8 Cinematic Universes That Existed Before Marvel's

7. The Bongy Westphall Universe

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is currently twelve movies strong, with another eleven set to be released between now and the end of the decade. That is a phenomenal number and one that, assuming the superhero train keeps its momentum, promises much more box office success in the future. However, it's far from unprecedented. In fact, at its current planned rate of three movies a year, Marvel will need to go to 2027 before they finally match The Bongy Westphall Universe. The what? OK, get ready for some "Wait, seriously?" stuff here. The Bongy Westphall Universe is a collection of several long running, direct-to-video horror C-movie franchises of varying notoriety that all exist in the same world thanks to a run of surreptitious crossovers. The main sub-series are Puppet Master (ten movies) and Trancers (seven movies), which are linked to other films through a bevy of the ususal versus showdowns. I say "are" because the last film came out as recently as 2013, meaning more adventures are certainly possible. The whole thing doesn't exactly have a strong fabric of reality, but there's something very interesting about the motivations for the series; like Marvel, the series was primarily motivated by a desire to replicate the comic continuity. It's not totally successful, with the pernickety construction led to fans likening it to another source; the umbrella series is named after Tommy Westphall, the kid revealed in the St. Elsewhere finale to have the entire show, and by nature of guest stars and shared episodes most of narrative TV, inside his head.