8 Movies You Won't Believe Are Set In The Same Universe

7. Conan & Cthulhu

Forgive a slight bending of the rules here, as technically speaking, Cthulhu, the gigantic demon-squid of H.P. Lovecraft's writing, does not appear in any of the various Conan films, but there is a definite connection there. Conan The Barbarian is a franchise which originated in the 1930s, in the form of novellas written by Robert E. Howard, and is most easily recognised in live action form through the 1982 movie of the same title, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger in his break-through role. The series is very much in the fantasy genre, and made for some spectacularly cheesy movies, so surely there was no place for Lovecraft and his brand of dark and twisted Old Ones, right? Thanks to Lovecraft and Howard becoming close friends at the beginning of their publishing career, the pair began putting references to the work of the other in their stories. As such, not only are several Lovecraftian monsters found in the Conan universe, but The Old Ones are mentioned by name in The Queen Of The Black Coast. Cthulhu was, of course, the most memorable of Lovecraft's Great Old Ones, so could have perhaps been one of the few things which may have saved the recent reboot of the Conan franchise, because deep down, we all want to see an absurdly muscled man take on a tentacled god of evil, armed with nothing but a sword and a debatable haircut.