![Ivan Tsarevich and cameo appearances of Pepper and Carrot in Morevna Project episode 4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Ivan_Tsarevich_and_cameo_appearances_of_Pepper_and_Carrot_in_Morevna_Project_episode_4.png)
A crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete
fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a tradi ...
al
characters
Character or Characters may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk
* ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
,
setting
Setting may refer to:
* A location (geography) where something is set
* Set construction in theatrical scenery
* Setting (narrative), the place and time in a work of narrative, especially fiction
* Setting up to fail a manipulative technique to e ...
s, or
universes
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. Accor ...
into the context of a single
story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
holders, unofficial efforts by
fans, or common corporate ownership.
Background
Official
Crossovers often occur in an official capacity in order for the
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...
rights holders to reap the financial reward of combining two or more popular, established properties. In other cases, the crossover can serve to introduce a new concept derivative of an older one.
Crossovers generally occur between properties owned by a single holder, but they can, more rarely, involve properties from different holders, provided that the inherent legal obstacles can be overcome. They may also involve using characters that have passed into the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...
with those concurrently under
copyright protection
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
.
A crossover story may try to explain its own reason for the crossover, such as characters being neighbors (notable examples being the casts from ''
The Golden Girls
''The Golden Girls'' is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris that aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning seven seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Bea Arthur, Betty Wh ...
'' and ''
Empty Nest
''Empty Nest'' is an American television sitcom that aired for seven seasons on NBC from October 8, 1988, to April 29, 1995. The series, which was created as a spin-off of ''The Golden Girls'' by creator and producer Susan Harris, starred Ri ...
'') or meeting via dimensional rift or similar phenomenon (a common explanation for
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
properties that have different owners). Some crossovers are not explained at all. Others are absurd or simply impossible within the fictional setting, and have to be ignored by the series' respective
continuities. Still, others intentionally make the relations between two or more fictional universes confusing, as with ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...
'' and ''
Futurama
''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years ...
'', where each show is fiction in the other.
Unofficial
In contrast with legal crossovers, unofficial crossovers are created solely because of the artistic pleasure derived by their creators. Unofficial crossovers often take the form of
fan-written fiction and
fan art
Fan art or fanart is artwork created by fans of a work of fiction and derived from a series character or other aspect of that work. They are usually done by amateur artists, semi-professionals or professionals. As fan labor, fan art refers t ...
, but the trope is increasingly prevalent in
amateur films and
audio
Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to:
Sound
*Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound
*Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum
* Digital audio, representation of sou ...
. Whereas official crossovers are frequently stymied by such concerns as copyright, royalties payments, quality of writing and ownership of the characters, unofficial crossovers are unfettered by such concerns, so long as property holders do not exercise their right to
enjoin
An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in p ...
the distribution of such material. A good example would be the unauthorised live action fan film ''
Batman: Dead End'' which brings together the properties of ''Batman'', ''
Alien
Alien primarily refers to:
* Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country
** Enemy alien, the above in times of war
* Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth
** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...
'' and ''
Predator
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill t ...
'' in one setting.
Unofficial crossovers can also occur in a "what-if" scenario.
Roger
Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ( ...
makes frequent cameo appearances in ''Family Guy'', while
Brian
Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world.
It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word me ...
makes cameos on ''American Dad!''. Roger,
Rallo Tubbs
''Family Guy'' is an American animated comedy multimedia franchise originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company, primarily based on the animated series ''Family Guy'' (1999–present), its spin-off serie ...
, and
Klaus Heissler
Klaus Heisler is a fictional character from the animated television series ''American Dad!'' The Smith family's hapless and mostly hated goldfish, he is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his fami ...
were seen in the final ''Family Guy'' ''Star Wars'' spoof, "
It's A Trap!
"It's a Trap!" is a direct-to-video special of the animated series ''Family Guy'' which later served as the double-episode season finale of the ninth season and is the final part of the series' '' Star Wars'' parody trilogy '' Laugh It Up, Fuzzb ...
", as
Moff Jerjerrod
This incomplete list of characters from the ''Star Wars'' franchise contains only those which are considered part of the official ''Star Wars'' canon, as of the changes made by Lucasfilm in April 2014. Following its acquisition by The Walt Dis ...
,
Nien Nunb, and
Admiral Ackbar
Fleet Admiral Gial Ackbar is a fictional character from the ''Star Wars'' franchise. A member of the amphibious Mon Calamari species, Ackbar was the foremost military commander of the Rebel Alliance, and led the attack against the second Dea ...
, respectively. Stewie also appears as an interactive hallucination of Booth on ''
Bones
A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, a ...
'' when the agent has issues over possibly becoming a sperm donor, with David Boreanaz (who plays Booth) repaying the favor in "
Road to the North Pole
"Road to the North Pole" is the seventh episode of the ninth season of the animated comedy series ''Family Guy''. Directed by Greg Colton and co-written by Chris Sheridan and Danny Smith, the episode originally aired on Fox in the United State ...
". An appearance by
Elmo
Elmo is a red Muppet monster character on the long-running PBS/ HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street''. A furry red monster who has a falsetto voice and illeism, he hosts the last full five-minute segment (fifteen minutes prio ...
, from ''
Sesame Street
''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000 ...
'', was made, in a hallucination of
Connie Ray
Constance Ray (born July 10, 1956) is an American actress and playwright. Among her highest-profile appearances are ''Thank You for Smoking'' (2006) and '' Stuart Little'' (1999), and the television drama '' ER'' (1997). She also appeared in '' ...
's, on TV sitcom ''
The Torkelsons
''The Torkelsons'' is an American sitcom television series which aired on the NBC television network from September 21, 1991, to June 6, 1993. Produced by Walt Disney Television in season 1 and Touchstone Television in season 2, the series sta ...
''. Fan fiction fusions between different science fiction movies and series are often created, such as ''Star Wars'' and ''Star Trek'' or ''Babylon 5'' and ''Stargate''. ''
M.U.G.E.N.
''Mugen'' (stylized as ''M.U.G.E.N'') is a freeware 2D fighting game engine designed by Elecbyte. Content is created by the community, and thousands of fighters, both original and from popular fiction, have been created. It is written in C and ...
'' is a fighting game engine that features many fan-created and fictional characters and stages from various television series, movies, as well as other video games.
Comics
![SpeedComicsNo32](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/SpeedComicsNo32.jpg)
Crossovers of multiple characters, owned by one company or
published
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, news ...
by one
publisher
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
, have been used to set an established continuity, where characters can frequently meet within one setting. This is especially true of
comic book publishers, as different characters in various
Marvel,
DC, or
Valiant comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
s frequently interact with one another since they live in a "
shared universe
A shared universe or shared world is a fictional universe from a set of creative works where more than one writer (or other artist) independently contributes a work that can stand alone but fits into the joint development of the storyline, chara ...
". For example, in the Marvel Comics universe,
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the Si ...
has frequent dealings with another Marvel hero,
Daredevil
Daredevil may refer to:
* A stunt performer
Arts and media Comics
* Daredevil (Lev Gleason Publications), a fictional 1940s superhero popularized by writer-artist Charles Biro
* Daredevil (Marvel Comics character), a Marvel comic book superhero ...
, just as in the DC Comics Universe, the
Flash and
Green Lantern
Green Lantern is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. They fight evil with the aid of rings that grant them a variety of extraordinary powers, all of which come from imagination, fearlessness, ...
often collaborate. In comic book terminology, these "guest star" roles are common enough that they are generally not considered crossovers; rather, this short-term collaboration to fight crime is called a
team-up
In superhero comic books, a team-up is a fictional crossover where two or more superheroes or superhero teams who usually do not appear together work together on a shared goal.
Overview
The first team-up between characters published in different c ...
. A crossover in comic book terms only occurs when a story spans more than one title. This has led to "crossover events" in which major occurrences are shown as affecting most or all of the stories in the shared universe; see
Crossover comics.
The earliest such crossover event was
Gardner Fox
Gardner Francis Cooper Fox (May 20, 1911 – December 24, 1986) was an American writer known best for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. He is estimated to have written more than 4,000 comics stories, including 1,500 for DC ...
's ''Zatanna's Search'' which took place in ''
Hawkman
Hawkman is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Dennis Neville, the original Hawkman first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1, published by All-American ...
'' #4 (October/November 1964), ''
Detective Comics
''Detective Comics'' is an American comic book series published by Detective Comics, later shortened to DC Comics. The first volume, published from 1937 to 2011 (and later continued in 2016), is best known for introducing the superhero Batman i ...
'' #336 (February 1965), ''
The Atom
The Atom is a name shared by five superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.
The original Golden Age Atom, Al Pratt, was created by writer Bill O'Connor and artist Ben Flinton and first appeared in All-American Pub ...
'' #19 (June/July 1965), ''
Green Lantern
Green Lantern is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. They fight evil with the aid of rings that grant them a variety of extraordinary powers, all of which come from imagination, fearlessness, ...
'' #42 (January 1966), ''Detective Comics'' #355 (September 1966), and ''
Justice League of America
The Justice League (also known as The Justice League of America) are a team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team first appeared in ''The Brave and the Bold'' #28 (March 1960). The team was conceived b ...
'' #51 (February 1967). This story dealt with
Zatanna
Zatanna Zatara () is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson, and first appeared in ''Hawkman'' #4 (November 1964). Zatanna is a stage magician with actu ...
attempting to reconnect with her father,
Zatara
Giovanni "John" Zatara is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He debuted as a superhero, starring in his own stories in '' Action Comics'' during the Golden Age of Comics. He first appeared in the fi ...
, and seeking the aid of Hawkman, Batman,
Robin
Robin may refer to:
Animals
* Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae
* Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including:
**European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'')
** Bush-robin
**Forest r ...
, the Atom, Green Lantern, and the
Elongated Man
Elongated Man (Randolph "Ralph" Dibny) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He first appeared in ''Flash (comics), The Flash'' #112 (February 25, 1960).
The character made his live-action debut in the The Fl ...
along the way.
The first major crossover event was spearheaded by the Marvel Editor-in-Chief at the time,
Jim Shooter
James Shooter (born September 27, 1951) is an American writer, editor and publisher for various comic books. He started professionally in the medium at the age of 14, and he is most notable for his successful and controversial run as Marvel Comi ...
. As a way to further toy sales he devised the ''
Secret Wars
''Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars'', commonly known as ''Secret Wars'' for short, is a twelve-issue American comic book crossover limited series published from May 1984 to April 1985 by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Jim Shooter, with ...
'' crossover which brought all the major Marvel heroes into a 12-issue miniseries to battle a common threat. After the threat was dealt with, they all returned to their regular titles. ''Secret Wars'' was hailed as both a critical and commercial success, largely because the events of the crossover had lasting effects on the characters (such as the introduction of
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the Si ...
's black suit which would later become the villain
Venom
Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a st ...
). Jim Shooter later perfected his crossover technique at
Valiant Comics
Valiant Comics is an American comic books, comic book publisher. The company was founded in 1989 by former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter along with lawyer and businessman Steven Massarsky. In 1994, the company was sold to Acclaim E ...
with the ''
Unity
Unity may refer to:
Buildings
* Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building
* Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper
* Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England
* Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a ...
'' event. ''Unity'' brought all the Valiant characters together to defeat
Mothergod
Mothergod (Erica Pierce) is a fictional character from Valiant Comics. She was exposed to the same energies that turned Phil Seleski into Solar, and she gained the same energy and matter manipulation powers. Driven mad by the destruction and imp ...
, but was told within the existing Valiant Comics titles (and two bookend special issues). Readers were not obliged to buy all 18 chapters as the story was coherent when reading just one title, but far more layered when all were read. Like ''Secret Wars'', the ''Unity'' crossover had lasting effects on the Valiant universe; most notably the introduction of
Turok
Turok is a fictional character who first appeared in American comic books published by Western Publishing through licensee Dell Comics. He first appeared in ''Four Color Comics'' #596 (October/November 1954). After a second ''Four Color'' appear ...
, the birth of
Magnus, Robot Fighter and the death of a major Valiant hero.
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops know ...
's ''Aliens Versus Predator'' comic book franchise was a success that continued into many video games, two films and even an ''Aliens versus Predator versus The Terminator'' comic book miniseries.
The comic crossovers from
Raj Comics
Raj Comics, is an Indian comic books publisher, based in New Delhi, India. It published a line of Indian comic books through Raja Pocket Books since its foundation in 1984 by Rajkumar Gupta, Manoj Gupta and Sanjay Gupta. Some of its most we ...
are very famous in India, in which the superheroes meet to fight a common enemy. Many of these crossovers have occurred between
Nagraj
Nagraj is a superhero appearing in Indian comic books published by Raj Comics created in the late 1980s by Rajkumar Gupta. Nagraj first appeared in the comics Nagraj GENL #14 which was written by Parshuram Sharma and illustrated by Pratap Mul ...
and
Super Commando Dhruva
Super Commando Dhruva is an Indian superhero appearing in comic books published by Raj Comics. The character, created by writer and illustrator Anupam Sinha, first appeared in GENL #74 ''Pratishodh Ki Jwala'' published in April 1987 and since t ...
. In ''Kohram'', all the heroes in the Raj Universe meet to finish ''Haru'', an extremely powerful enemy.
Webcomics
Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Webcomics can be co ...
creators sometimes produce crossovers; one of the first was a two-week sequence between
Christopher Baldwin's ''
Bruno
Bruno may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Bruno (name), including lists of people and fictional characters with either the given name or surname
* Bruno, Duke of Saxony (died 880)
* Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne, ...
'' and Peter Zale's ''
Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet
''Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet'' is a comic strip which was drawn from 1996 through 2005 by American graphics artist Peter Zale. The strip describes a technically adept young woman who works at a technology firm. It was the first comic strip ...
'' in 1998.
In 2013, Archie Comics released a 12-part crossover of
Capcom
is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. It has created a number of multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being '' Resident Evil'', '' Monster Hunter'', '' Street Fighter'', ''Mega Man'', ''De ...
character
Mega Man
''Mega Man'', known as in Japan, is a Japanese science fiction video game franchise created by Capcom, starring a series of robot characters each known by the moniker "Mega Man (character), Mega Man". Mega Man (video game), The original game w ...
and
Sega
is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, respectively. Its division ...
character
Sonic the Hedgehog
is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created by Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. The main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games are platformers m ...
called "
Worlds Collide". Taking place in issues of the ''
Sonic the Hedgehog
is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created by Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. The main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games are platformers m ...
'', ''
Sonic Universe
''Sonic Universe'' was an American comic book series published by Archie Comics in association with Sega, based on the latter's ''Sonic the Hedgehog''. It is a spin-off of the comic book series of the '' same name'', and shared continuity with th ...
'', and ''
Mega Man
''Mega Man'', known as in Japan, is a Japanese science fiction video game franchise created by Capcom, starring a series of robot characters each known by the moniker "Mega Man (character), Mega Man". Mega Man (video game), The original game w ...
'' comic book series from Archie, the crossover involved
Dr. Eggman
Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik is the main antagonist of Sega's ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' franchise. Eggman was created and designed by Naoto Ohshima as part of many design choices for Sega's new mascot. After the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog, Ohshi ...
and
Dr. Wily
() is a video game character and the main antagonist of the original ''Mega Man'' series, as well as Mega Man's archenemy and is also the creator of Bass and Zero. He appeared in the first ''Mega Man'' video game and later in promotions and oth ...
forming an alliance to take over both their universes and destroy their respective nemeses. Sonic and Mega Man were briefly tricked into fighting each other, but later joined forces and teamed up with other heroes to battle the doctors' forces, which included virtually every Robot Master introduced in the ''Mega Man'' games. The popularity of this crossover and the books involved led to a second crossover in 2015 entitled "Worlds Unite", which not only reunited Sonic and Mega Man, but also featured comics-exclusive characters from both of their books, the ''
Mega Man X
is a series of action platform video games released by Capcom. It is a sub-series of the ''Mega Man'' franchise. The first game was released on December 17, 1993 in Japan (January 1994 in North America) on the Super NES/Super Famicom; most o ...
'' and ''
Sonic Boom
A sonic boom is a sound associated with shock waves created when an object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding similar to an explosion or a thunderclap to ...
'' spinoff franchises and various other SEGA and Capcom franchises. This crossover was enabled by the conclusion of the first crossover, which saw a reboot to the Sonic books as their universe was drastically rewritten. Aftereffects of this included the Genesis Portals, gateways connecting worlds that would be exploited by ''Mega Man X'' villain Sigma and his minions, forcing a reunion between Sonic and Mega Man and an alliance between heroes of the various franchises involved. "Worlds Unite" spans not only the three series featured in the first crossover, but also includes the ''Sonic Boom'' comic series, which entered publication between the two crossovers.
There are also
intercompany crossovers, where characters owned by two different companies meet, such as those from DC and Marvel.
Animation
Cartoon crossovers are not uncommon, and most of them – like comics or live-action TV shows – will often feature characters owned by the same company or network. One example is
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...
's ''The Grim Adventures of the Kids Next Door''. It features five crossovers – ''
Ed, Edd n Eddy
'' Ed, Edd n Eddy'' is a Canadian animated comedy television series created by Danny Antonucci for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series revolves around three friends named Ed, Edd (called "Double D" ...
'', ''
Codename: Kids Next Door'', ''
The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy'', a reference to ''
The Powerpuff Girls
''The Powerpuff Girls'' is an American superhero animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera (later Cartoon Network Studios) for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Telev ...
'', and a quote from ''
Scooby-Doo
''Scooby-Doo'' is an American animated media franchise based on an animated television series launched in 1969 and continued through several derivative media. Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the original series, ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are ...
'', which are all licensed Cartoon Network series. The cast of ''
Ben 10: Ultimate Alien'' and ''
Generator Rex
''Generator Rex'' is an American animated science fiction television series created by Man of Action for Cartoon Network, with John Fang of Cartoon Network Studios serving as supervising director. It was inspired by the comic '' M. Rex'', publish ...
'' team up in ''
Ben 10/Generator Rex: Heroes United''. Similarly, characters from ''
Uncle Grandpa
''Uncle Grandpa'' is an American animated television series created by Peter Browngardt for Cartoon Network. It ran from September 2, 2013 to June 30, 2017. It is based on Browngardt's animated short of the same name from the unaired '' Cartoons ...
'' and ''
Steven Universe
''Steven Universe'' is an American animated television series created by Rebecca Sugar for Cartoon Network. It tells the coming-of-age story of a young boy, Steven Universe ( Zach Callison), who lives with the Crystal Gems—magical, mineral ...
'' appeared in a crossover episode "Say Uncle". The same occurred with ''
The Powerpuff Girls
''The Powerpuff Girls'' is an American superhero animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera (later Cartoon Network Studios) for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Telev ...
'' and ''
Teen Titans Go!'' in an episode called "TTG v PPG". ''
OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes
''OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes'' is an American animated television series created by Ian Jones-Quartey for Cartoon Network. The show is based on Jones-Quartey's pilot ''Lakewood Plaza Turbo'', which was released as part of Cartoon Network's 2013 Su ...
'' did a crossover episode called "Crossover Nexus" to celebrate 25 years of Cartoon Network where the lead character joined forces with Ben 10, Garnet from ''Steven Universe'' and Raven from ''Teen Titans Go!''. Most of the last episodes of the ''
Lilo & Stitch: The Series'' (a spinoff of the film ''
Lilo & Stitch
''Lilo & Stitch'' is a 2002 American animated science fiction comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 42nd Disney animated feature film, it was written and directed by Chris Sande ...
'') had crossovers with various other
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
cartoons, including ''
The Proud Family
''The Proud Family'' is an American animated television series created by Bruce W. Smith that originally ran on Disney Channel from September 15, 2001, to August 19, 2005.
A revival, known as '' The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder'', was announ ...
'', ''
Kim Possible
''Kim Possible'' is an American animated Action comedy TV series, action comedy-Adventure fiction, adventure television series created by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle for Disney Channel. The Kim Possible (character), title character is a teen ...
'', ''
Recess'', and ''
American Dragon Jake Long
''American Dragon: Jake Long'', or simply ''American Dragon'', is an American animated television series. It was produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, created by Jeff Goode and co-developed by Eddie Guzelian and Matt Negrete. It premier ...
''. The ''
Jimmy Timmy Power Hour
''The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour'' is a trilogy of crossover television specials between the American animated series '' The Fairly OddParents'' and '' The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius'', consisting of ''The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour'', ''The ...
'' trilogy is another example, in which Jimmy Neutron and Timmy Turner switch universes. The Disney TV series ''
Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the ...
'', based on the
1997 film of the same name, had an episode titled "
Hercules and the Arabian Night
The following is a list of episodes from the TV series ''Hercules''.
All major voice actors from the 1997 film reprise their roles, except for Zeus and Philoctetes who are voiced in the series by Corey Burton and Robert Costanzo, respectively. T ...
" that had a crossover between the characters of the TV series and film and with the characters of the Disney film ''
Aladdin
Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part o ...
'' in which Hades and Jafar each try to get rid of each other's enemies (Hades would try to defeat Aladdin, while Jafar would try to defeat Hercules). Another crossover is ''
Rugrats Go Wild
''Rugrats Go Wild'' is a 2003 American animated crossover adventure film based on the Nickelodeon animated television series ''Rugrats'' and ''The Wild Thornberrys''. It is the third and final installment in the ''Rugrats'' film series and the se ...
'' in which the
Rugrats
''Rugrats'' is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The show focuses on a group of toddlers; most prominently— Tommy, Chuckie, Angelica, and twins Phil and Lil, a ...
are stranded on an island where
The Wild Thornberrys
''The Wild Thornberrys'' is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, Steve Pepoon, David Silverman, and Stephen Sustarsic for Nickelodeon. The series portrays an American family of wildlife documentary ...
were at the time. In ''
Dexter's Laboratory
''Dexter's Laboratory'' is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. It follows Dexter, a short, enthusiastic boy-genius with a hi ...
'' "Dial M for Monkey" "Huntor" who tries to hunt Monkey is himself hunted; "Huntor" later makes a cameo crossover in
Samurai Jack
''Samurai Jack'' is an American animated action-adventure television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. Tartakovsky conceived ''Samurai Jack'' after finishing his wor ...
's "Jack vs. Mad Jack."
During the 1970s and 1980s, crossovers were particularly common among the
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...
properties. Some of the earliest examples happened on ''
The New Scooby-Doo Movies
''The New Scooby-Doo Movies'' is an American animated mystery comedy television series produced by Hanna-Barbera for CBS. It is the second animated television series in the studio's '' Scooby-Doo'' franchise, and follows the first incarnation, ' ...
'' which featured appearances by characters from ''
Harlem Globetrotters
The Harlem Globetrotters are an American exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, and comedy in their style of play. Created in 1926 by Tommy Brookins in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name ''Harlem'' because of ...
'', ''
Josie and the Pussycats'', ''
Jeannie'', ''
Speed Buggy
''Speed Buggy'' is an American animated television series, produced by Hanna-Barbera, which originally aired for one season on CBS from September 8, 1973, to December 22, 1973. With the voices of Mel Blanc, Michael Bell, Arlene Golonka, and Ph ...
'', ''
Batman and Robin'', and ''
The Addams Family
''The Addams Family'' is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 unrelated single-panel cartoons, about half of which were originally published in ''The New Yorker'' over ...
''. Later, the ''
Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10
''Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10'' is a series of 10 syndicated made-for-television animated films produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions as part of ''The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera'' programming block from 1987 to 1988, featuring the studio's ...
'' set of movies involved several crossovers, including such combinations as ''
The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones
''The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones'' is a 1987 animated crossover made-for-television film produced by Hanna-Barbera for syndication as part of the '' Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10'' series. The two-hour special stars the cast of the Hanna-Barbe ...
''. This was taken to an extreme in the 1977–79 series ''
Laff-A-Lympics,'' which was essentially a gathering of the Hanna-Barbera characters for a regular series.
Crossovers are not necessarily composed of characters under common ownership. Two of the most notable cartoon crossovers consisted of characters from different companies. Disney's movie ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American Live-action animated film, live-action/animated comedy film, comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall (filmmaker), Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely ad ...
'' had characters from various companies, most notably Disney and
Warner Bros. Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character created for Leon Schlesinger Productions by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Styled as an anthropomorphic black duck, he has appeared in cartoon series such as ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Mel ...
and
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...
made a simultaneous appearance in one scene in which the two of them exchanged blows during a piano duet. Later in the movie,
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merr ...
and
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...
were shown parachuting together (to keep things from getting too iffy legally, Mickey and Bugs' lines were written so that each of them said exactly the same number of words in the movie). The film also includes cameos of characters from
MGM. The end of the movie features all the cartoons from all of the animation companies joining in song, to be concluded by
Porky Pig
Porky Pig is an animated character in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many criti ...
stuttering his famous "That's All, Folks!" line as
Tinker Bell
Tinker Bell is a fictional character from J. M. Barrie's 1904 play '' Peter Pan'' and its 1911 novelisation ''Peter and Wendy''. She has appeared in a variety of film and television adaptations of the Peter Pan stories, in particular the 1953 ...
ends the scene with a magical fade-out.
On February 27, 1998, the Fox Kids shows ''
Power Rangers in Space
''Power Rangers in Space'' is a television series and the sixth season of the ''Power Rangers'' franchise, based on the 21st Super Sentai series '' Denji Sentai Megaranger''.
''In Space'' was a turning point for the Power Rangers franchise, as th ...
'' and ''
Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation'' had their crossover with the episode "Shell Shocked".
On October 4, 1997, the two Kids WB shows, ''Superman: The Animated Series'' and ''The New Batman Adventures'', had their first crossover with the TV movie ''World's Finest'', which was also released on DVD.
Another cartoon crossover would occur in 1990, ''
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue
''Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue'' is a 1990 American animated television film starring many characters from several animated television series at the time of its release. Financed by McDonald's, Ronald McDonald Children's Charities, it was or ...
''. This cartoon featured popular characters from children's Saturday morning cartoons, banding together to promote an anti-drug message.
ABC,
CBS,
Fox, and
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
aired this half-hour special one Saturday morning with characters from all their networks, including
Huey, Dewey, and Louie
Huey, Dewey, and Louie are triplet cartoon characters created by storyboard artist (screenwriter) Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company from an idea proposed by cartoonist Al Taliaferro and are the nephews of Donald Duck and the grand-neph ...
(from Disney's ''
DuckTales
''DuckTales'' is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation. The original cartoon series premiered on syndication and on Disney Channel on September 18, 1987 and ran for a total of 100 episodes over four sea ...
''),
Winnie the Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard.
The first collection of stories about the character w ...
,
Tigger
Tigger is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic stuffed tiger. He was originally introduced in the 1928 story collection '' The House at Pooh Corner'', the sequel to the 1926 book ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' by A. A. Milne. Like other Pooh chara ...
, Slimer (from ''
The Real Ghostbusters'' and ''Extreme Ghostbusters''), Michelangelo (from ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is an American media franchise created by the comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, four anthropomorphic turtle brothers (named after It ...
''), Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck,
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Alvin and the Chipmunks, originally David Seville and the Chipmunks or simply The Chipmunks, are an American animated virtual band and media franchise first created by Ross Bagdasarian for novelty records in 1958. The group consists of three ...
,
the Smurfs
''The Smurfs'' (french: Les Schtroumpfs; nl, De Smurfen) is a Belgian comic franchise centered on a fictional colony of small, blue, humanoid creatures who live in mushroom-shaped houses in the forest. ''The Smurfs'' was first created and in ...
, ALF (from
his short-lived cartoon spinoff),
Garfield
''Garfield'' is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis. Originally published locally as ''Jon'' in 1976, then in nationwide syndication from 1978 as ''Garfield'', it chronicles the life of the title character Garfield the cat, his hum ...
, and the trio of
Baby Kermit,
Baby Piggy, and
Baby Gonzo (from Jim Henson's ''
Muppet Babies''). Animation companies granted unlimited, royalty-free use of their cartoon characters for this project, a feat that has been unequalled before or since. This cartoon was also introduced by then-
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
George H. W. Bush and
Barbara Bush
Barbara Pierce Bush (June 8, 1925 – April 17, 2018) was First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993, as the wife of President George H. W. Bush, and the founder of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. She previously w ...
, and would be distributed to schools and video stores free of charge nationwide.
Manga
Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...
artist
Leiji Matsumoto
is a Japanese mangaka, creator of several anime and manga series. His wife Miyako Maki is also a manga artist.
Early life
Matsumoto was the middle child of a family of seven brothers, and, in his early childhood, Matsumoto was given a 3 ...
has been known to cross over the characters of his various stories and characters such as ''
Captain Harlock'', ''
Galaxy Express 999'', and ''
Queen Millennia
is a manga series by Leiji Matsumoto which was serialized from 28 January 1980
through 11 May 1983 in both the ''Sankei Shimbun'' and '' Nishinippon Sports'' newspapers. The manga series was adapted into a 42-episode anime television seri ...
'', all of which were originally written as separate, self-contained stories. In the ''
Maetel Legend'', Queen Promethium is revealed to be having been Yukino Yaoi, the protagonist from ''Queen Millennia''. Matsumoto has also created various crossovers with ''
Space Battleship Yamato
is a Japanese science fiction anime series produced and written by Yoshinobu Nishizaki, directed by manga artist Leiji Matsumoto, and produced by Academy Productions. The series aired in Yomiuri TV from October 6, 1974 to March 30, 1975, ...
'', an anime on which he served as director, although the rights to Yamato are actually owned by Yoshinobu Nishizaki.
The adult parody-oriented series ''
Drawn Together
''Drawn Together'' is an American adult animated sitcom created by Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein and premiered on Comedy Central on October 27, 2004. The series is a parody of '' The Surreal Life'' and follows the misadventures of the housemat ...
'' features many crossovers; while some are regular cameos, such as
Peter and
Lois Griffin
Lois Patrice Griffin (''née'' Pewterschmidt) is a fictional character from the animated television series ''Family Guy''. She is voiced by Alex Borstein and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the Griffin family, in a 15-minut ...
from ''
Family Guy
''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their ch ...
'', others involve a personality twist, such as the
homicidal version of
Bambi
''Bambi'' is a 1942 American animated drama film directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney and based on the 1923 book ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'' by Austrian author and hunter Felix Salten ...
from
the eponymous film or the
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
version of
Elmer Fudd
Elmer J.'' Hare Brush'' (1956) Fudd is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes''/'' Merrie Melodies'' series and the archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon panthe ...
from the ''
Looney Tunes
''Looney Tunes'' is an American animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series '' Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation.[ ...]
'' franchise.
The Disney/Marvel crossover ''
Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel'' features the Marvel heroes
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the Si ...
,
Iron Man
Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. The cha ...
, the
Hulk
The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), The Incredible Hulk' ...
, and
Thor
Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, ...
, the Marvel villains
Whiplash,
MODOK
MODOK (also written as M.O.D.O.K.; an acronym for Mental/Mobile/Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first MODOK is George Tarleton, a former e ...
, the
Red Skull
The Red Skull is an alias used by several supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics and its predecessor Timely Comics. The first version, George Maxon, appeared in ''Captain America Comics'' #1 and #4. The main ...
, and
Venom
Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a st ...
, and characters from ''Phineas and Ferb'', where the storyline involves Phineas and Ferb trying to restore power to the Marvel heroes, whose powers were taken away by Doofenshmirtz.
During its 26th season, ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...
'' had crossovers with ''
Family Guy
''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their ch ...
'' and ''
Futurama
''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years ...
''. In the hour-long ''
Family Guy
''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their ch ...
'' season 13 premiere "
The Simpsons Guy
"The Simpsons Guy" is the first episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series ''Family Guy'', and the 232nd overall episode. It is a 44-minute-long crossover with ''The Simpsons'', and was written by Patrick Meighan ...
", the Griffins met the Simpson family, who met the Planet Express crew in the ''Simpsons'' episode "
Simpsorama
"Simpsorama" is the sixth episode of the twenty-sixth season of the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and the 558th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 9, 2014. This epi ...
".
In the
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
series ''
House of Mouse
''Disney's House of Mouse'' (or simply ''House of Mouse'') is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation that originally aired for three seasons on ABC and Toon Disney from January 13, 2001, to its final ...
'',
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...
and friends host a nightclub featuring cameos by other Disney characters.
Webtoons (animated shows from the internet) can also have crossovers with different webtoons, franchises, YouTubers and more. Some examples are when Kate from
TomSka
Thomas James Ridgewell (born 27 June 1990), known online as TomSka, is a British filmmaker, actor, content creator, and vlogger. He is known for writing, directing, producing, and starring in his live-action sketch comedy YouTube videos and an ...
's ''Crash Zoom'' series makes an appearance in ''
Eddsworld'' as a trick or treater who possesses Matt and Edd in the episode, "Trick or Threat". In addition to this a couple of characters from ''Eddsworld'' make appearances in some ''Crash Zoom'' episodes such as "Orcs and Dorks". Another example is ''
Death Battle
Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC is an American digital media company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola, and Joel Heyman, Rooster Teeth is a subsidiary of Warner ...
'' which is a show where two hosts (Wiz and Boomstick) put two characters from different franchises together to battle each other. These characters range from television, movie, video game, or comic franchises. Shows like ''One Minute Melee'', ''Cartoon Fight Club'', and ''Death Battle Exhibitions'' (the spinoff series) have a similar format to ''Death Battle''.
The
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...
original series ''
Harvey Girls Forever
''Harvey Girls Forever!'' (originally titled ''Harvey Street Kids'' in its first season, then retroactively retitled) is an American animated comedy television series produced by Brendan Hay and Aliki Theofilopoulos for DreamWorks Animation Televi ...
'' is a crossover of the comics ''
Little Audrey
Little Audrey (full name: Audrey Smith) is a fictional character, appearing in early 20th century folklore prior to starring in a series of Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios cartoons from 1947 to 1958. She is considered a variation of the better ...
'', ''
Little Dot
Little Dot is a comic book character published by Harvey Comics about a little girl who is obsessed with dots, spots, and round, colorful objects. She was created in 1949 by writer Alfred Harvey and artist Vic Herman.
Publication history
Dot fi ...
'' and ''
Little Lotta
Little Lotta is a fictional character published by Harvey Comics from 1953 to 1972, and then sporadically until 1993. A contemporary of Little Audrey, Little Dot and Wendy the Good Little Witch, she was one of Harvey's best-known female characters ...
'', although later episodes in the third and fourth season are crossovers of
Richie Rich and
Casper the Friendly Ghost
Casper the Friendly Ghost is the protagonist of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. He is a pleasant, personable and translucent ghost, but often criticized by his three wicked uncles, the Ghostly Trio.
The ...
.
in the
Warner Bros. Animation ''
Looney Tunes
''Looney Tunes'' is an American animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series '' Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation.[ ...]
''-based animated series ''
Animaniacs
''Animaniacs'' is an American animated comedy musical television series created by Tom Ruegger for Fox Broadcasting Company's Fox Kids block in 1993, before moving to The WB in 1995, as part of its Kids' WB afternoon programming block, until ...
'', created by
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Sp ...
and
Tom Ruegger
Tom Ruegger () is an American animator and songwriter. Ruegger is known for his association with Disney Television Animation and Warner Bros. Animation. He also created ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', ''Animaniacs'', ''Pinky and the Brain'', and ''Hist ...
, characters from its predecessor series ''
Tiny Toon Adventures
''Tiny Toon Adventures'' is an American animated comedy television series that was broadcast from September 14, 1990, to December 6, 1992. It was the first collaborative effort of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television and Warner Bros. Animation a ...
'' and its "
spin-off
Spin-off may refer to:
*Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work
*Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity
* Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gov ...
" series ''
Freakazoid!'' (two other cartoons based on the ''Looney Tunes'' created by Spielberg and Ruegger), as well as from the actual ''Looney Tunes'' shorts, often made crossover cameo appearances throughout the series (some of which are speaking); Similarly, characters from ''Animaniacs'' frequently crossed over into ''Freakazoid!'' through cameo appearances (again, some cameos are speaking).
Many characters from animated franchises have had crossover episodes, films and specials regardless of the canon of those media open to interpretation; see
Crossover animation.
The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation ...
and
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...
in
The Springfield Files
"The Springfield Files" is the tenth episode of the eighth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 12, 1997. In the episode, Homer believes he has ...
.
The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo
''The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo'' is an American animated television series produced by United Productions of America that aired for one season on NBC from September 19, 1964 to April 24, 1965. The television series was based on the original ...
with
The Dick Tracy Show
''The Dick Tracy Show'' is an American animated television series based on Chester Gould's comic strip crime fighter. The series was produced from 1961 to 1962 by UPA.
In the show, policeman Dick Tracy employed a series of cartoony subordinat ...
.
Anime and manga
Anime has also participated in many crossover events featuring characters or shows from the same company or network. One of the biggest projects down would be
''Dream 9 Toriko x One Piece x Dragon Ball Z Super Special Collaboration'' as it includes three
''Shonen Jump'' franchises, being ''
Dragon Ball Z
''Dragon Ball Z'' is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation. Part of the ''Dragon Ball'' media franchise, it is the sequel to the 1986 '' Dragon Ball'' anime series and adapts the latter 325 chapters of the original ...
'', ''
One Piece
''One Piece'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine '' Weekly Shōnen Jump'' since July 1997, with its individual chap ...
'', and ''
Toriko
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro. It follows the adventures of Toriko, a Gourmet Hunter, as he searches for rare, diverse foods to complete a full-course meal. On his journey, he is accompanied b ...
'', crossed over into an hour long special-like most crossovers, this special is filler, a fan-service episode that follows the common plot line in most crossovers. In the first half of the special, characters from the three franchises meet-up and fight. In the second half, they team up to battle a stronger foe. What makes this crossover unique is when the characters from all three shows split into groups, where the members all share the same clichéd character archetypes, such the main characters Goku, Luffy, and Toriko falling into the dumb, good-natured, strong character archetype.
''
Carnival Phantasm'' is also an OVA comedy series based on a ''
Type-Moon'' gag manga called Take-Moon. Created to celebrate the company's 10th anniversary, the anime consists of several funny and unusual scenarios involving various characters from the Type-Moon franchises. Some examples include characters from ''
Fate/stay night
''Fate/stay night'' is a Japanese visual novel developed by Type-Moon and originally released as an adult game for Windows on January 30, 2004. A version of ''Fate/stay night'' rated for ages 15 and up titled ''Fate/stay night Réalta ...
'' and ''
Tsukihime
is a Japanese adult visual novel created by the dōjin circle Type-Moon, who first released it at the Winter Comiket in December 2000. In 2003, it was adapted into both an anime television series, ''Lunar Legend Tsukihime'', animate ...
''.
The ''
Dragon Ball
is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The Dragon Ball (manga), initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters colle ...
'' franchise is one of the most popular manga and anime in the world, and has its fair share of crossovers as well. The creator of the franchise,
Akira Toriyama
is a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He first achieved mainstream recognition for his highly successful manga series '' Dr. Slump'', before going on to create '' Dragon Ball'' (his best-known work) and acting as a character des ...
, has used another character from a different manga series he created, Jaco from ''Jaco the Galactic Policeman'' as a reoccurring character in ''
Dragon Ball Super
is a Japanese manga series written by Akira Toriyama and illustrated by Toyotarou. A sequel to Toriyama's original ''Dragon Ball'' manga, it follows the adventures of Goku and friends during the ten-year timeskip after the defeat of Maji ...
''. He comes to Earth to warn the characters about the return of Frieza and is later seen in the disputes involving Beerus and Champa.
''
Cyborg 009 VS Devilman
is a three-part anime OVA that serves as a crossover between the ''Cyborg 009'' and '' Devilman'' series. It was first screened on 17 October 2015 and was released on 11 November 2015. The series inspired a manga adaptation and a prequel ...
'' is a three part anime OVA that crosses over the ''
Cyborg 009
is a Japanese science fiction manga created by Shotaro Ishinomori. It was serialized in many different Japanese magazines, including '' Monthly Shōnen King'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'', '' Shōnen Big Comic'', '' COM'', ' ...
'' and ''
Devilman
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Go Nagai. The manga focuses on a high school student named Akira Fudo who absorbs the powers of the demon called " Amon" with help of his friend Ryo Asuka in order to batt ...
'' series. It originally aired on 17 October 2015 and then was released on 11 November 2015 Netflix currently owns the rights to this title.
Other anime- or manga-based crossovers include: ''
Digimon Fusion
''Digimon Fusion'', known in Japan as , is the sixth anime television series in the ''Digimon'' franchise, produced by Toei Animation. The series was broadcast on TV Asahi and Asahi Broadcasting Corporation between July 2010 and March 2012.
I ...
'' and ''
Pokémon Journeys
(an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise.
In terms of what each of those c ...
, Fairy Tail x Rave Master'', ''
Isekai Quartet'', ''It's a Rumic World: 50th Anniversary Weekly Shonen Sunday'', ''Kamen Rider Fourze x Crayon Shin-chan'', ''
Lupin III vs. Detective Conan: the Movie'', ''
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle'', ''
Undersea Super Train: Marine Express'', and ''
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time''.; see
Crossover anime and manga.
Film
![KK v G trailer (1962)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/KK_v_G_trailer_%281962%29.png)
The first film crossover in a series of
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
monster films was ''
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
''Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man'' is a 1943 American horror film directed by Roy William Neill and starring Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man and Bela Lugosi as Frankenstein's monster. This was the first of a series of later called "monster rallie ...
'', in 1943. In 2003, ''
Freddy vs. Jason
''Freddy vs. Jason'' is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu and written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. It is a crossover between the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' and ''Friday the 13th'' series, being the eighth installment ...
'' was released by
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after ...
. In 2004,
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...
released ''
Alien vs. Predator
''Alien vs. Predator'' (also known as ''Aliens versus Predator'' and ''AVP'') is a science-fiction action horror
media franchise created by comic book writers Randy Stradley and Chris Warner. The series is a crossover between, and part of, t ...
'' along with the sequel ''
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem'' in 2007. One year later, both ''
Dollman vs. Demonic Toys
''Dollman vs. Demonic Toys'' (on screen title being ''Dollman vs. the Demonic Toys'') is a 1993 American direct-to-video horror film. It is a continuation of three films released by Full Moon Features: '' Dollman'', ''Demonic Toys'' and ''Bad Cha ...
'' and ''
Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys
''Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys'' is a 2004 American horror-comedy film based on the characters of Charles Band and Kenneth J. Hall ('' Puppet Master'') and David S. Goyer (''Demonic Toys''). The film is written by C. Courtney Joyner and directed ...
'' were released by
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...
and Terry Kelley Studios. In 2015,
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
released ''
Lake Placid vs. Anaconda''.
After the comics publishing house
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in ...
ventured into
movie production
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
, they set off to produce solitary films with popular superheroes from the Avengers team, with characters from upcoming films making cameo appearances in films starring another superhero, leading up to the crossover film ''
The Avengers'' (2012). The same process was repeated for ''
Avengers: Age of Ultron'' (2015), ''
Avengers: Infinity War'' (2018), and ''
Avengers: Endgame'' (2019), and all the movies together form the
Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published ...
. Inspired by Marvel's success,
Warner Bros., who hold movie rights for
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. ( doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with the ...
' heroes, announced the production of ''
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice'' (2016) and further plans to develop the cinematic
DC Extended Universe
The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films and television series produced by DC Studios and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is based on characters that ...
, while
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
and
Entertainment One
Entertainment One Ltd., trading as eOne, is an American-owned Canadian multinational entertainment company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition, distribution, and production of films and television s ...
announced plans to create a cinematic universe on the
''Transformers'' film series.
There have been numerous crossovers in Japanese cinema. The boom of
kaiju
is a Japanese media genre that focuses on stories involving giant monsters. The word ''kaiju'' can also refer to the giant monsters themselves, which are usually depicted attacking major cities and battling either the military or other monster ...
films saw a lot of crossovers produced at
Toho Studios, with some of the monsters forming teams in numerous movies, much like the Marvel movie franchise.
Godzilla
is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film '' Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films produ ...
,
Mothra
is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', that first appeared in the 1961 film '' Mothra'', produced and distributed by Toho Studios. Mothra has appeared in several Toho ''tokusatsu'' films, most often as a recurring character in the ''Godzilla'' ...
and
Rodan
is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', which first appeared as the title character in Ishirō Honda's 1956 film '' Rodan'', produced and distributed by Toho. Following its debut standalone appearance, Rodan went on to be featured in numerous e ...
(Radon) each first appeared in standalone films before being set against each other or even teaming up against stronger enemies. Their first encounter was in 1964, first in ''
Mothra vs. Godzilla'' and a few months later of all three in ''
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
is a 1964 Japanese ''kaiju'' film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Produced and distributed by Toho Co., Ltd., it is the fifth film in the ''Godzilla'' franchise, and was the second ''Godzilla'' film produc ...
''. In 1962,
Toho
is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer ...
released ''
King Kong vs. Godzilla''. The long running
Zatoichi
is a fictional character created by Japanese novelist Kan Shimozawa. He is an itinerant blind masseur and swordsman of Japan's late Edo period (1830s and 1840s). He first appeared in the 1948 essay , part of Shimozawa's ''Futokoro Techō'' se ...
series sees
Shintaro Katsu
was a Japanese actor, singer, and filmmaker. He is known for starring in the ''Akumyo'' series, the ''Hoodlum Soldier'' series, and the ''Zatoichi'' series.
Life and career
Born Toshio Okumura (奥村 利夫 ''Okumura Toshio'') on 29 Novemb ...
's blind master swordsman face off with
Toshiro Mifune in his iconic role in ''
Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo'' (1970) and also features a unique cross-Asian project ''
Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman
, also known as ''Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman'' and ''The Blind Swordsman Meets His Equal'', is a 1971 Japanese-Hong Kong ''chambara'' / ''wuxia'' crossover by Japanese film director Kimiyoshi Yasuda and Chinese film director Hsu Tse ...
'' (1971). This coproduction sees
Jimmy Wang reprise his famous part of the ''
One-Armed Swordsman'' while featuring two different endings for both the Japanese and Hong Kong audiences; see
Crossover films.
Games
Crossovers in video games occur when otherwise separated
fictional character
In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life perso ...
s,
stories
Story or stories may refer to:
Common uses
* Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events)
** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting
* Story (American English), or storey (Briti ...
,
settings,
universe
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the univers ...
s, or
media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...
in a
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...
meet and interact with each other. These can range from a character simply appearing as a
playable character
A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not cont ...
or
boss
Boss may refer to:
Occupations
* Supervisor, often referred to as boss
* Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier
* Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization
* Fire boss, a ...
in the game, as a special guest character, or a major crossover where two or more franchises encounter.
''
Konami
, is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has ca ...
'' made the first crossover video game featuring
Simon Belmont
is a fictional character who serves as the first protagonist to appear in the ''Castlevania'' series. He appears in ''Castlevania'', '' Vampire Killer'', '' Haunted Castle'', '' Castlevania II: Simon's Quest'', ''Super Castlevania IV'', and ''Cas ...
from ''
Castlevania
''Castlevania'' (), known in Japan as is a gothic horror action-adventure video game series and media franchise about Dracula, created and developed by Konami. It has been released on various platforms, from early systems to modern consoles, ...
'',
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
'
King Kong
King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...
and Mikey from the Warner Bros. movie ''
The Goonies
''The Goonies'' is a 1985 American adventure comedy film co-produced and directed by Richard Donner from a screenplay by Chris Columbus, based on a story by Steven Spielberg. In the film, kids who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astor ...
'' in ''
Konami Wai Wai World'' for the Famicom in 1988. ''
The King of Fighters
''The King of Fighters'' (''KOF'') is a series of fighting games by SNK that began with the release of '' The King of Fighters '94'' in 1994. The series was developed originally for SNK's Neo Geo MVS arcade hardware. This served as the main p ...
'', ''
Marvel vs. Capcom'', and many other franchises from third-party developers such as
Capcom
is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. It has created a number of multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being '' Resident Evil'', '' Monster Hunter'', '' Street Fighter'', ''Mega Man'', ''De ...
and
SNK bring these licenses together.
The
2.5D fighting game series ''
Super Smash Bros.'' brings various
Nintendo
is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing cards ...
characters together and allow players to fight against each other as these characters in arenas. The third game in the series, ''
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' is a 2008 crossover fighting video game developed by Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Wii. The third installment in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series, it was announced at a pre-E3 2005 press conferenc ...
'' introduced two third-party characters with the inclusion of
Solid Snake and
Sonic the Hedgehog
is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created by Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. The main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games are platformers m ...
, of
Konami
, is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has ca ...
's ''
Metal Gear
is a series of techno-thriller stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, ''Metal Gear'', was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces operativ ...
'' series and
Sega
is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, respectively. Its division ...
's ''
Sonic the Hedgehog
is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created by Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. The main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games are platformers m ...
'' series respectively. The fourth installments,
''Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS'' and ''Super Smash Bros. for Wii U'', feature characters from the third-party franchises of Capcom's ''
Mega Man
''Mega Man'', known as in Japan, is a Japanese science fiction video game franchise created by Capcom, starring a series of robot characters each known by the moniker "Mega Man (character), Mega Man". Mega Man (video game), The original game w ...
'' (
Mega Man
''Mega Man'', known as in Japan, is a Japanese science fiction video game franchise created by Capcom, starring a series of robot characters each known by the moniker "Mega Man (character), Mega Man". Mega Man (video game), The original game w ...
) and ''
Street Fighter
, commonly abbreviated as ''SF'' or スト (''Suto''), is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Capcom. The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by six ...
'' (
Ryu is a Japanese masculine given name and family name meaning "dragon", "noble", "prosperous", or "flow". Ryū, Ryu, or ryu may also refer to:
Fiction
* ''Ryū'' (manga), a 1986 series by Masao Yajima and Akira Oze
* , a 1919 book by Ryūnosuke Aku ...
), Sega's ''
Bayonetta
is a series of action-adventure games created by Hideki Kamiya and developed by PlatinumGames. The franchise was introduced in 2009 with '' Bayonetta''. Two sequels were released, '' Bayonetta 2'' (2014) and '' Bayonetta 3'' (2022), as well a ...
'' (
Bayonetta
is a series of action-adventure games created by Hideki Kamiya and developed by PlatinumGames. The franchise was introduced in 2009 with '' Bayonetta''. Two sequels were released, '' Bayonetta 2'' (2014) and '' Bayonetta 3'' (2022), as well a ...
), Bandai Namco's ''
Pac-Man
originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
'' (
Pac-Man
originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
), and Square Enix's ''
Final Fantasy
is a Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science fantasy role-playing video games. The ...
'' (
Cloud Strife
is a character (arts), fictional character and the main protagonist of Square (video game company), Square's (now Square Enix's) 1997 role-playing video game ''Final Fantasy VII'', its Final Fantasy VII Remake, high-definition remake, and seve ...
), in addition to other Nintendo characters from the company's different universes. The fifth installment, ''
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' is a 2018 crossover fighting video game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the fifth installment in the '' Super Smash Bros.'' series, succeed ...
'' also introduced
Simon and
Richter Belmont from Konami's ''
Castlevania
''Castlevania'' (), known in Japan as is a gothic horror action-adventure video game series and media franchise about Dracula, created and developed by Konami. It has been released on various platforms, from early systems to modern consoles, ...
'' series,
Ken Masters from Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' series,
Joker from ''
Persona 5
is a 2016 role-playing video game developed by Atlus. It takes place in modern-day Tokyo and follows a high school student known by the pseudonym Joker who transfers to a new school after being falsely accused of assault and put on probation ...
'', the Hero from the ''
Dragon Quest
previously published as ''Dragon Warrior'' in North America until 2005, is a franchise of Japanese role-playing video games created by Armor Project ( Yuji Horii), Bird Studio (Akira Toriyama) and Sugiyama Kobo ( Koichi Sugiyama) to its pu ...
'' series, Banjo-Kazooie from the ''
Banjo-Kazooie
''Banjo-Kazooie'' is a series of video games developed by Rare. The games feature a male bear named Banjo and his friend, a large female red bird named Kazooie, who are both controlled by the player. Banjo originally made his debut as a play ...
'' series,
Terry Bogard
is a video game character created by SNK as the protagonist of their ''Fatal Fury'' series. Introduced in '' Fatal Fury: King of Fighters'' in 1991, he is an American fighter who enters the worldwide "The King of Fighters" tournaments to comba ...
from the ''
Fatal Fury
''Fatal Fury'', known as in Japan, is a fighting game series developed by SNK for the Neo Geo system.
Games
Canon
* '' Fatal Fury'' – The first game of the ''Fatal Fury'' series allowed players to select one of three characters, Terr ...
'' series,
Steve
''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen
Notable people with the name include:
steve jops
* Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people
* Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people
* Steve ...
from ''
Minecraft
''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before b ...
'',
Sephiroth from ''
Final Fantasy VII
is a 1997 role-playing video game developed by Square (video game company), Square for the PlayStation (console), PlayStation console. It is the seventh main installment in the ''Final Fantasy'' series. Published in Japan by Square, it was r ...
'',
Kazuya Mishima
is a fictional character in Bandai Namco's ''Tekken'' fighting game series, first featured as the protagonist in the original 1994 game and later became one of the major antagonists and antihero of the series. The son of worldwide conglomerate ...
from the ''
Tekken
is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco). The franchise also includes film and print adaptations.
The main games in the series ...
'' series, and
Sora from ''
Kingdom Hearts
is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix (originally by Square). It is a collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company and is under the leadership of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square ...
'' in addition to bringing back all of the playable characters from the previous entries in the series.
The
Namco
was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Namco Taiwan in Kaohsiun ...
-developed ''
Soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...
'' series features characters from a variety of other franchises including
Link from Nintendo's ''
The Legend of Zelda
''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-relea ...
'' series,
Heihachi Mishima
is a fictional character of Bandai Namco's ''Tekken'' fighting game series, serving as its main antagonist. Introduced as the boss character from the first ''Tekken'' video game from 1994, Heihachi appears as the leader of a military firm know ...
from ''
Tekken
is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco). The franchise also includes film and print adaptations.
The main games in the series ...
'',
Todd McFarlane
Todd McFarlane (; born March 16, 1961) is a Canadian comic book creator, artist, writer, filmmaker and entrepreneur, best known for his work as the artist on ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' and as the creator, writer, and artist on the superhero horro ...
's
Spawn
Spawn or spawning may refer to:
* Spawn (biology), the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise
** '' Spawn: A ...
,
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. The character is the central antagonist of the original trilogy and, as Anakin Skywalker, is one of the main protagonists in the prequel trilogy. ''Star Wars'' creator George ...
,
Yoda
Yoda () is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' universe, first appearing in the 1980 film ''The Empire Strikes Back''. He is a small, green humanoid alien who is powerful with the Force and is a leading member of the Jedi Order until it ...
, and
Starkiller from ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...
'',
Lloyd Irving
is an action role-playing game released for the Nintendo GameCube on August 29, 2003, in Japan. It was published by Namco and is the fifth core product of the ''Tales'' series. The game was localized and released in North America on July 13, 2 ...
from ''
Tales of Symphonia
is an action role-playing game released for the Nintendo GameCube on August 29, 2003, in Japan. It was published by Namco and is the fifth core product of the ''Tales'' series. The game was localized and released in North America on July 13, 2 ...
'',
Ubisoft Montreal
Ubisoft Divertissements Inc., doing business as Ubisoft Montreal, is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Montreal.
The studio was founded in April 1997 as part of Ubisoft's growth into worldwide markets, with sub ...
's Ezio Auditore from the ''
Assassin's Creed
''Assassin's Creed'' is an open-world, action-adventure, and stealth game franchise published by Ubisoft and developed mainly by its studio Ubisoft Montreal using the game engine Anvil and its more advanced derivatives. Created by Patrice D ...
'' series,
Geralt of Rivia
Geralt of Rivia ( pl, Geralt z Rivii) is a fictional character and the protagonist of ''The Witcher'' series of short stories and novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. He is a magically enhanced monster-hunter known as a "witcher", who posse ...
from
Andrzej Sapkowski
Andrzej Sapkowski (; born 21 June 1948) is a Polish fantasy writer, essayist, translator and a trained economist. He is best known for his six-volume series of books '' The Witcher'', which revolves around the eponymous "witcher," a monster-hun ...
's ''
The Witcher
''The Witcher'' ( pl, Wiedźmin ) is a series of six fantasy novels and 15 short stories written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The series revolves around the eponymous "witcher", Geralt of Rivia. In Sapkowski's works, "witchers" are be ...
'', YoRHa No. 2 Type B from
Yoko Taro
is a Japanese video game director and scenario writer. Starting his career at the now-defunct game company Cavia, his best-known work was on the action role-playing video game series '' Drakengard'', and its spin-offs, '' Nier'' and '' Nier ...
and
PlatinumGames
PlatinumGames Inc. is a Japanese video game developer that was founded in October 2007 as result of a merger between two companies, Seeds Inc. and Odd Inc. Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba, and Hideki Kamiya founded Seeds Inc. after the closure o ...
' ''
Nier: Automata'', and Haohmaru from
SNK's ''
Samurai Shodown
''Samurai Shodown'', known in Japan as is a fighting game series by SNK. The series began in 1993 and is known for being one of the earliest in the genre with a primary focus on weapon-based combat.
Plot
The stories in the series take place ...
''.
''
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
is a Fictional crossover, crossover sports game, sports and party game developed by the Sega Sports R&D, Sega Sports R&D Department. It is the first installment on the ''Mario & Sonic'' series. It was published by Nintendo in Japan and by Sega ...
'', released in Japan two months before ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'', was the first time that
Mario
is a character (arts), character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in ...
and Sonic (as well as their associated characters) appeared in a game together.
The ''
Kingdom Hearts
is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix (originally by Square). It is a collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company and is under the leadership of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square ...
'' series of role-playing games developed by
Square Enix
is a Japanese multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game franchises, among numerous ...
features a number of characters from
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
and
Square Enix
is a Japanese multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game franchises, among numerous ...
.
Starting with ''
Mortal Kombat
''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a ...
'', video game developer
NetherRealm Studios
NetherRealm Studios (stylized as NetheЯRealm Studios) is an American video game developer based in Chicago and owned by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Led by video game industry veteran and ''Mortal Kombat'' co-creator Ed Boon, the s ...
has guest characters ranging from ''Mortal Kombat'' veterans
Scorpion
Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always en ...
,
Sub-Zero and
Raiden to
Freddy Krueger
Freddy Krueger () is a fictional character and the primary antagonist in the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' film series. He was created by Wes Craven and made his debut in Craven's '' A Nightmare on Elm Street'' (1984) as the malevolent spirit ...
from ''
A Nightmare on Elm Street
''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' is a 1984 American supernatural slasher film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Robert Shaye. It is the first installment in the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' franchise and stars Heather Langenka ...
'',
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees () is a character from the ''Friday the 13th'' series. He first appeared in '' Friday the 13th'' (1980) as the young son of camp-cook-turned-killer Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Mi ...
from ''
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day in Western superstition. It occurs when the 13th day of the month in the Gregorian calendar falls on a Friday, which happens at least once every year but can occur up to three times in the same year. ...
'',
Leatherface from ''
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'',
The Xenomorph from ''
Alien
Alien primarily refers to:
* Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country
** Enemy alien, the above in times of war
* Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth
** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...
'',
The Predator from ''
Predator
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill t ...
'', the
T-800 T8 or T-8 may refer to the following:
Measurement
* T8, a Torx screwhead size
* T8, a 1 inch fluorescent lamp size
* A tornado intensity rating on the TORRO scale
Biology
* The 8th thoracic vertebra
* The T8 spinal nerve
Transportation
* Trikk ...
from ''
Terminator
Terminator may refer to:
Science and technology
Genetics
* Terminator (genetics), the end of a gene for transcription
* Terminator technology, proposed methods for restricting the use of genetically modified plants by causing second generation s ...
'',
John Rambo
John James Rambo (born July 6, 1947) is a fictional character in the ''Rambo'' franchise. He first appeared in the 1972 novel ''First Blood'' by David Morrell, but later became more famous as the protagonist of the film series, in which he was ...
from ''
Rambo
Rambo is a surname with Norwegian (Vestfold) and Swedish origins. It possibly originated with '' ramn'' + '' bo'', meaning "raven's nest". It has variants in French (''Rambeau'', ''Rambaut'', and ''Rimbaud'') and German (''Rambow''). It is now best ...
'',
RoboCop
''RoboCop'' is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O'Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, and Miguel Fer ...
from ''
RoboCop
''RoboCop'' is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O'Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, and Miguel Fer ...
,''
Kratos from ''
God of War
A war god in mythology associated with war, combat, or bloodshed. They occur commonly in both monotheistic and polytheistic religions.
Unlike most gods and goddesses in polytheistic religions, monotheistic deities have traditionally been p ...
'',
The Joker
The Joker is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson, and first appeared in the debut issue of the comic book '' Batman'' on April 25, 1 ...
from ''
Batman
Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939. I ...
'', all four
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is an American media franchise created by the comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, four anthropomorphic turtle brothers (named after It ...
,
Todd McFarlane
Todd McFarlane (; born March 16, 1961) is a Canadian comic book creator, artist, writer, filmmaker and entrepreneur, best known for his work as the artist on ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' and as the creator, writer, and artist on the superhero horro ...
's
Spawn
Spawn or spawning may refer to:
* Spawn (biology), the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise
** '' Spawn: A ...
and
Mike Mignola
Mike Mignola (; born September 16, 1960) is an American comics artist and writer best known for creating ''Hellboy'' for Dark Horse Comics, part of a shared universe of titles including ''B.P.R.D.'', '' Abe Sapien'', '' Lobster Johnson'', '' Wit ...
's
Hellboy
Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossover ...
.
''
Super Robot Wars
''Super Robot Wars'', known in Japan as is a series of tactical role-playing video games produced by Bandai Namco Entertainment, formerly Banpresto. Starting out as a spinoff of the '' Compati Hero'' series, the main feature of the franchise ...
'' are turn-based strategy games featuring a variety of Japanese
mecha
In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines controlled by people, typically depicted as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japanese is ...
series from many generations, such as ''
Mazinger Z'', ''
Gundam
is a Japanese military fiction media franchise. Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks), the franchise features giant robots, or mecha, with the name "Gundam". The franchise began on April 7, 1979, with ''Mobile ...
'', ''
Neon Genesis Evangelion
, also known simply as ''Evangelion'' or ''Eva'', is a Japanese mecha anime television series produced by Gainax and animated by Tatsunoko, directed by Hideaki Anno and broadcast on TV Tokyo from October 1995 to March 1996. ''Evangelion ...
'', and ''
GaoGaiGar
is a Japanese anime television series produced by Sunrise's internal "Studio 7" division alongside Tokyu Agency. It is the eighth and final installment in Takara's ''Brave series'' franchise. It is directed by Yoshitomo Yonetani, with Yo ...
''.
''
Warriors Orochi
is a hack and slash video game for PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360, developed by Koei and Omega Force. It is a crossover of two of Koei's popular video game series, ''Dynasty Warriors'' and '' Samurai Warriors'' (specifically ''Dynasty Warriors 5'' a ...
'' is the game that features the casts of both the ''
Dynasty Warriors
is a series of Japanese hack and slash action video games created by Omega Force and Koei (now is Koei Tecmo). The series is a spin-off of Koei's turn-based strategy ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' series, based upon the Chinese novel o ...
'' and ''
Samurai Warriors
is the first title in the series of hack and slash video games created by Koei's Omega Force team based closely around the Sengoku ("Warring States") period of Japanese history and it is a sister series of the ''Dynasty Warriors'' series, relea ...
'' series. The
third installment of this series included a number of playable characters from other
Koei Tecmo
is a Japanese video game, amusement and anime holding company created in 2009 by the merger of Koei and Tecmo. Koei Tecmo Holdings owns several companies, the biggest one of those being its flagship game developer and publisher Koei Tecmo Games ...
properties, such as ''
Ninja Gaiden
is a series of action video games by Tecmo featuring the ninja Ryu Hayabusa as its protagonist. The series was originally known as in Japan. The word "gaiden" in the North American ''Ninja Gaiden'' title means "side story" in Japanese. The o ...
'', ''
Dead or Alive'', ''
Zill O'll
Zills or zils (from Turkish 'cymbals'), also called finger cymbals, are small metallic cymbals used in belly dancing and similar performances. They are called () in Egypt. They are similar to Tibetan tingsha bells. In Western music, several pai ...
'', and
Sophitia Alexandra
, better known simply as Sophitia, is a fictional character in the ''Soulcalibur'' series of video games. Created by Namco's Project Soul division, she first appeared in ''Soul Edge'' and its subsequent sequels, as well as appearing in various merc ...
from Bandai Namco's ''Soul'' series. ''
Warriors All-Stars
''Warriors All-Stars'', (or in Japan) is a hack and slash video game by Koei Tecmo. It is a crossover based on the long-running '' Warriors'' series, featuring an array of cast taken from various titles owned by the company, similar to the ''War ...
'' similarly crossed-over a number of characters from Koei Tecmo series.
Video game developer Capcom has frequently developed crossover fighting games featuring their own characters and those of another IP holder, including ''
Marvel vs. Capcom'', ''
SNK vs. Capcom
''SNK vs. Capcom'', or alternately ''Capcom vs. SNK'', is a series of crossover video games by either Capcom or SNK featuring characters that appear in games created by either company. Most of these are fighting game, and take on a similar fo ...
'', ''
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
''Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars'' is a crossover fighting game developed by Eighting and published by Capcom. The game features characters from both Capcom's video game franchises and various anime series produced by Tatsunoko Product ...
'', and ''
Street Fighter X Tekken
(pronounced "Street Fighter Cross Tekken") is a crossover fighting game developed by Capcom and released in March 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, in May for Microsoft Windows and in October for the PlayStation Vita. The game features ...
''.
''
Heroes of the Storm
''Heroes of the Storm'' is a crossover multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released for Microsoft Windows and macOS on June 2, 2015. The game features various characters from Bl ...
'' is an example of the major crossover video game which is developed and published by
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three gradu ...
. This
hero brawler brings various Blizzard's characters together as playable heroes, as well as different battlegrounds based on ''
Warcraft
''Warcraft'' is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of five core games: '' Warcraft: Orcs & Humans'', '' Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness'', '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chao ...
'', ''
Diablo'', ''
StarCraft
''StarCraft'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney and owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The series, set in the beginning of the 26th century, centers on a galactic struggle for dominance a ...
'', and ''
Overwatch
''Overwatch'' is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of online multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment: '' Overwatch'' released in 2016, and ''Overwatch 2'' released in 2022. Both games fe ...
'' universes.
Perhaps one of the most notable video game crossovers is ''
Lego Dimensions
''Lego Dimensions'' is a Lego-themed action-adventure platform crossover video game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox One and Xbox 360. I ...
'' which makes use of over 30 different franchises, including DC Comics, ''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...
'', ''
The Lego Movie
''The Lego Movie'' is a 2014 computer-animated adventure comedy film written and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller from a story by Lord, Miller, and Dan and Kevin Hageman. Based on the Lego line of construction toys, its story focu ...
'', ''
The Lord of the Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's bo ...
'', ''
Sonic the Hedgehog
is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created by Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. The main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games are platformers m ...
'', and more.
A large number of video game characters make
cameo appearance
A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...
s in the Disney
computer-animated film
A computer-animated film is a feature film that has been computer-animated to appear three-dimensional. While traditional 2D animated films are now made primarily with the help of computers, the technique to render realistic 3D computer graphics ...
''
Wreck-It Ralph
''Wreck-It Ralph'' is a 2012 American Computer-animated film, computer-animated comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The List of Walt Disney Animation Studios films, 52nd Disney animated f ...
'' and
its sequel.
Literature
![Ile Mysterieuse 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Ile_Mysterieuse_02.jpg)
In
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...
, some authors also engage in crossovers by including characters from different novels they have written in one; see
Crossover novels.
The first popular crossover in literature was the 1885
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has pr ...
novel, ''
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' or as it is known in more recent editions, ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', is a novel by American author Mark Twain, which was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United St ...
'', which had an important guest appearance by
Tom Sawyer
Thomas Sawyer () is the titular character of the Mark Twain novel ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' (1876). He appears in three other novels by Twain: ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (1884), ''Tom Sawyer Abroad'' (1894), and ''Tom Sawyer, Dete ...
. Similarly, Lady Glencora Palliser from the Pallisers series of
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves ar ...
appears towards the end of ''
Miss Mackenzie
''Miss Mackenzie'' is an 1865 novel by Anthony Trollope. It was written in 1864 and published by Chapman & Hall in February 1865. In his 1883 autobiography, Trollope stated that Miss Mackenzie "was written with the desire that a novel may be prod ...
'', a novel published between the first and second Palliser novels in 1865, a character first introduced in the novel, ''
Can You Forgive Her?'' (1864).
Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University o ...
's 1890 collection, ''Old Friends: Essays in Epistolary Parody'', contains letters combining characters from different sources, including one based on
Jane Austen
Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
's ''
Northanger Abbey
''Northanger Abbey'' () is a coming-of-age novel and a satire of Gothic novels written by Jane Austen. Austen was also influenced by Charlotte Lennox's '' The Female Quixote'' (1752). ''Northanger Abbey'' was completed in 1803, the first of ...
'' and
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature.
She enlisted i ...
's ''
Jane Eyre
''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first ...
''.
Kim Newman
Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula'' at ...
frequently uses this device, as does
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
. The works of
James Branch Cabell
James Branch Cabell (; April 14, 1879 – May 5, 1958) was an American author of fantasy fiction and ''belles-lettres''. Cabell was well-regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken, Edmund Wilson, and Sinclair Lewis. His work ...
,
J.D. Salinger,
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...
,
Margaret Laurence
Jean Margaret Laurence (née Wemyss; July 18, 1926 – January 5, 1987) was a Canadian novelist and short story writer, and is one of the major figures in Canadian literature. She was also a founder of the Writers' Trust of Canada, a non-pr ...
,
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, scie ...
,
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...
,
Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler (January 27, 1931 – July 3, 2001) was a Canadian writer. His best known works are '' The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'' (1959) and '' Barney's Version'' (1997). His 1970 novel '' St. Urbain's Horseman'' and 1989 novel ...
,
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best-known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, ...
,
Robert Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...
, and
Isaac Asimov
yi, יצחק אזימאװ
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR
, spouse =
, relatives =
, children = 2
, death_date =
, death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
, nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...
also cross over with each other, linking different characters and settings together over a number of different works. Author
Rick Riordan
Richard Russell Riordan Junior (; born June 5, 1964) is an American author, best known for writing the ''Percy Jackson & the Olympians'' series. Riordan's books have been translated into forty-two languages and sold more than thirty million co ...
publishes multiple book series featuring gods of ancient civilizations in the modern day, which have had two crossovers and three references to other series. Science fiction writer
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American fantasy and science fiction author who was active from the 1940s until the 21st century. Anderson wrote also historical novels. His awards include seven Hugo Awards and ...
allowed fellow writer
A. Bertram Chandler
Arthur Bertram Chandler (28 March 1912 in Aldershot, Hampshire, England – 6 June 1984 in Sydney, Australia) was an Anglo-Australian merchant marine officer, sailing the world in everything from tramp steamers to troop ships, but who later tu ...
to "borrow" Anderson's space-faring character
Dominic Flandry
Dominic Flandry is a fictional character and the protagonist of the second half of Poul Anderson's Technic History science fiction series. He first appeared in 1951.
The space opera series is set in the 31st century, during the waning days of ...
and let Flandry meet with Chandler's
John Grimes in a common adventure (the two fail to like each other).
Alex Scarrow featured the characters Cato and Macro from his brother
Simon's ''
Eagles of the Empire
''Eagles of the Empire'' is a series of historical military fiction novels written by Simon Scarrow. The series began in July 2000 with the publication of ''Under the Eagle'', and as of March 2022 there have been 20 novels released in the series ...
'' series in one book of the ''
TimeRiders
TimeRiders is a series of Teen fiction, teen science fiction novels written by Alex Scarrow. The series has nine books and is currently published by Puffin Books.
Summary
The novels revolve around three teens who are recruited by an agency ...
'' series: ''Gates of Rome'' (2012), serving as supporting characters when the three protagonists
travel back in time to
Ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...
.
Brazilian writer
Monteiro Lobato
José Bento Renato Monteiro Lobato (18 April 1882 – 4 July 1948) was one of Brazil's most influential writers, mostly for his children's books set in the fictional Sítio do Picapau Amarelo (Yellow Woodpecker Farm) but he had been previously ...
also created solid and imaginative crossovers, using elements and characters from Brazilian folklore such as the
Cuca and
Saci
''Sac''I is a restriction enzyme isolated from the bacterium ''Streptomyces achromogenes
''Streptomyces achromogenes'' is a species of gram-positive bacterium that belongs in the genus ''Streptomyces''. ''S. achromogenes'' can be grown at 28&nbs ...
, from
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities o ...
, from the ''
Arabian Nights
''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...
'', from fairy tales such as Grimm's "
Snow White
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...
", Western literature such as
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythi ...
, cartoons such as ''
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.[Felix the Cat
Felix the Cat is a cartoon character created in 1919 by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer during the silent film era. An anthropomorphic black cat with white eyes, a black body, and a giant grin, he was one of the most recognized cartoon characte ...](_blank)
'', and Western films.
Illustrator
Howard Pyle
Howard Pyle (March 5, 1853 – November 9, 1911) was an American illustrator and author, primarily of books for young people. He was a native of Wilmington, Delaware, and he spent the last year of his life in Florence, Italy.
In 1894, he began ...
conceived his work ''Twilight Land'' as one such crossover. In it, a nameless narrator is transported to "Twilight Land" and meets famous fairy tale characters for a soirée in an inn:
Mother Goose
The figure of Mother Goose is the imaginary author of a collection of French fairy tales and later of English nursery rhymes. As a character, she appeared in a song, the first stanza of which often functions now as a nursery rhyme. This, howeve ...
,
Cinderella
"Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...
,
Fortunatus,
Sinbad the Sailor
Sinbad the Sailor (; ar, سندباد البحري, Sindibādu al-Bahriyy; fa, سُنباد بحری, Sonbād-e Bahri or Sindbad) is a fictional mariner and the hero of a story-cycle of Persian origin. He is described as hailing from Baghd ...
,
Aladdin
Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part o ...
,
Boots
A boot is a type of footwear.
Boot or Boots may also refer to:
Businesses
* Boot Inn, Chester, Cheshire, England
* Boots (company), a high-street pharmacy chain and manufacturer of pharmaceuticals in the United Kingdom
* The Boot, Cromer St ...
, the
Valiant Little Tailor, and others gather in the framing device and tell each other adventurous tales featuring other literary personages.
French author
Jules Lemaître
François Élie Jules Lemaître (27 April 1853 – 4 August 1914) was a French critic and dramatist.
Biography
Lemaître was born in Vennecy, Loiret. He became a professor at the University of Grenoble in 1883, but was already well known for his ...
wrote a sort of sequel to ''Cinderella'', named ''Princess Mimi'', where Cinderella's daughter is courted by
Polyphemus
Polyphemus (; grc-gre, Πολύφημος, Polyphēmos, ; la, Polyphēmus ) is the one-eyed giant son of Poseidon and Thoosa in Greek mythology, one of the Cyclopes described in Homer's ''Odyssey''. His name means "abounding in songs and ...
and
Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault ( , also , ; 12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) was an iconic French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tale ...
's ''
Hop-o'-My-Thumb
Hop-o'-My-Thumb (Hop-on-My-Thumb), or Hop o' My Thumb, also known as Little Thumbling, Little Thumb, or Little Poucet (french: Le petit Poucet), is one of the eight fairytales published by Charles Perrault in ''Histoires ou Contes du temps passé ...
''.
Irish novelist and author
Padraic Colum
Padraic Colum (8 December 1881 – 11 January 1972) was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, playwright, children's author and collector of folklore. He was one of the leading figures of the Irish Literary Revival.
Early life
Col ...
reworked several Irish myths in his book ''
The King of Ireland's Son'' to create a complex narrative, many of them corresponding to tale types in the
Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index. In the first segment, ''Fedelma, the Enchanter's Daughter'', the oldest son of the King of Ireland loses a wager against his father's enemy and is ordered to find him a year and a day's time. With the help of an eagle, the prince spies three
swan maiden
The swan maiden is a mythical creature who shapeshifts from human form to swan form. The key to the transformation is usually a swan skin, or a garment with swan feathers attached. In folktales of this type, the male character spies the maiden, ...
s descending to bathe in a lake and hides the feather cloak of the youngest, Fedelma, promising to return it once she direct him to her father's kingdom. After arriving at the kingdom of the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands, the wizard forced the prince to fulfill three difficult tasks, which he accomplishes with Fedelma's magical help (tale type ATU 313, "The Magical Flight" or ''
The Master Maid
"The Master Maid" is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their '' Norske Folkeeventyr''. "Master" indicates "superior, skilled." Jørgen Moe wrote the tale down from the storyteller Anne Godlid in ...
''). In the chapter ''The Unique Tale'', a story is told about a queen who wished for a blue-eyed, blonde-haired daughter, and carelessly wished her sons to "go with the wild geese". As soon as the daughter (named ''Sheen'', 'Storm') is born, the seven princes change into gray wild geese and fly away from the castle (ATU 451, "The Maiden Who Seeks her Brothers" or ''
The Six Swans
"The Six Swans" (German: ''Die sechs Schwäne'') is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in '' Grimm's Fairy Tales'' in 1812 (KHM 49). It is of Aarne–Thompson type 451 ("The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers"), commonly found thro ...
''). It is later revealed that Sheen changed her name to ''Caintigern'' and became Queen when she married the King of Ireland, who, in turn, is the father of two of the main characters: the King of Ireland's Son and Gilly of the Goatskin (''
Gilla Na Chreck An Gour'').
Public domain
It is also common for authors to 'crossover' characters who have passed into the public domain, and thus do not require copyright or royalty payments for their use in other works. ''
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' (''LoEG'') is a comic book series (inspired by the 1960 British film ''The League of Gentlemen'') co-created by writer Alan Moore and artist Kevin O'Neill which began in 1999. The series spans four vol ...
'' by
Alan Moore
Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including '' Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', '' The Ballad of Halo Jones'', ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman:'' ''The Killing Joke'', and '' From He ...
and
Kevin O'Neill is another example of this, as all of the main characters and most of the secondary / background characters are fictional characters whose copyright has expired, and all are characters of different authors and creators brought together within one massive extended universe. Many of the works of
Philip José Farmer's
Wold Newton family sequences (which has also been explored and developed by other authors) also utilize and interweave numerous otherwise unrelated fictional characters into a rich family history by speculating familial connections between them (such as a blood-relationship between
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
and
Tarzan
Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...
).
Roger Zelazny
Roger Joseph Zelazny (May 13, 1937 – June 14, 1995) was an American poet and writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for ''The Chronicles of Amber''. He won the Nebula Award three times (out of 14 nomin ...
's novel ''
A Night in the Lonesome October
''A Night in the Lonesome October'' is a novel by American writer Roger Zelazny published in 1993, near the end of his life. It was his last book, and one of his five personal favorites.
The book is divided into 32 chapters, each representing on ...
'' combines Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Frankenstein, Jack the Ripper, and the Cthulhu Mythos, although he never specifically identifies them as such ("The Count", "The Good Doctor", "Jack", etc.).
Occasionally, authors will include into crossovers classic fictional characters whose copyright is still held by the original authors (or at least their estates), but who are nevertheless considered iconic or 'mythic' enough to be recognised from a few character traits or descriptions without being directly named (thus not requiring royalties payments to be made to the copyright holder). A prominent example occurs within ''
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One'', wherein a character who is clearly intended in appearance and description by other characters to be Dr.
Fu Manchu
Dr. Fu Manchu () is a supervillain who was introduced in a series of novels by the English author Sax Rohmer beginning shortly before World War I and continuing for another forty years. The character featured in cinema, television, radio, co ...
appears as a significant villain; however, as this character was not in the public domain at the time of writing and the rights still held by the estate of his creator
Sax Rohmer
Arthur Henry "Sarsfield" Ward (15 February 1883 – 1 June 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was an English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu."Rohmer, Sax" by Jack Adrian in Da ...
, he is not directly named as such in the work and is only referred to as 'the Devil Doctor'. Something similar occurs in ''
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier'', wherein a character named "
Jimmy
Jimmy may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Jimmy'' (2008 film), a 2008 Hindi thriller directed by Raj N. Sippy
* ''Jimmy'' (1979 film), a 1979 Indian Malayalam film directed by Melattoor Ravi Varma
* ''Jimmy'' (2013 f ...
" is clearly intended to be
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., an ...
's character
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors hav ...
, though here he is satirized as being an inept and unfavorable antagonist, likely to parody
Sean Connery
Sir Sean Connery (born Thomas Connery; 25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Origina ...
's appearance in the 2003
film adaptation
A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...
. Another example in ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' is when a character is named to be the Anti-Christ, yet, despite never being named, is shown to be an evil
Harry Potter
''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at ...
.
The TV show ''
Once Upon a Time'' is set in a world in which all
fairy tales
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
coexist, including
Snow White
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...
,
Little Red Riding Hood
"Little Red Riding Hood" is a European fairy tale about a young girl and a sly wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th century European folk tales. The two best known versions were written by Charles Perrault and the Bro ...
, and even
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
. (As a production of
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on Octobe ...
, copyrighted elements from that company's productions have appeared in ''Once Upon a Time''.) The
''Shrek'' film series is built on the same concept, and even includes references to then-copyrighted elements like
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythi ...
(often in the form of
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming o ...
).
Television series
Between established shows
Crossovers involving principals can also occur when the characters have no prior relationship, but are related by time period, locale or profession. The ''Law and Order'' series, for example, afford a commonality of setting and profession which lends itself to crossovers, both within the franchise and in a wider universe. ''Law & Order: SVU'' has crossed over several times with ''Chicago P.D.'' and ''Chicago Fire'', as well as sharing a common character with ''Homicide: Life on the Street''. ''NCIS'' has crossed over with ''NCIS: Los Angeles'', ''NCIS: New Orleans'' and ''JAG'', while ''NCIS: Los Angeles'' has crossed over with both ''Scorpion'' and ''Hawaii Five-0''. Following the cancellation of the
ABC soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio drama ...
''
One Life to Live
''One Life to Live'' (often abbreviated as ''OLTL'') is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network for more than 43 years, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and then on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes ...
'' and its high-rated finale, several characters crossed over into the network's remaining soap opera ''
General Hospital
''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the longest-running American soap opera in production, and the second in American history after '' ...
'', remaining in the same timeline as their former show.
The ''CSI'' franchise is another common example of the crossover phenomena, with the original series crossing over with ''CSI: Miami'', ''CSI: Cyber'', ''CSI: NY'' and ''Without a Trace''. ''CSI: NY'' crossed over with fellow CBS series ''Cold Case'', and
Ted Danson
Edward Bridge "Ted" Danson III (born December 29, 1947) is an American actor. He achieved stardom playing the lead character Sam Malone on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'', for which he received two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. ...
appeared as a regular on both ''CSI'' and ''Cyber''. Similarly, ''
Family Guy
''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their ch ...
'' has crossed over with ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...
'', while ''The Simpsons'' has crossed over with ''
Futurama
''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years ...
''. ''
The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation ...
'' has in turn crossed over with ''
Millennium
A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannus, kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting ...
'', ''
Homicide: Life on the Street'', ''
The Lone Gunmen
The Lone Gunmen are a trio of fictional characters, Richard "Ringo" Langly, Melvin Frohike and John Fitzgerald Byers, who appeared in recurring roles on the American television series ''The X-Files'', and who starred in the short-lived spin-of ...
'' and ''
Cops''. A proposed crossover with ''
The West Wing
''The West Wing'' is an American serial political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White Hous ...
'' was planned, but was never produced.
''
The Beverly Hillbillies
''The Beverly Hillbillies'' is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor, backwoods family f ...
'', ''
Green Acres
''Green Acres'' is an American television sitcom starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm. Produced by Filmways as a sister show to '' Petticoat Junction'', the series was first broadc ...
'', and ''
Petticoat Junction
''Petticoat Junction'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from September 1963 to April 1970. The series takes place at the Shady Rest Hotel, which is run by Kate Bradley; her three daughters Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo, and ...
'' shared a common universe, so crossovers were not uncommon. ''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...
'' and ''
Torchwood
''Torchwood'' is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. A spin-off of the 2005 revival of ''Doctor Who'', it aired from 2006 to 2011. The show shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growin ...
'' both take place in the same universe and have had multiple crossovers, including Torchwood characters appearing in "
The Stolen Earth" and "
Journey's End". ''Torchwood''s
first series finale
Finale may refer to:
Pieces of music
* Finale (music), the last movement of a piece
* ''Finale'' (album), a 1977 album by Loggins and Messina
* "Finale B", a 1996 song from the rock opera ''Rent''
* "Finale", a song by Anthrax from ''State of E ...
ends with the materialisation sound of the
TARDIS
The TARDIS (; acronym for "Time And Relative Dimension In Space") is a fictional hybrid of the time machine and spacecraft that appears in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and its various spin-offs. Its exterior a ...
seen in ''Doctor Who''s
series 3 episode "
Utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island soc ...
".
Between related shows
Though most common on shows of the same
production company
A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and v ...
(see, for example, "
Hurricane Saturday
''Hurricane Saturday'' is a one-off programming block of a three-way, two-hour crossover event on NBC which involved three television sitcoms created by Susan Harris: ''The Golden Girls'', ''Empty Nest'' and ''Nurses''. The event depicts a ficti ...
"), crossovers have also occurred because shows share the same distributor or
television network
A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid ...
. A notable example of this kind of link is that between ''
Murder, She Wrote
''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The seri ...
'' and ''
Magnum, P.I.'' These shows were made by different companies, but owned by
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
and broadcast on
CBS. Another case is that of ''
Mad About You
''Mad About You'' is an American television sitcom starring Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as a married couple in New York City. It initially aired on NBC from September 23, 1992, to May 24, 1999, winning numerous awards including four Golden Glob ...
'' and ''
Friends
''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Li ...
'', which share the character of
Ursula Buffay. Neither show shares any production or distribution commonality, but rather an actress (
Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Valerie Kudrow ( ; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress, producer, and screenwriter. She rose to fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the sitcom ''Friends'' (1994–2004), which has since been named one of the greatest television cha ...
), a setting (
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
) and a schedule (''Friends'' initially followed ''Mad About You'' on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
's
Thursday night schedule).
''Mad About You'' and ''Friends'' share another type of "network crossover". On rare occasions, networks have chosen to theme an entire night's programming around a crossover "event". In one case, a New York City
blackout caused by
Paul Reiser
Paul Reiser (; born March 30, 1956) is an American actor, comedian, and television writer. He is known for his roles as Michael Taylor in the 1980s sitcom '' My Two Dads'', Paul Buchman in the NBC sitcom ''Mad About You'', Modell in the 1982 f ...
's character on ''Mad About You'' was experienced by the characters on ''Friends'' and ''
Madman of the People''. Such "event nights" can also be linked by a single character's quest across multiple shows on the same evening.
ABC attempted this kind of "event night" crossover with its TGIF (ABC), Friday night programming during the 1997 season. There, they proposed that the title character of ''Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996 TV series), Sabrina the Teenage Witch'' should chase her cat, Salem Saberhagen, Salem, through ''Boy Meets World'', ''You Wish (TV series), You Wish'' and ''Teen Angel (1997 TV series), Teen Angel'' because it had run away with a "time ball" that was displacing each show through time.
ABC also attempted a "crossover" when four of its sitcoms (''Grace Under Fire'', ''Ellen (TV series), Ellen'', ''The Drew Carey Show'' and ''Coach (TV series), Coach'') all went to Las Vegas during the 1996–1997 season.
Dan Schneider (TV producer), Dan Schneider used his show ''Zoey 101'' to promote his new show ''iCarly'' by making characters from ''Zoey 101'' go to ''ICarly.com'' or use the ''iCarly'' theme song as a ringtone. A ''Henry Danger'' comic book and Gibby's wax head is seen in the ''Game Shakers'' episode "Lost Jacket, Falling Pigeons", the subway station's lost and found.
The CW's superhero franchise Arrowverse has held annual Arrowverse#Official crossover events, crossover events since 2014.
Narrative rationales
On other occasions, crossovers between established shows can occur without a network or production commonality, but simply because there is some narrative rationale for the crossover. The appearance of detective John Munch (from NBC's ''
Homicide: Life on the Street'') on Fox's ''The X-Files'' happened merely because the episode revolved around a crime scene in Baltimore, a logical place for characters on ''The X-Files'' to have encountered Munch. Munch would also appear on the TV series ''Law & Order'' on NBC in which it had one episode which began on that series in New York City and concluded in Baltimore on ''Homicide: Life on the Street''. Later, when ''Homicide'' went off the air in 1999, Detective Munch ends up leaving Baltimore to move to New York, and becoming a permanent character (as New York City Detective Munch) on NBC's ''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' until October 2013.
A two-part crossover episode between ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' with ''Without a Trace'' aired on November 8, 2007. The first hour was on ''CSI'' and the second hour was on ''Without a Trace''.
While both series are on the same network in the United States, spreading two parts of a story across two different shows can cause problems in international markets where they have been separately sold to different broadcasters. For example, in the United Kingdom, ''Without a Trace'' was shown on Channel 4 and ''CSI'' on Channel 5 (UK), Channel 5, meaning the two companies had to come to a special agreement to show both episodes.
Another ''CSI'' crossover occurred in 2009 when Raymond Langston from ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' appeared both in ''CSI: Miami'' and ''CSI: NY'', traveling to Miami and New York to track a human trafficking and organ harvesting ring. ''ER (TV series), ER'' had a crossover with ''Third Watch'' which corresponded with a peak in viewership for the latter show, with 17.2 million viewers.
In 2013, the Canadian crime drama series ''Republic of Doyle'' and ''Murdoch Mysteries'' produced a crossover,
which was complicated by the shows' incompatible historical settings; ''Murdoch Mysteries'' is a historical series set in the 1890s, while ''Republic of Doyle'' is set in the present day. The problem was solved by having the actors cross over as ''relatives'' of their primary characters; Allan Hawco appeared on the November 25, 2013 episode of ''Murdoch Mysteries'' as Jacob Doyle, a 19th-century ancestor of his regular character Jake Doyle, while Yannick Bisson appeared on a January 2014 episode of ''Republic of Doyle'' as Bill Murdoch, a 21st-century descendant of his regular character William Murdoch.
In children's television
The earliest example in the 1970s is PBS' ''The Electric Company (1971 TV series), The Electric Company''.
Disney Channel's ''Suite Life'' franchise has featured three crossovers: In 2006, ''That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana'' featured characters from ''Hannah Montana'' and ''That's So Raven'' taking a vacation at the Tipton Hotel (the main setting of ''The Suite Life of Zack & Cody''); Hannah Montana (character), Hannah Montana/Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus) also eats cake off Zack; this recurs when she eats cake off of Cody during the 2009 crossover ''Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana'', in which characters from ''Wizards of Waverly Place'' and ''Hannah Montana'' come on aboard the S.S. Tipton (though the characters from ''Wizards of Waverly Place'' and ''Hannah Montana'' do not interact). In 2011 episode of ''Good Luck Charlie'', the family are getting ready
to go to Chicago to see CeCe and Rocky. In the 2013 holiday special, the family meets the cast of Jessie (2011 TV series), Jessie. The New Year's Eve special ''Austin & Jessie & Ally All Star New Year'', which aired in that year, features characters from ''Austin & Ally'' and ''Jessie''. In 2014, ''Liv & Maddie'' characters are having a Hawaiian party with the cast of ''Jessie''. In 2015, a crossover between two Disney XD shows ''Lab Rats: Bionic Island'' and ''Mighty Med'' crossed over in the special "Lab Rats vs. Mighty Med". In the 2020 episode of ''Bunk'd'', the cast are meeting with Raven Baxter.
The network's animated series does crossovers such as ''
Lilo & Stitch: The Series'' and ''Phineas and Ferb''.
Disney Junior does crossovers such as ''Special Agent Oso'' and ''Elena of Avalor.
Another type of crossover involves characters from an off-the-air series resurfacing in a newer series. This occurred in a 2010 episode of the Nickelodeon sitcom ''iCarly''; the episode "iStart a Fan War" featured recurring characters from two Nickelodeon series: ''Drake & Josh'' characters Eric Blonowitz, Craig Ramirez, Gavin Mitchell, and ''Zoey 101'' character Stacey Dillsen. A crossover between ''Victorious'' and ''Drake & Josh'' also occurred, with Helen DuBois, portrayed by Yvette Nicole Brown making an appearance. An episode titled "iParty with Victorious" was a crossover between ''iCarly'' and ''Victorious''. This means all four shows exist in the same universe. However, in ''Who Did It to Trina'', Tori referred to ''Drake and Josh'' as a TV show, making it seem as if the previous appearance was an actor of a character from a show within a show. Also in several episodes from ''iCarly'' and ''Sam & Cat'' (a crossover/spin-off of ''iCarly'' and ''Victorious'') one can see ''Drake and Josh'' and ''Zoey 101'' in TV guides, when the characters are watching TV. Carly and Spencer were heard watching it in the ''iCarly'' episode ''iGet Pranky'' and Carly is seen looking at it briefly in ''iToe Fat Cakes'' and we can see the character Megan from ''Drake and Josh'' (also portrayed by Miranda Cosgrove) and Sam is seen changing the channel to it in ''#FavoriteShow'' an episode from ''Sam & Cat'', making the universe between each of the shows confusing. However, these were probably all non-canonical references.
In 2014, ''The Thundermans'' and ''The Haunted Hathaways'' did a crossover, titled "The Haunted Thundermans". In 2016, ''Henry Danger'' and ''The Thundermans'' did a crossover, titled "Danger & Thunder". In 2017, ''Henry Danger'' and ''Game Shakers'' did a crossover, called "Danger Games", which was then followed by a crossover episode, called "Babe Loves Danger", that aired in 2018. In 2017, ''Game Shakers'' did a crossover with ''iCarly'', titled "Game Shippers". In 2019, ''Henry Danger'' did a crossover with ''Knight Squad''
Nick Jr. does a crossover with ''The Fresh Beat Band'' are meeting the cast of ''Yo Gabba Gabba!''.
The main characters of ''Aaahh!!! Real Monsters'' make a crossover appearance in the ''
Rugrats
''Rugrats'' is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The show focuses on a group of toddlers; most prominently— Tommy, Chuckie, Angelica, and twins Phil and Lil, a ...
'' episode, "Ghost Story (Rugrats), Ghost Story". This is because both shows were created/produced by Klasky Csupo and distributed also by Nickelodeon. In 2004, the animated series The Fairy OddParents had a The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour, three-episode crossover with CGI character Jimmy Neutron. ''The Loud House'' did a crossover with ''Double Dare (franchise), Double Dare''.
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...
does crossovers such as ''The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy'' and ''
OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes
''OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes'' is an American animated television series created by Ian Jones-Quartey for Cartoon Network. The show is based on Jones-Quartey's pilot ''Lakewood Plaza Turbo'', which was released as part of Cartoon Network's 2013 Su ...
''.
In Chile, children's programmes and characters from El Mundo del Profesor Rossa (Spanish Language, Spanish for ''The World of Professor Rossa'') and Cachureos (Spanish Language, Chilean Spanish for ''odds and ends'') conducted a crossover between them for a few minutes in their emissions of Saturday 18 (Mundo del Profesor Rossa) and Sunday 19 (Cachureos) of April 1998 due to the introduction of the latter programme on Canal 13 (Chile), Canal 13, after several years of broadcast on Televisión Nacional de Chile, TVN and even have competed with each other for the child audience.
The Netflix series ''Harvey Girls Forever!'' (which back then was known as ''Harvey Street Kids'' in 2018) has crossed over with famous cartoon character
Richie Rich for its third and fourth seasons. There is also a crossover episode called "Scare Bud", which the show crossed over with
Casper the Friendly Ghost
Casper the Friendly Ghost is the protagonist of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. He is a pleasant, personable and translucent ghost, but often criticized by his three wicked uncles, the Ghostly Trio.
The ...
.
Special usages
Promotional cameos
Crossovers can take the form of a promotional
cameo appearance
A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...
, used to draw attention to another work of fiction, with little rational explanation in the context of the hosting show's narrative. When not clearly presented as parody, this is frequently scorned by fans as blatant commercialism. A notable example of this is ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...
'' episode "A Star Is Burns", in which the character of Jay Sherman (from ''The Critic'') appeared. It originally aired on March 5, 1995, on FOX right before ''The Critic'' began its second season, its first season having aired on ABC. This episode was largely condemned by fans of ''The Simpsons'' as existing to promote ''The Critic'', an animated series considered inferior by comparison. Even ''Simpsons'' creator Matt Groening objected, preferring to remove his name from the credits of that particular episode in protest.
The character Dan Tanna (played by Robert Urich) from the detective series ''Vega$'' appeared in an episode of ''Charlie's Angels'' ("Angels in Vegas") one week prior to the debut of ''Vega$''. However, it is not considered a spin-off because Dan Tanna was introduced in the pilot that was aired as an ''ABC TV Movie of the Week'' on the evening of Tuesday, April 25, 1978. The crossover was simply used to reintroduce the Dan Tanna character and to promote the debut of ''Vega$'' as an ongoing series. Additionally, the cast of ''The Love Boat'' appeared in the fourth season premier of ''Charlie's Angels'' ("Love Boat Angels").
In 2010, as a nod to the 50th anniversary of ''Coronation Street'', characters in fellow established TV soap ''EastEnders'' made reference to watching the special anniversary episode.
''EastEnders'' had celebrated its own 25th anniversary earlier in the same year.
The two CBS Daytime game shows (''The Price Is Right (U.S. game show), The Price Is Right'' and ''Let's Make a Deal'') are used for promotional cameos from other CBS properties. Promotional cameos from the two daytime dramas, primetime shows (including primetime airings), and sports properties are common. ''Price'' has been used to promote anniversaries of CBS daytime dramas, the ''NCIS'' franchise, the three reality shows, and NFL on CBS, CBS Sports' coverage of the NFL.
Spin-offs
In its simplest and most common form, a television crossover involves a starring character on a parent show appearing on a
spin-off
Spin-off may refer to:
*Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work
*Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity
* Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gov ...
or vice versa because of established character relationships. An obvious example of this type of crossover occurred when Cliff Huxtable of ''The Cosby Show'' visited his daughter, Denise Huxtable, Denise, on ''A Different World (TV series), A Different World''. Another example of this is ''The Bionic Woman'', which was a spin-off from ''The Six Million Dollar Man''. Jaime Sommers (The Bionic Woman), Jaime Sommers was a tennis pro who was nearly killed in a Parachuting, skydiving accident, but her life was saved by Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson) and Dr. Rudy Wells (Martin E. Brooks) who surgically implanted her with bionic parts similar to those of Steve Austin (fictional character), Steve Austin. Steve Austin and Jaimie Sommers often crossovered, while the characters Oscar Goldman and Rudy Wells appeared regularly in both shows. Another example would be the appearances made by ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series), Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' characters to ''Angel (1999 TV series), Angel'' in Los Angeles from Sunnydale; in a striking example, "Fool for Love (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Fool for Love" and "Darla (Angel episode), Darla", shown on the same night, contain overlapping flashbacks as remembered by Spike (vampire), Spike and Darla (vampire), Darla respectively. There is also ''Frasier'', which features characters from the first show, ''Cheers''. Similarly, ''Dallas (1978 TV series), Dallas'' characters J. R. Ewing, Bobby Ewing, Lucy Ewing and Kristin Shepard all appeared in its spin-off ''Knots Landing'' while ''Knots Landing'' characters Gary Ewing and Valene Ewing each made several appearances on ''Dallas'' after ''Knots Landing'' premiered.
More complex multi-production franchises can utilize crossovers of characters to serve as a device in establishing continuity in a shared fictional universe. This crossover is common in the Star Trek crossovers, ''Star Trek'' universe, where minor guest stars from one series have appeared as featured guest stars later ones. A good example of this crossover is that of the Klingons Kor (Star Trek), Kor (from the ''Star Trek: The Original Series, Original Series'' episode "Errand of Mercy"), Koloth (from "The Trouble with Tribbles") and Kang (Star Trek), Kang (from "Day of the Dove"). After the passage of about a century of narrative time, the three onetime adversaries of James T. Kirk, Captain Kirk appeared together in the ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' episode, "Blood Oath (DS9 episode), Blood Oath" – as the Klingons and Federation had become allies in the century between, the former villains are now portrayed as heroes. Another Klingon, Arne Darvin, appeared as a secondary character in "The Trouble with Tribbles", but was the principal villain of DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations". Intended as a celebration of the franchise's 30th anniversary, "Trials and Tribble-ations" was actually a crossover in and of itself; using then brand-new Chroma key, bluescreen techniques, the episode places the DS9 cast (after hijacking the ''USS Defiant, Defiant'', Darvin had gone back in time hoping to kill Kirk and become a hero to the Klingons, and it's up to Benjamin Sisko, Sisko and his comrades to stop Darvin and preserve the timeline) inside the TOS episode, interacting with James T. Kirk, Spock and the rest of the ''USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), Enterprise'' crew.
The distinction between "spin-off" and "crossover" is sometimes narrow. The two terms can become especially conflated if two shows are linked by a guest star with a single appearance. There is debate, for instance over whether ''Out of the Blue (1979 TV series), Out of the Blue'' is a spin-off of ''Happy Days'', or whether the star of ''Out of the Blue'' merely crossed over into ''Happy Days''.
''Mako: Island of Secrets, Mako Mermaids'', a spinoff of ''H2O: Just Add Water, H
2O: Just Add Water'', featured a guest appearance by Rikki Chadwick, a main character from the former series, in its final two episodes, thus confirming that the spin off-acts as a sequel rather than a prequel or alternative storyline as many fans suspected.
Parodic crossovers
Often, the problems of bringing together two shows with different narrative ambitions make the writing of a crossover burdensome. Such difficulties are encountered by situation comedies that wish to crossover with television drama, dramatic television programs. The satirical crossover—ranging in length from a cameo to a full sketch comedy, comedy sketch or episode—is an extremely popular way of circumventing this problem. By various means, such crossovers typically avoid outcry from fans by being obvious parody or Homage (arts), homage. However, on rare occasion, the humor of such crossovers can be used by one show make a narrative point by capitalizing on the audience's experience of the other program.
Such tongue-in-cheek crossovers typically fall into one of several broad categories.
Parodic crossovers can be directly established as being outside the continuity of one or all of the properties being crossed over. A good example is the crossover between ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...
'' and ''
The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation ...
'', which was largely accepted as being outside standard ''X-Files'' continuity.
One episode of ''The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy'' shows that after Mandy smiles, she, along with Billy and Grim, are transformed into
The Powerpuff Girls
''The Powerpuff Girls'' is an American superhero animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera (later Cartoon Network Studios) for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Telev ...
with a cameo by Professor Utonium.
They can occur by virtue of a dream sequence, in which the characters of one show will appear as part of a dream had by a character on another show. This method was perhaps used most famously to explain to audiences that the entirety of ''Newhart'' had been the dream of Bob Newhart's character on ''The Bob Newhart Show''. It has more recently been used to demonstrate that cast members of ''The Young and the Restless'' appeared in a dream of a character on ''The King of Queens''.
Parodic crossovers can take the form of "joke, gag" cameos by characters of one property appearing on another. Characters from ''King of the Hill (TV series), King of the Hill'' have appeared on ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...
'' to comment on a peewee football game. Gag cameos may also include the appearance of an actor from another show, but not necessarily the character that the actor played. For instance, on the ABC/CBS show ''Family Matters (TV series), Family Matters'' during the closing credits of the episode "Scenes From a Mall" (Season 5, Episode 12), a scene which was shown earlier in the episode featuring Reginald VelJohnson is re-played, but this time with one of the child actors stating that he "looks like that fat guy from Fresh Prince," referring to James L. Avery, Sr., James Avery who played Judge Phillip Banks on NBC's ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air''. To the obvious surprise of the studio audience and VelJohnson, Avery walked onto the set with an angry look, being in on the staged joke himself. Ended the episode (but with the cameras filming still), VelJohnson and Avery hugged and smilingly greeted the public.
Crossovers of this type can also be completely wordless. This type of crossover is more common on animated programs, such as when Bender (Futurama), Bender found and ate Bart Simpson's shorts on ''
Futurama
''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years ...
'', or Milhouse Van Houten, Milhouse had a talking Bender doll on ''The Simpsons''. This would seem to be another case when a popular franchise is acknowledged as fiction and not a crossover of the stories.
Perhaps the most obvious parodic crossover is found when characters from two series interact outside ''either'' series. This occurs most commonly on a sketch comedy show or as a humorous interlude on an award telecast. Such crossovers may sometimes involve the real actors—for example, a sketch on ''Royal Canadian Air Farce'' saw Yasir and Sarah from ''Little Mosque on the Prairie'' buying the gas station from ''Corner Gas'', with many of the characters in the sketch being portrayed by the shows' real actors—although they may also feature one genuine star from the show amid a cast comprised otherwise of the sketch show's own stable of actors. Such crossovers are generally immediately apparent as parodies to the audience—and in no way considered a part of either show's continuity—due to the need for the hosting show to approximate the sets and costumes of the satirized programs quickly and inexpensively. When Patrick Stewart appeared in a ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''/''The Love Boat'' crossover on ''Saturday Night Live'', for instance, few ''Star Trek'' fans would have been fooled by the visual design into believing the event "counted" as an episode of the show. However, there are some cases of this type of parody having some canon (fiction), canonical resonance with viewers. For instance, the British charity appeal Comic Relief (charity), Comic Relief often contains parodic crossovers of a technically higher quality than the typical sketch show. Many of these ''Relief'' sketches are produced by the cast and crew of the actual programs being parodied, and hence appear to be "normal" episodes. A good example of this is the sketch, "BallyKissDibley", an 11-minute piece in which the leads of ''Ballykissangel'' appeared on the sets of ''The Vicar of Dibley'', alongside most of ''Dibley''s cast. Since the sketch derived its humor from all actors remaining in character, the extent to which these parodies "count" as part of either show's canon is more open to interpretation than most sketch crossovers.
Parodic crossovers can be used to lend verisimilitude to the fictional world of a program. Characters from a fictional television series may appear on a stylized version of an established non-fictional television series, such as game shows or reality shows. These crossovers between celebrity hosts and fictional characters are quite common on situation comedy, situation comedies. ''Mama's Family'' once appeared on ''Family Feud'' and the townsfolk of ''The Vicar of Dibley'' have had their heirlooms valuated on ''Antiques Roadshow'', for instance. In such cases, it is generally the non-fictional show which ends up being the most satirized, due to a need to compress the experience to its most recognizable elements. However, these crossovers can happen on dramatic television, such as when ''Blue Peter'' provided Exposition (literary technique), narrative exposition on ''The Sarah Jane Adventures''. Rarely, brief crossovers between two fictional programs can be used for this same purpose. In the episode, "Army of Ghosts", Peggy Mitchell was seen in a fictionalized scene from ''EastEnders'' in order to demonstrate the degree to which the titular ghosts had permeated the popular culture of ''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...
''s United Kingdom, Britain. Here, too, time constraints caused the satire of the guest programme (''EastEnders'') and not the host program (''Doctor Who'').
Retroactive crossovers
Sometimes, crossovers occur even when there was no explicit intent to create them. Viewer interpretation can play into the size and complexity of crossovers. These sorts of crossovers involve no creation of additional material, but merely result from inferences drawn about existing filmed episodes. Usually they are a product of narrative ambiguity. Perhaps the best example of this was caused by the unusual ending to ''St. Elsewhere''. One interpretation of the ending scene of the final episode has been that the entire run of the program was a figment of autism, autistic character Tommy Westphall's imagination. This leads itself to a broad interpretation of the events of that series. Because the show had direct crossovers with twelve different programmes, and each one of these twelve had numerous ''other'' crossovers, linkages can be found from ''Elsewhere'' to 280 other shows, comprising what has been called "the Tommy Westphall Universe".
Tokusatsu for Japan
* ''Kamen Rider''
* ''Super Sentai''
* ''Ultra Series''
* ''Metal Hero Series''
* ''Chouseishin Series''
German crossover
One of the earlier instances of crossovers in TV productions outside the US is the episode ' (1990), which was produced by Westdeutscher Rundfunk, WDR and Deutscher Fernsehfunk, DFF as a crossover between the West Germany, West German crime series ''Tatort'' and the East Germany, East German crime series ''Polizeiruf 110''. Their respective popular heroes Horst Schimanski and Peter Fuchs join forces to solve a case in the turmoil of the time after the Berlin Wall#The fall, fall of the Berlin Wall. The episode was produced during the short transition period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the German reunification, reunification of Germany.
See also
* Amalgam Comics
* Canon (fiction)
* Callback (comedy)
* Continuity (fiction)
* Cross-licensing
* Fanfiction
* Fictional character
* Fictional universe
* Intercompany crossover
* Shared universe
* Tommy Westphall
*
Wold Newton family
References
External links
Thoughts On Crossovers In General (Kathryn Andersen)An essay musing on the numerous elements necessary to a successful crossover (primarily aimed at fan-written fiction).
Crossovers which build upon and take place in Philip José Farmer's World Newton continuity.
Jess Nevins' history of the fictional crossover
{{Superhero fiction
Crossover fiction,
Comics terminology
Film and video terminology
Television terminology