We entered the age of Crossovers

[MetalSkulkBane]

Obviously crossovers are as old as Tom Sawyer appearing in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" in 1885. Universal Monsters, Smash Bros, Roger Rabbit, Usagi in TMNT, etc

But recently it just EXPLODED, especially in movies. Into Spider-Verse, Universus, Space Jam 2,  Player One, Rescue Rangers Movie, No way Home, Lego Movie, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, Learning with Pibby!, list goes on. All in span of last 5 years.

And I am very torn about this situation. Some absolutely amazing stories came from this, but if you look at Roger Rabbit or Spider-verse, the "crossover" aspect is a window dressing, a bait to draw you in, so you stay for characters, story and animation. I worry this age of crossovers is just another step into big companies ruling everything and shallow fan service.

Though?

[Teoskaven]

I think the first Avengers movie back in 2012 was the big gateway to that, but keep in mind the concept had been tempted for a long time. The early stages of the MCU did wanted to create a shared project between companies and cannibalize the previously existing Spider-Man and X-Men titles while letting the respecting movie rights owners keeping the hold.
We also had stuff like Freddy vs. Jason and people had been claiming from the '90s the idea of the new age horror icons to have crossovers (sequels in the making had either Hellraiser or Evil Dead being a third element thrown in the mix for example).
And that's not to say that comic books and videogames have had crossovers from decades at this point, the process has just become mainstream for the more mindless movie audience, for a lack of a better term.

Simply put, companies now feel they have the money and technology to back up ideas that involve coordination from multiple copyright holders, actors, voice actors and writers in order to create a product that has easy mode written on it in order to sell. It still doesn't work all the time (Universal's Dark Universe and no pre-planned The Dark Tower are perfect examples) but it's almost always lucrative.

For the time being i am fine with it, but i agree that it has the potential to spiral out of control really fast. I think Ready Player One is a good idea on how things can go wrong if unchecked.

[Salamander]

The way rights have consolidated into the hands of a few enormous licenseholders, as well as the mainstreamification of fandom content, has made this a far more straightforward process.  I would suggest that it is frequently a cynical attempt to cast as wide a net as possible to catch potential consumer interest.

[Chili Dawg]

Frankly, I think I'm already a bit burned out on this stuff. There's only so many times I can say "hey it's that thing I like" and keep caring. It's more or less stopped being "hey it's that thing I like" and is now more "hey, that thing i like is now just one more property to fill out this boardroom jerk sesh." 

Like I'm cool with crossovers that make sense or even really out there ones if they're focused and fun. But big media companies throwing every property they own at the wall is a new fad that I'm already tired of.

And honestly I'm more tired of how easily it seems to work.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

It a dream many of us had as kids depending on who we gravitated towards.

I see it as a culmination of expectations that weren’t able to bear fruit as easily in the past as they have today. And it’s a train that isn’t going to stop anytime soon.

It’s just like how DC and Marvel Comic characters first started in separate, stand-alone entries as the status quo before merging into one setting—going from Batman TAS and Superman TAS to Justice League, Unlimited, then the full DCAU—and that becoming the new status quo before trying something new like Young Justice.

Now that things have sort of coalesces together, it actually makes room for newer works and idea to be planted and bear fruit in the future—one example being Arcane from Riot Games coming to the world by storm. Everything started at zero, so it’ll be a while before we get a shift and something else catches folks eyes that have nothing to do with something they’ve seen before.

 

[Multikaris]

The thing with a lot of these crossovers is that many feel inappropriate for the target demographic as well as whatever works are considered the focus; a lot of R-Rated characters slipped into not-so-R-Rated crossovers, and sometimes not even as cameos, in a way that feels very weird and cynical. While with say, the Capcom Vs series, the RE characters have a lot going for them beyond the most mature aspects of their games, but most of the GoT characters… not so much. It’s even hypocritical at times when a character gets snubbed for being “inappropriate” where we see far less appropriate characters get small cameos. 

[batson]

Not only have we entered an age of crossovers...

Months ago, I made post on this forum expressing my belief that we've now entered an age of fans and their memes holding actual relevance over the course of mainstream IP's owned by multimillion dollar companies. My example of that was how Ultra Instinct Shaggy became canon in Multiversus. And now with the release of the newest Dragon Ball movie... Well the evidence of this new era just piles up. Meme videos from 2018 now seem prophetic:

Popular culture is currently going through a state of transformation, both the prevalance of crossovers and the prevalence of adapting memes are testaments to this.

[MetalSkulkBane]

I would say that this is still little evidence, buuuut Sony did hilariously lose millions due to a single meme about "morbin time", so there's one more.

[lucasdanielpeterrygal]

I hate it I despise it. Because of Fortnite brand new indie game trend which I highly despise. With possibly Disney Frozen,Marvel Cinematic Universe(MCU)Star Wars, Warner Bros. Detective Comics Expanded Universe(DCEU). I think in one of Space Jam remake/reboot of original Space Jam: A New Legacy I think I saw a reference to some Fortnite Battle Royale Dance Emote that I possibly don’t even care that much to remember. Sonic the Hedgehog(Sega/Sonic Team) & Super Mario Bros. in Friday Night Funkin',Fall Guys and Among Us in Fortnite Battle Royale and PUBG. Let's hope no Samus Aran from Metroid videogame series of Nintendo industry in Fortnite. Sonic the Hedgehog in LEGO Dimensions,Sonic the Hedgehog in Minecraft,allegedly Michael Jackson in Fortnite,Hatsune Mikku in Space Channel Sony PSVR...etc. Sonic the Hedgehog in Super Smash Bros. series,Rabidds(UbiSoft) in Super Mario Bros. Rocket League in Fortnite it's so lame.

Edited July 1, 2022 by lucasdanielpeterrygal