8 Cinematic Universes That Existed Before Marvel's

3. Freddy Vs. Jason

One of the biggest problems with making a shared universe is continuity; in contrast to standard, linear franchises, crossovers require more thought than looking at the ending of the last one to make sure everything slots together. Unless, that is, you're bringing together two franchises that are so utterly inconsistent that their complete unsuitability ceases to matter. Each entry of the Friday The 13th seemed to regard anything previous with something approaching contempt; Jason aged decades in weeks and his deaths were habitually undone when the studio realised they wanted to make more movies (there were two more movies after The Final Friday). A Nightmare On Elm Street wasn't much better, leaving twist endings unresolved and skipping over whatever plot details made churning out increasingly-silly slashers a chore. And then there's the whole meta-busting of New Nightmare. All this meant that Freddy Vs. Jason is a bit of a mess as a crossover, as well as being a pretty cack horror movie. There's a continuation of various character threads, but the whole thing spins in whatever direction the writers felt on that day. So yeah, it's not a successful shared universe, but you have to admire the continuation of the Universal tradition. This was the last movie in these character's respective continuities, leading to incredibly po-faced reboots at the hands of Michael Bay.