10 Best Multiverse Movies Ever

The multiverse is such a hot concept right now. The one-two success of both Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - only one of which made this list, by the way - confirms the power of multiversal stories beyond any doubt.

But why, precisely, do we all love the multiverse so much?

Perhaps it's the creative carte blanche it grants writers to explore wild alternate universes while still maintaining a core "Prime" universe, or that, in our bleak present, they invite viewers to fantasise about sunnier realities elsewhere in the multiverse.

The multiverse is Hollywood's big buzzword at present, and while it's basically inevitable that we'll get sick of the idea eventually, for now it remains novel enough that it hasn't yet been worn into the ground.

But the multiverse certainly didn't begin with the MCU - we've seen multiverse films before, from prior superhero movies to adventurous sci-fi films that never once uttered the word "multiverse."

And so if you're craving some more multiversal shenanigans in the wake of the MCU, you can't go wrong with these movies. But first, we'd be fools to ignore the one that recently popularised the concept with the mainstream..

It's impossible to discuss multiverse movies without bringing up by far the most commercially successful and zeitgeist-grabbing of them all - the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Spider-Man: No Way Home.

While certainly not a perfect movie, No Way Home proved how the multiverse could be harnessed to deliver massively crowd-pleasing fan service, by colliding three cinematic eras of Spider-Man in a single movie.

The presences of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Peter Parkers of course stole the show, though seeing the likes of Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin and Alfred Molina's Doc Ock in the mix was also a ton of fun.

If introducing the multiverse to the MCU does feel a bit like opening Pandora's Box - something the messy recent Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness seemed to confirm - at least No Way Home made good on its fan-serving promises.

Beyond the obvious nostalgic appeal of seeing Maguire and Garfield back in these roles alongside Tom Holland's Spider-Man, it also gave the two former Spider-Men a chance to say goodbye to these characters after their respective runs ended unexpectedly the first time.