on the ambitious Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters, which some may even label as misguided from the outset. The planned Valiant Universe is another one swamped in question marks, the Dark Universe imploded at the first hurdle and the Wizarding World probably needs Fantastic Beasts 3 to be a hit to survive, with Warner Bros.’ Conjuring mythos and MonsterVerse the exceptions currently proving the rule.
On the small screen, meanwhile, the Arrowverse is still going strong despite a continued downward trend in ratings, while Paramount+ and AMC appear intent to double down on Star Trek and The Walking Dead respectively. Furthermore, insider Daniel Richtman has now chimed in by saying Netflix want to get in on the act by developing multiple superhero universes, but that’s the beginning and end of his insight on the matter, so all we’re left with is a broad generalization.
Looking at the streaming service’s slate, though, you could make an argument that Jupiter’s Legacy, Project Power, Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, Robert Rodriguez’s We Can Be Heroes and The Umbrella Academy definitely possess the potential to launch a series of interconnected stories set in the same reality, but with so little to go on in terms of specifics, it’s hard to get a handle on what theoretical superhero universes could be on the way to Netflix, or how they’re all supposed to tie together individually to paint a bigger picture in the long run.
