10 Simple Ways To Build A Cinematic Universe

Trying to keep track of the timeline over the course of ten X-Men movies is enough to make your head explode, although there are certainly those that have tried. Deadpool even made a joke about it. The Merc with a Mouth's solo feature and Logan, two of the franchise's better entries, definitely exist in that world but don't concern themselves with the wider mythology.

On the flip-side, the recently-announced Joker origin story has many people scratching their heads. He exists in the DCEU and is set to feature in both Suicide Squad 2 and a spin-off alongside Harley Quinn. However, the prequel will cast a different actor in the lead role and exist outside of that established continuity, giving us two Jokers and two unrelated timelines... from the same studio.

Similarly, Sony are creating an extended universe of their own featuring characters from Spider-Man comics which have absolutely nothing to do with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, of which Spidey is a prominent character. If Tom Holland appears even for a brief second in Venom or Silver & Black, does that make them canon in the MCU? Nobody seems to know for sure, least of all Sony.

At a base level, a connected set of movies that take place within a shared universe is a straightforward concept that creates a concrete set of rules. There's no need to over-complicate things and confuse people about what movies are part of which timeline, but the studios seem more than happy to do it anyway.