UNCOOKED - The Real MCU

DISCLAIMER: This post was written after seeing Spiderman: No Way Home, so I do know more about the multiverse than I am letting on. There are no spoilers for S: NWH that aren't in the trailer in this post.

I meant to finish writing the post before seeing it, but that's laziness for you.

This post contains spoilers for lots of movies and TV Shows, but some of them are only minor so I have split the warnings into major and minor. 

QUIZ QUESTION: What was the first major Spiderman movie to not be released in the same year as a Bourne movie? Answer at the bottom of the post.

MAJOR SPOILERS (mentioning who dies/survives, important plot twists, etc.): WandaVision (2021); Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

MINOR SPOILERS (characters who appear in a movie; anything that can be learned from watching the trailer): The Incredible Hulk, 2008; Deadpool (2016); Deadpool 2 (2018); The entire MCU if not specifically mentioned (2008-)

There is a theory that all movies take place in the same universe. Initial theory:

But I believe it goes deeper. >Cracks knuckles< Strap in!

First of all, we'll address something simple. True stories/documentaries about real people all take place in the same universe, for obvious reasons. That means that before we even start, we've got a list of (conservative estimate) 2944 movies sharing a universe according to this Wikipedia article (yes, I counted them).

Part 1 - The MCU

But we're talking about fictional movies in this post. The closest thing to an example of a fictional shared universe is of course the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). This consists (as of January 2022) of 27 movies and numerous spinoffs/tv series.

Some people would argue that James Bond holds the same honour, also having 27 movies as of 2022. There are several problems with this:

• James Bond (the character) is played by multiple actors, so it could be argued that the different series take place in different universes. The people above have another theory on this (3:40 onwards for the relevant bit)

• It doesn't help my theory, which relies on crossovers to make sense. Therefore, for now at least, the Bondverse is limited and stuck at 27 movies.

So, using the 27 MCU movies as a baseline, let's start by clarifying what they are (These are in chronological order of when they are set, not the order they were released):

• Captain America: The First Avenger
• Captain Marvel
• Iron Man
• The Incredible Hulk
• Iron Man 2
• Thor
• Marvel’s The Avengers
• Iron Man 3
• Thor: The Dark World
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
• Avengers: Age of Ultron
• Ant-Man
• Captain America: Civil War
• Black Widow
• Spider-Man: Homecoming
• Black Panther
• Doctor Strange
• Thor: Ragnarok
• Ant-Man and the Wasp
• Avengers: Infinity War
• Avengers: Endgame
• Spider-Man: Far From Home
• Eternals
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
• Spider-Man: No Way Home

First, I should address the elephant in the room, or rather the Hulk in the room: The Incredible Hulk is an MCU movie. Yes, Bruce Banner was played by Edward Norton instead of Mark Ruffalo (Fun fact: Ruffalo is the first actor to play both Banner and the Hulk; Norton only played Banner and Hulk was played by several people), but there are other MCU actors in it, including Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.

Total Score:

Movies: 27

TV Shows: 121 Source: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_series_based_on_Marvel_Comics_publications

Part 2 - The XMU

So we'll start by expanding into the X-Men Universe (XMU). As of 2020, there are officially 13 movies in the series, but we'll be discounting The New Mutants because there's no cast overlap and also because it's been officially confirmed that TNM isn't in the MCU. This leaves 12 movies (shown in release order because otherwise, the chronology is ridiculously complicated): 

• X-Men (2000)
• X2 (2003)
• X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
• X-Men: First Class (2011)
• The Wolverine (2013)
• X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
• Deadpool (2016)
• X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
• Logan (2017)
• Deadpool 2 (2018)
• Dark Phoenix (2019)

Deadpool and Deadpool 2 are the outliers in this list because there is no proper overlap. Several of the X-men have appeared in one or both of the Deadpool movies, but the only character to appear in both versions is Colossus, who isn't even played by the same actor (Donald MacKinnon/Daniel Cudmore in the XMU; Stefan Kapičić in the DPU (voice only)). Deadpool even references this:

I have no idea why that still was used as the thumbnail

One other actor appears in the DPU and the MCU, which also complicates matters (0:38-0:56) (STRONG LANGUAGE WARNING):

Josh Brolin appears as Cable in the DPU (above), but also plays Thanos, the main villain in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. He also features as a 'behind the scenes'/'puppetmaster' villain in some other movies, but that's not relevant.

Why did you bring it up then? - Ed.

Made sense at the time. - Phil

You may have noticed that we now have two cinematic universes - The XMU and the MCU. So how do we join the two?

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR WandaVision AND Avengers: Age of Ultron AHEAD

WandaVision exists in the MCU, and stars the MCU characters Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch and Vison, so that counts. Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver as played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson died in Avengers: Age of Ultron, so does not appear in WV, but in Episode 5, On a Very Special Episode... [ellipsis is part of the title; I didn't put it there], Pietro appears, played by Evan Peters, who is not in the MCU, but is part of the XMU:

This is a reference to Malcolm in the Middle, apparently [MitM owned by Fox but not on Disney+]

There are a couple of in-universe explanations. According to this article [released prior to the finale, which I'm about to talk about], this is evidence of the multiverse. Other articles written prior to the finale say the same thing, but in the finale, Pietro is revealed to actually be another character entirely called Ralph Bohner. 

Some articles that were written after the final episode release claim that this disproves the multiverse theory. I disagree, for several reasons:

1. We know that the multiverse exists thanks to the Spiderman: No Way Home trailer, which features villains from the other (Maguire/Garfield) Spiderman movies. Also, it's in the title of Dr Strange 2: The Multiverse of Madness. See more in Part 8.

2. Just because this universe features Peters as Bohner, doesn't mean that he isn't Quicksilver in another universe.

3. Why does Bohner have powers? Fans have theorised that Ralph Bohner is also Agnes' unseen husband mentioned in Episode 1 [clip not found], but that would assume he was originally a resident of Westview, which was already established only contained 'normal' people with the exception of Wanda, Vision and Agnes (count Billy and Charlie if you want; that doesn't affect this). But if that's the case, how could Ralph have Quicksilver's superpowers?

Part 2 Score:

Movies: 12

TV Shows: 0

Running Total Score:

Movies: 39

TV Shows: 121

Part 3 - The ACU

But you're only talking about Marvel movies! That's not deep! - You

Hold onto your hat because it's about to get massive. - Me

So to expand any further, we need to look at MCU and XMU (from here just called EMCU; Extended Movie Cinematic Universe) characters in other non-Marvel properties. To do that we're going to have to think outside the box, or rather inside the box, because we need to go animated. Easy method: Phineas and Ferb's Mission Marvel crossover, which features Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Spiderman and Red Skull who've also appeared in the MCU.

Unfortunately, Phineas and Ferb doesn't help us much, because they didn't really do much by the way of crossover. They do, however, add Across the 2nd Dimension and Candace Against the Universe to the EMCU (I count all other TV movies as part of the TV Show, except Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars).

No. Not yet.

Speaking of The Simpsons though, we do know that The Simpsons exists in the EMCU because of the short The Good, The Bart, and The Loki. This short features Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston.

However, despite the ridiculous number of episodes of The Simpsons,

there are surprisingly few crossover episodes. Not including episodes that include real people such as Lady Gaga and Simon Cowell, or brief cameos from characters such as King of the Hill's Hank Hill, there are:

• 24 Minutes - Parody of 24. Features 24 characters Jack Bauer and Chloe O'Brian, played by their original actors
• Mathlete's Feat - includes a couch gag featuring Rick and Morty, both voiced by their original voice actor (Yes - singular)
• Simpsorama - Crossover with Futurama. Features all of the main Futurama cast as their respective characters
• The Springfield Files - Parody of The X Files. Features The X Files characters Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, played by their original actors
• A Star is Burns - Crossover with The Critic. Features Jay Sherman, the titular critic, voiced by his original actor. Fun fact: this is the only episode that Simpsons creator Matt Groening (pronounced graining; spread the word) refuses to be associated with.
• The Simpsons Guy - Crossover with Family Guy. Technically this is an episode of Family Guy, but it's also probably the most famous Simpsons crossover, so it's on this list. Features all of the main Family Guy cast as their respective characters.

Do you want to write this post? No? Then stop picking holes.

Family Guy has had crossovers with many other TV shows and movies. You can find a list here.

However, we're going to go in a different direction - we're going to look at Futurama. We know that Futurama and The Simpsons take place in the same universe because of Simpsorama.

Shut up.

So what crossovers happen in Futurama? Here's a list, although those are mostly references rather than actual crossovers. So how else is that going to help us? Well, it brings us to something I dismissed early in this post: Biopics. But Futurama is set in the year 3000, so how can it include real people? I'll tell you how: The head museum. More specifically, the Hall of Presidents:

Note how Grover Cleveland has two heads

Most of the US Presidents until George W. Bush briefly appear, although not all of them have speaking lines (Barack Obama appears briefly in a flashback, but not in the HoP. Futurama ended in 2013, so Donald Trump and Joe Biden are not referenced)

So how many presidential biopics have there been? Unclear, although there are lots, including but not limited to:

• George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation
• Jefferson in Paris
• Hamilton
• The Winning Team (This gets a special mention because it is about Grover Cleveland Alexander, who was not a president but nearly shares a name with one, but he was also played by former President Ronald Reagan)

So this means that we can add the 2944 biopics to our list, as well as the two Phineas and Ferb movies, The Simpsons Movie and the four Futurama specials.

Part 3 Score:

Movies: 2951

TV Shows: 8

Running Total Score:

Movies: 2990

TV Shows: 129

Part 4 - The LCU 

Confused? Here's where it gets weird. We're about to go to the biggest crossover movie ever.

Only two properties? Not a chance.

Haha, no.

I'll talk about that later.

You've already had your turn!

I agree. But that's still only two. 

Getting warmer...

Warmer...

Darn, you were so close. 

No, it's The Lego Movie. 

"But that's only three movies!" - You

First of all, no. There's four. You forgot The Lego Ninjago Movie. I won't begrudge you that though; no one remembers that movie.

Second of all, you forgot this scene:

In case that was too fast for you, I've made a list below of all the master builders, not all of which are mentioned, along with the number of movies they add to the EMCU (Some of these characters only appear in The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, but they're on the list anyway)

• Test Dummy; The Swamp Creature; Marsha Queen of the Mermaids; Panda Guy; Hank Haystack; Cardio Carrie; Sir Stackabrick; Zookeeper; Lady Pirate; Lady Robot; Cyclops (Minifigures); Punk Rocker; Rapper; Mime; Yeti; Lloyd Garmadon (Green Ninja); Pirate Captain; Gangster; Sleepyhead; Witch; Artist; Policeman; Lizard Man; Nice Vampire ("Lord Vampyre"); Forestman; Texas Cowboy; Johnny Thunder - Misc. Lego characters; not in any other media
• Emmet Brickowski/Rex Dangervest (d.); Lucy/WyldStyle; Vitruvius (d.); Unikitty; Benny the Spaceman; MetalBeard - Lego Movie characters, not in any other media
• Batman; Alfred Pennyworth; Superman; Green Lantern; Lex Luthor; Harley Quinn; Wonder Woman; The Flash; Robin - DCEU characters. See below
• Cleopatra; Michelangelo Buonarroti; Abraham Lincoln; William Shakespeare; NBA Players - Real people in the Biopic universe. See above
• Milhouse Van Houten - The Simpsons character. See above
• Michelangelo - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles character - Adds 6 movies and 6 TV series
• Gandalf - Lord of the Rings character. Some debate, but generally agreed adds 6 movies (3x LotR movies and 3x The Hobbit movies)
• Professor Dumbledore - Harry Potter character - adds 11 movies (8x Harry Potter movies and 3x Fantastic Beasts movies (5 expected but only 3 released as of 2022))
• Speed Racer - Speed Racer character - adds one TV series and one movie.
• El Macho Wrestler - Could be a generic Lego character, but I'm choosing to believe that it's the main antagonist of Despicable Me 2. Adds 4 movies (Minions 2 expected July 2022 but not released as of writing this post)
• Statue of Liberty - Generic Lego character, or secondary antagonist in Ghostbusters 2? Adds 4 movies.
• Han Solo, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, C3PO - Star Wars characters

We've been through this. No.

Master Builders list source: https://thelegomovie.fandom.com/wiki/Master_Builders

Part 4 Score:

Movies: 31

TV Shows: 7

Running Total Score:

Movies: 3021

TV Shows: 136

Part 5 - The DCEU

Unlike most of the things in this post, the DCEU is not something invented by me. The DCEU was invented by DC Comics in order to start their own version of the MCU. 

SIDE NOTE: DC stands for Detective Comics. Every time you say DC Comics you're actually saying Detective Comics Comics. See also PIN Number and DNS Server.

To date (2022), the DCEU officially contains 11 movies:

• Man of Steel (2013)
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
• Suicide Squad (2016)
• Wonder Woman (2017)
• Justice League (2017)
• Aquaman (2018)
• Shazam! (2019)
• Birds of Prey: and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)
• Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
• Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
• The Suicide Squad (2021)
• The Batman (2022)

(The Batman is not technically out as of writing this but it comes out tomorrow which I think counts)

There are at least five more planned DCEU projects (including The Peacemaker TV show) but we're not counting them.

Most of these characters are relatively new to TV and/or movies, with Shazam being the character in the least media (as far as I know, just comics, the 2019 movie, and the as-yet-unreleased Shazam 2). However, most of the other characters have appeared in other media:

Batman:

• Batman: The TV Series
• Batman (

Part 6 - The SDU

Part 7 - Pixar

Part 8 - The Other Marvel Movies

Part 9 - The Multiverse

Part 10 - Video Games

Part 7 - Talk About Star Wars!

Oh, and the answer to the Spiderman-Bourne question? The Amazing Spider-man 2

Spiderman/The Bourne Identity - 2002

Spiderman 2/The Bourne Supremacy - 2004

Spiderman 3/The Bourne Ultimatum- 2002

The Amazing Spiderman/The Bourne ____ [Can you remember this one? I'll leave it to you to look it up]- 2012