8 Mind-Blowing Ways Your Favourite Pop Culture Universes Are Connected

Everyone loves shared universe - Batman v Superman and Justice League notwithstanding. Just the idea of two or more characters from different franchises existing in the same world is very exciting because it tells us that the fictional universe we thought we knew is actually much larger and complex than we ever thought. It opens up so many possibilities for our favorite characters to grow and evolve or, as is most often the case, beat the ever-loving crap out of each other while we cheer wildly.

Marvel understands that all too well, which is why their trailer for Infinity War basically broke the internet and quickly became YouTube’s most-watched movie commercial of all time.

And let’s not forget about that brief time in 2013 when the internet went nuts about the theory that said all of Pixar’s animated movies took place in the same universe. But we can do you one better and prove that most of your favorite sci-fi, fantasy, and superhero franchises are in reality linked in weird and mind-blowing ways.

This is the Great Pop Culture Unification Theory:

In 1997, Saban Entertainment produced a TV show about dead-eyed, green abominations taken directly from Jim Henson’s nightmares and, for whatever reason, called them the Ninja Turtles. The new series, titled The Next Mutation and apparently made on a budget of whatever-the-studio-managed-to-find-underneath-the-couch-cushions dollars, surprisingly didn’t turn out to be the smash hit the studio thought it’d be, so in 1998 they tried to promote it by having it crossover with Power Rangers… in Space!

Power Rangers in Space might not have been the same show most of us grew up with but it still told the familiar story about a group of rainbow-colored space vigilantes pretend-hitting campy cosmic villains in the face.

And in their 4th episode, “Shell Shocked,” these Power Rangers got to meet and pretend-hit the Next Mutation turtles after they have been brainwashed by the show’s Big Bad. Of course, in the end, the good guys win, the day is saved, and everyone acts like it wasn’t a big deal that TMNT and Power Rangers exist in the same universe.

Power Rangers in Space was later followed by Lost Galaxy where one army wore armor identical to the one from Starship Troopers and Firefly:

Finally, in the Lost Galaxy episode “Green Courage,” the heroes talk about the constellation of Kasterborous, which is where the planet Gallifrey, home of the Doctor from Doctor Who, is located. So already we’ve jumped from mutant sewer ninjas to time-traveling aliens, and we’re just getting started.