10 Ways That Movies Will Change In The 2020s

It is widely, and quite reasonably, assumed that the coming decade will continue to see studios attempt to emulate the commercial gold mine of Marvel's cinematic shared universe.

The less discussed corollary to the shared universe, and its potential eventually to provide diminishing returns as things start to feel a little samey (witness the shaky ground beneath the once promising Godzilla MonsterVerse), is the possibility of also copying another strand of comic book storytelling and publishing; namely what DC Comics has branded "Elseworlds" stories.

Elseworlds provide a potential for complete standalone stories with a beginning, middle and end in which alternative takes on established characters can exist (such as Victorian Bruce Wayne in Gotham By Gaslight or Soviet Superman in Superman: Red Son). Published simultaneous to the ongoing big scale shared universe of the main continuity, Elseworlds allow creators to tell distinct individual stories which do not rely on adopting the rules of a wider universe.

We have perhaps already seen the first example of an Elseworlds-type movie in the form of arguably 2019's biggest success: Joker. It's a movie that takes a popular character who already exists in an ongoing continuity (regardless of the absence of Jared Leto, the DCEU Joker continues to cast a shadow over the upcoming Birds Of Prey) and provides a more singular take in an alternative one-off standalone story.

If last year's two most talked about movies being Endgame and Joker point to anything in the decade that follows, it's that popular characters will be made into both expansive, sprawling shared universe continuities and one-off Elseworlds stories at the same time.

The MonsterVerse may continue, but that doesn't mean we can't still have a Godzilla outside that continuity. The new Invisible Man may finally kick start Universal's Dark Universe, but they can still make a non-canon Dracula at the same time.