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Parallel universes (or the multiverse) are a common plot device in fiction.[1][2] This is a list of notable fictional works which feature parallel universes as a plot element.
| Year | Title | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1934 | Sidewise in Time | Murray Leinster | The story follows an apocalyptic event where aspects of one timeline manifest in others.[2] |
| Year | Title | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Timeline | Michael Crichton | 21st century history students use "quantum technology" to travel to 14th century France in a parallel universe where time has progressed less quickly than ours. |
| 2020 | The Space Between Worlds | Micaiah Johnson | Features a young woman, Cara who is able to travel between different versions of Earth, but only versions where her counterpart has already died.[3] In Cara's case she is unusual in that in most of the known worlds she is already dead, and this gives her value. |
| 2020 | Overstrike | C. M. Angus | Overstrike by C. M. Angus features high-functioning schizophrenics with the ability to simultaneously perceive multiple realities. |
| Year | Title | Director(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | The One | James Wong | The film follows rogue interdimensional cop Gabriel Yulaw, who attempts to kill all 124 of his alternate universe counterparts and absorb their power to become a god-like being known as the "One".[4] |
| 2018 | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman | Several parallel universe versions of Spider-Man from within the film's multiverse are depicted.[5] |
| 2022 | Everything Everywhere All at Once | Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert | The film follows Evelyn Quan Wang, a Chinese-American laundromat owner who travels between universes and draws knowledge from her alternate universe counterparts.[6] |
| 2024 | I Saw the TV Glow | Jane Schoenbrun | Main characters Owen and Maddy slowly realize that they are living false lives trapped in a pocket dimension within the world of their favorite TV show, The Pink Opaque, having been imprisoned there by series antagonist Mr. Melancholy.[7] |
| 2024 | Deadpool & Wolverine | Shawn Levy | The film involves Wade Wilson / Deadpool from the Deadpool film series being transported to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.[8] An alternate universe variant of Logan / Wolverine also appears, separate from the versions of the character who appeared in the X-Men film series and Logan.[9][10] |
| Airdates | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Spellbinder | The series follows the adventures of Sydney high-schooler Paul Reynolds as he is accidentally stranded in a parallel world where the industrial revolution never happened. Only a small number of people there have technology – the "Spellbinders" – and they pretend it is magic and use it to rule over everyone else, manipulating people's fear and ignorance. Paul, with the help of a local girl called Riana, uses his wits and his own knowledge of science to survive, whilst his high-school friends try to rescue him.[11][1][12] |
| 1997 | Spellbinder: Land of the Dragon Lord | The series follows Kathy who decides to explore an unusual boat that she discovers next to a lake, she is accidentally pulled from her home in Australia into a parallel universe. The new world she finds herself in is populated by ethnic Chinese, who possess advanced technology, including a talking computer called the "Oracle" that runs the empire. Kathy spends most of her time trying to evade dangerous people in different parallel worlds, return to her own world, and reunite with her family. She is further antagonised by Ashka, a cunning and manipulative woman who has escaped from prison in her own world (for her crimes in the first series) and who seeks to gain advantage for herself. The series also depicts a journey Sun takes to Kathy's world, where he is no longer protected by his empire, and people do not respect his authority. |
| 1997–1998 | Magic Mountain | The series follows the adventures of four national but iconic creatures of China; Dragon, Lion, Panda, and Tortoise – four friends having lots of fun with a little Dragon magic thrown in.[13] These four creatures "enjoy wonderful times as they invent unusual games, play tricks on each other, and have exciting adventures as they explore their enchanting world."[14] |
| 2004 | Parallax | The series is about a boy named Ben Johnson, who discovers a portal to multiple parallel universes, and explores them with his friends: Francis Short, Melinda Bruce, Una, Due, Tiffany and Mundi as well as newfound sister, Katherine Raddic. |
| 2004 | Awake | The series is about a detective who works for the Los Angeles Police Department who switches between two realities, one in which his wife has died and one in which his son has died. He uses details from each reality to solve cases in the other.[15] |
| 2013–2018 | Nowhere Boys | The series is about four boys, goth Felix Ferne, nerd Andrew "Andy" Lau, golden child Sam Conte, and alpha jock Jake Riles, after returning home from a school excursion, find themselves in an alternate reality where no one recognises them. They battle mystical threats and demons to find their way back home. |
| 2014–2017 | Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero | The series follows Penn Zero and his friends Sashi Kobayashi and Boone Wiseman as they travel between universes and assume the forms of each world's heroes.[16] |
| 2017 | Re:Creators | The series features fictional characters from popular in-universe media traveling from their respective narrative universes to contemporary Japan.[17] |
| 2024–present | Dark Matter | The series follows Jason Dessen, a physicist who is captured and replaced by his alternate self and travels through numerous alternate universes while attempting to return home.[18] |
| 2025 | Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX | The sixteenth main entry in the Gundam franchise is set in an alternate universe version of the Universal Century (the series' original timeline), which is later revealed to be one of many split timelines created by Lalah Sune in pursuit of a universe where Char Aznable was not killed.[19][20] |
| Year | Title | Developer(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002–present | Kingdom Hearts series | Square Enix/The Walt Disney Company | A core element of the series is Sora, Donald Duck, and Goofy traveling to the worlds of various Disney properties within the Realm of Light. While doing so, the three use Donald's magic to transform themselves and blend in with the inhabitants of each world.[21] |
| 2005 | Sonic Rush | Dimps | A playable character, Blaze the Cat, and one of the game's antagonists, Eggman Nega, originate from an alternate world known as the Sol Dimension.[22] |
| 2020 | Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! | Colorful Palette/Sega | Characters within the game visit alternate dimensions made from their emotions, called Sekai, where alternate versions of Hatsune Miku and other virtual singers reside. |
| 2021 | Blue Archive | Nexon | Alternate universe versions of Sensei (the game's player character) and Shiroko appear as antagonists in "Volume Final". |
In "The One," Li plays Gabriel Yulaw, a nasty excuse for a space investigator who bounces between parallel universes (a.k.a. "the multiverse") seeking out his 120-odd alter egos in order to destroy them. With the death of each alternative Yulaw, Gabriel becomes stronger, smarter and faster.
Just when you thought you couldn't take another Spider-Man reboot, along comes the movie to put them all in perspective. Or maybe you can't get enough of Marvel's friendly neighborhood crime-fighter and are already beside yourself in anticipation of a project loaded with half a dozen parallel-universe Spideys. Either way, the brilliance of Sony's snappy new animated "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" shows itself in the project's uncanny ability to simultaneously reset and expand all that has come before, creating an inclusive world where pretty much anybody can be the superhero … even you!
Michelle Yeoh plays Evelyn, a scatterbrained laundromat owner with mounting debt and a crumbling marriage, who finds herself unwittingly thrust into the multiverse: literally tripping and kung-fu kicking her way across multiple dimensions, tapping into the power of alternate selves via "verse jumping" and, incidentally, trying to prevent the destruction of reality as we know it.
She disappears for years, and when she returns, she tells Owen she's been inside The Pink Opaque, and that the world he lives in is actually the Midnight Realm, the domain of the show's Big Bad, Mr. Melancholy.
During a recent interview, Reese basically teases Deadpool 3 being a "fish-out-of-water" story about the character trying to acclimate to his new Marvel reality, while being an outrageously zany character compared to the more grounded reality of the MCU. He even teased the possibility of working a Morbius joke into Deadpool 3! (If Deadpool doesn't say "It's Morbin' time!" we won't be satisfied…).
As Reynolds continues to presumably share details about Wolverine's return, Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" blasts over the video and blocks out everything he's saying. It's a goof, but at least Marvel fans know that "Deadpool 3" will not be screwing with Wolverine's powerful death scene in "Logan." Considering the MCU is now fully exploring the multiverse, expect Jackman to play a different iteration of Wolverine as the version who died in "Logan" remains dead.
Based on Jackman's new comments, it appears all but confirmed that he'll be playing a version of Wolverine that fans have not met before. Whether that means it's an entirely different Wolverine from across the multiverse or the same Wolverine but just back in time before his 2029 death remains to be seen.
Suburban kid Penn Zero (voiced by Thomas Middleditch) goes to school during the day but because his heroic mom Vonnie (Lea Thompson) and dad Brock (Gary Cole) are stuck in another dimension called the "Most Dangerous World Imaginable," he inherits the gig of saving this world and others with his pals Sashi (Tania Gunadi) and Boone (Adam DeVine) as they dimension-hop to places that need them and battle the evil part-time bad guy Rippen (Alfred Molina) and his minion Larry (Larry Wilmore).
The basic premise here is intriguing in and of itself, and it reminds me of the sci-fi novel Redshirts. Re:CREATORS has set itself up to do for anime characters what that book did for expendable Star Trek crewmen: let them know they're living in someone else's fictional universe, and then give them a chance to tell their "gods" exactly what they think about the situation.
Suddenly, Jason is not only abducted but replaced by a version of himself, having conjured a box that allows him to navigate between multiverses and an infinite assortment of possibilities, altered – sometimes dramatically, others almost imperceptibly – by individual choices and pivotal moments.
When Sora goes to a specific world, his attire or form sometimes change. Here he is as a toy in the world of 'Toy Story'.
The wrinkle here is that there's some interdimensional madness at play, too. There's what appears to be an alternate-dimension version of Eggman hanging around, known as Eggman Nega.
