Many studios attempted to launch a shared movie universe in the 2010s, in the hopes of emulating the MCU's success; here's what happened to them. Back in 2008, few people (if anyone) could've guessed the original Iron Man would end up changing the Hollywood blockbuster game when it introduced Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in its post-credits scene. In reality, most folk remained fairly skeptical of Marvel Studios' plans for a shared superhero universe until everyone wanted one.
It wasn't just comic book superhero movie properties either; everything from classic creature features and horror franchises to folk legends were dusted off and rebooted with the intention of creating an interconnected film narrative after that. Even beloved cartoon IPs like Scooby-Doo gained a new lease on life when Warner Bros. decide to try and Scoob!, an animated movie designed to set-up spinoffs featuring Captain Caveman, Jabberjaw, The Great Grape Ape, and other obscure Hanna-Barbera characters most people have probably never heard of.
There were so many shared universe attempts in the '10s that, frankly, it's hard to keep track of them all. So, for your convenience, we're going to take a look back at every major one and reveal what actually became of them (including, whether they were a success, failure, or a bit of both).
DCEU
After the MCU became a smash-hit, it was a no-brainer to try and do the same thing with DC Comics superheroes. The first DC movie to come out after The Avengers, most polarizing movies of the '10s.
It didn't take long for the course-correcting to start after Batman V Superman either; in fact, it started with WB ordering reshoots on Suicide Squad to lighten its tone and bring it closer to the movie's non-SDCC trailers, resulting in a heavily revamped by Joss Whedon.
As it just so happens, this story has a happy ending. WB finally gave up trying to create a tight MCU-style continuity after Justice League, and reconfigured the DCEU as a series of loosely connected movies a la Aquaman, Shazam!, and Birds of Prey, all of which have enjoyed some degree of success. Things even worked out for Snyder; after a whole lot of fan campaigning, the filmmaker's four-hour cut of Justice League will finally see the light of day in 2021, when it premieres on HBO Max. It might not be the money-making behemoth the MCU is, but the DCEU appears to have found its groove and is one of a handful of shared universes from the '10s still going strong today.
Dark Universe
its vision for the Dark Universe, a franchise that would similarly re-imagine its classic monsters for the age of superhero blockbusters, complete with its own equivalent to the MCU's SHIELD in the form of Prodigium. The studio even - later, infamously - released a photo of its would-be stars, including Javier Bardem as the Frankenstein monster and Johnny Depp as The Invisible Man.
As you might've guessed, things didn't work out there either. The first Dark Universe movie (2017's Tom Cruise-headlined The Mummy) was a critical and financial dud, and the larger cinematic universe died on the vine as a direct result. The Invisible Man was celebrated by critics as a timely update of the title character, and it grossed $126 million against a $7 million price tag for its efforts. Third time's the charm, it seems.
MonsterVerse
Godzilla and King Kong originally crossed over in 1962 and will do it again in the it wasn't bad enough to derail the MonsterVerse, and many fans remain excited for the impending Godzilla-Kong throw down. So add this one to the winners' pile.
Conjuring Universe
As hard as other studios have tried to copy the MCU formula, they've typically forgotten a key step: build a strong foundation (as in, a worthwhile standalone movie), then expand things from there. That's exactly what James Wan with 2013's The critical responses to The Conjuring spinoffs have been all over the place, but as long as they keep making big bank (they've grossed $1.9 billion on a combined $139.5 million budget so far), one imagines WB isn't too concerned about that.
Sony's Amazing Spider-Man Universe
The story behind why Sony decided to reboot the Spider-Man movies the launchpad for spinoffs like Venom and Sinister Six, in addition to The Amazing Spider-Man 3. Another long story short: their gamble didn't work and Sony thereafter teamed up with Marvel Studios to bring Spider-Man into the MCU (with Tom Holland taking over the role of Peter Parker).
Once again, however, success came out of failure. Sony's MCU Spider-Man movies have done very well and the studio has since launched as well as the MCU Spider-Man solo adventures and the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sub-franchise. If at first you don't succeed...
King Arthur
There are far too many movies and TV shows based on the King Arthur legend to recount in full here, and their ranks will only grow when Netflix's was Guy Ritchie's King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, a mostly standalone 2017 tentpole which incorporated elements from abandoned King Arthur movie scripts. The reboot was (as you'd imagine) a hodgepodge of ideas that was mostly dismissed by critics and failed to even match its $175 million budget at the box office. And yet, it wasn't, per se, the strangest attempted shared universe to come out of this craze...
Robin Hood
No, that honor (arguably) goes to Hood, a pitch by screenwriters Cory Goodman and Jeremy Lott for a Robin Hood universe composed of solo films for characters like Little John, Friar Tuck, and Will Scarlett, in addition to Avengers-inspired crossovers where Robin and his Merry Men set out to save the day. Equally curiously, the plan was (reportedly) for all these movies to be old-fashioned swashbucklers, at a time when that sub-genre of action-adventure cinema was decidedly out of style. In the end, Sony didn't even make a single Robin Hood movie and the heroic outlaw was last seen on the big screen in 2018, when Lionsgate released Disney's live-action/CGI remake of its 2D animated Robin Hood feature, but it's probably for the best this idea was laid to rest in the graveyard of abandoned shared universes.
