List Of Fiction Employing Parallel Universes

The following is a list of fiction employing parallel universes or alternate realities.

Literature

* Nayantara Ghosh Indian Writer, Poet, Tennis Player, wrote ''Ayame's Parallel Universe,'' a story about a Japanese high school student, Ayame Takahashi, who awoke in a parallel universe. While there, she witnessed flowers growing 7-feet tall, cat elections, dog's mooing and many more peculiar incidents.
* Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, wrote '' The Blazing World'' (1666), a book far ahead of its time, in which the heroine passes through a portal near the North Pole to a world with different stars in the sky and talking animals.
* Ludvig Holberg, Danish-Norwegian author, historian, and philosopher wrote ''Niels Klim's Underground Travels'' (in Latin as Nicolai Klimii iter subterraneum, 1741). The hero Niels Klim slips into a cave and reaches Nazar, a planet inside the hollow Earth, where societies and beings represent satirical comments to existing contemporary ones.
* Edwin Abbott Abbott, mathematician and theologian, wrote '' Flatland'' (1884), also known as ''Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions''. It recounts the story of a two-dimensional world inhabited by living geometric figures: triangles, squares, circles, etc., and explores concepts of other dimensions (or universes) including Portland, Lineland, and Spaceland. A feature film adaptation of this novella was made in 2007, called '' Flatland''.
* H. G. Wells wrote what is apparently the first explicit para time novel, ''Men Like Gods'' (1923), complete with multiverse theory and a paratime machine.
* Murray Leinster's story "Sidewise in Time" (1934), showing different parts of the Earth somehow occupied by different parallel universes, was influential in science fiction.
* Olaf Stapledon's ''Star Maker'' from 1937 describes God (called the Star Maker) evolving by creating many cosmoses, each one more complex than the previous.
*In ''C. S. Lewis'' classic ''Chronicles of Narnia'' series (1950–1956) children come and go between our world and Narnia, a land populated by talking animals. In '' The Magician's Nephew'' the Wood between the Worlds gives access to several worlds. In '' The Last Battle'' it transpires that all the worlds are joined together by a form of heaven.
* '' Ward Moore''s '' Bring the Jubilee '' describes the Confederacy winning the American Civil War. This 1953 novel was well received and influenced ''Philip K. Dicks '' The Man in the High Castle''.
* '' Andre Nortons ''The Crossroads of Time'' is a science-fiction novel written by Andre Norton and first published in 1956 by Ace Books. The story takes its protagonist through several versions of Earth as it might have been if history had gone a little differently. The book has been translated into Spanish, Italian, and German. Tacitly postulating a kind of two-dimensional time, Norton anticipated Hugh Everett III's many-worlds interpretation of the quantum theory by one year. She called it the "possible worlds" theory of history.
* Philip K. Dick's '' The Man in the High Castle'' (1962) is an alternate history novel.
*In ''The Man Who Folded Himself'' (1973) by David Gerrold, paradoxes caused by time travel result in the creation of multiple universes.
* Piers Anthony wrote the " Of Man and Manta" series (''Omnivore'', ''Orn'', and ''Ox'', 1968–76) in which a group of three scientists explores worlds in parallel universes.
* Tonke Dragt's novel "The Towers of February" (De torens van February, 1973) is a coming-of-age novel in diary form for young adults, about a boy who slowly discovers that his memory loss is due to having passed into a parallel universe. The difficulty to travel between both worlds can be seen as symbolic for reaching adulthood and can be taken literally at the same time.
* Michael Coney ''Charisma'' 1975 A murder mystery which involves the main character John Maine traveling to different parallel worlds, but the only worlds he can travel to are the ones in which his 'other self' is dead.
* Michael Ende's novel '' The Neverending Story'' (Die unendliche Geschichte, 1979) is a portal-story where the deterioration of fantasy (and of lies) among humans of Earth both influences (and stem from) what happens in the magical world of Fantastica. The protagonist reads the story of this world in a book until he understands that he may take part in and save it, and eventually the imagination of Earth.
* David Brin wrote ''The Practice Effect'' (1984), which is the story of a scientific researcher who finds himself stranded in an alternate dimension that has unique natural laws that allow objects to become improved as they are used, rather than degrade.
* Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter wrote ''The Long Earth'' (2012), the first of a series of novels about a (possibly infinite) series of parallel worlds that are similar to Earth.
* H. Beam Piper, the author of the '' Paratime'' series, wrote several stories dealing with alternate realities based on points of divergence far in the past. The stories are usually written from the perspective of a law-enforcement outfit from a parallel reality which is charged to protect the secret of temporal transposition.
* "Convolutions", a novella by Vashti Daise, gradually reveals that the two main teenage characters exist in overlapping universes, and when they discover a paradise-like third universe, they can't help but be tempted to escape the struggles of their worlds.
* Fredric Brown's ''What Mad Universe'' recounts the adventures of a science-fiction editor of the late 1940s who is thrown into a parallel universe that reflects the fantasies of his most annoying letter-to-the-editor writer (an adolescent male, naturally).
* Isaac Asimov's novel ''The Gods Themselves'' depicts scientists in our universe who find a way to "import" matter from another universe, with unforeseen consequences. "The End of Eternity" by Asimov deals with interactions between many timelines or universes that are the result of continuous new alterations a single timeline by external temporal manipulators called the eternals; these many universes and timelines therefore do not exist simultaneously.
* K. A. Applegate's series, ''Everworld'' (1999–2001): Several teenagers travel into a parallel world occupied by the mythological beings of Earth.
* Brandon Mull's series, ''Beyonders'' (2011-2013): Depicts the multiverse as being divided into an enormous set of "normal" universes, including ours (the beyond), and one intelligently created universe set apart from all others (Lyrian). It's strongly implied in the novels that it's only possible to travel from the "beyond" to Lyrian, or from Lyrian to the beyond.
*Gretchen McNeil's novel '' 3:59'' follows the story of Josie, a girl who keeps having dreams about her doppelganger Jo at exactly 3:59 each night. She soon discovers the two live in parallel universes and get the chance to switch places.
* Stephen King's series '' The Dark Tower'' has doors that send travelers to different parallel Earths, or, as termed in the story, different levels of the Tower. King also frequently utilizes this idea in other stories, such as '' The Mist'', ''From A Buick 8'', ''The Talisman'', '' Black House'' and '' Insomnia''.
* Robert A. Heinlein's novel '' The Number of the Beast'' is focused around a 'time machine' that also proves to be able to travel sideways and other directions in time, allowing for crossing into other realities, even ones previously considered fictional by the protagonists.
* S. M. Stirling's novel ''Conquistador'' is based on travel between parallel universes, with a group of 20th century Americans having found a means to secretly colonize a world where civilization never advanced past the classical era.
*''Globus Cassus'' is a book describing a utopian project for a universe contrary to ours, it describes an antipode to the 'real' world.
*'' The Wheel of Time'' by Robert Jordan series the world of dreams, and the Mirror Worlds which represent what could have been had various events in history happened in different ways.
* ''The Difference Engine'' (1990) by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling is widely regarded as a book that helped establish the genre conventions of steampunk. It posits a Victorian era Britain in which great technological and social change has occurred after entrepreneurial inventor Charles Babbage succeeds in building a mechanical computer.
* Diana Wynne Jones' '' Chrestomanci'' series revolves around the duty of the Chrestomanci to regulate magic in the twelve related worlds. These worlds have alternate histories, in which some people may exist only in a few worlds. Other works of Jones' that include parallel universes: The ''Magid'' series; ''Deep Secret'' and ''The Merlin Conspiracy'' in which the multiverse is shaped like an infinity sign and contains Ayewards and Naywards. The ''Derkholm'' series: '' Dark Lord of Derkholm'' and its sequel '' Year of the Griffin'' in which Pilgrims come from a parallel world for Mr. Chesney's offworld tours. In ''Howl's Moving Castle'', though it does not play a major part in the plot, the wizard Howl is actually from our world. In ''A Tale of Time City'', the main character, Vivian, is kidnapped and taken to Time City, a city out of time and space. Along with her new friends and past kidnappers Jonathan and Sam, she hunts through time and space for the polarites that are gradually being stolen. In ''A Sudden Wild Magic'' a group of benevolent witches set out to stop the magicians of Arth who steal ideas, technology, and innovations from Earth. In ''Hexwood'', the machine Bannus sucks potential Reigners from all over the universe into the Wood. In ''The Homeward Bounders'' Jamie is made into a Homeward Bounder by "Them" which means he must constantly travel from world to world until he finds his home again.
* John DeChancie's '' Castle Perilous'' series tells of a huge magical castle containing portals to 144,000 worlds, including Earth.
* Stephen R. Donaldson's ''Mordant's Need'' series, which includes ''The Mirror of Her Dreams'' and ''A Man Rides Through'', follows a heroine who can pass into another world through mirrors.
*In '' The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant'' series, also by Stephen R. Donaldson, main character Thomas Covenant is transported to another world called The Land. Each time he travels to The Land corresponds to an injury in the real world that leaves him unconscious.
* Philip Pullman's '' His Dark Materials'' series (1995–2000) deals with two children who wander through multiple worlds, opening and closing windows between them. The final book elaborates the same idea (as C.S. Lewis') that all the worlds share a common heaven, and in this case, underworld.
* Jasper Fforde's '' Thursday Next'' series is set in a parallel universe which is very similar to ours but has (amusingly) different history. For example, Britain and Russia are still fighting the Crimean War in 1985. As the story develops, the world of fiction also emerges as another parallel universe and the characters learn how to move between them.
*The German series '' Perry Rhodan'' sometimes deals with parallel universes and "pararealities." Each universe has a "strangeness" value that indicates to what extent its physical laws differ from those of our universe. Travel to another universe results in a "strangeness shock" that can disable electronics and leave intelligent beings unconscious for some time.
*In L. Neil Smith's '' The Probability Broach'' series of novels, characters from different universes end up in a universe in which American history took a different turn in the aftermath of the Revolution, with Albert Gallatin assisting the western Pennsylvania farmers of the Whiskey Rebellion, which culminates in George Washington's execution and the rise of a libertarian republic under a revised Articles of Confederation.
*In James P. Hogan's ''Paths to Otherwhere'' (1996), scientists at the Los Alamos Laboratory create a machine QUADAR which allow them to swap conscious with people in parallel universes. They explore various parallel universes.
*In Kia Asamiya's manga novel ''Space Battleship Nadesico'', written alongside the series '' Martian Successor Nadesico'' but altering severely as the course of the story runs, the Jupiterians that are attacking Earth come from a parallel universe, the portal of which is in the red storm visible on Jupiter as a red spot. In their world, Japan won World War II, and because of their strong religious Shinto beliefs, their Gods did not die out, and they were able to use this magic to help strengthen their technology. However, their sun died out prematurely, and so they have come to our world to steal the energy from our sun to save their world.
* Neil Gaiman's novella Coraline deals with a parallel universe called the "Other World" in which Coraline's surroundings are the same but the people who are supposed to be her parents are actually evil impostors. The novella spawned a film of the same name that deals with the same plot and use of parallel universes.
* Sergey Lukyanenko's novel ''Rough Draft'' (2005) takes place across the multiverse of at least 22 worlds (it was implied that there were actually more worlds that haven't been discovered yet) linked together by a series of tower-like transfer points.
*''I, Q'' is a 2000 Star Trek novel by Peter David and John de Lancie in which God attempts to destroy the multiverse in a large multi-universe maelstrom which the protagonists attempt to stop from within a newly created universe caused by the maelstrom.
*In Robert J Sawyer's '' Neanderthal Parallax'' series (2003) a parallel historical universe exists in which it was Neanderthals not Homo sapiens who survived to become the dominant species. In a quantum physics experiment gone wrong a Neanderthal scientist is accidentally transported into the universe of Homo sapiens.
* Michael Lawrence's ''The Aldous Lexicon'' (2005–2007), comprising ''A Crack in the Line'', ''Small Eternities'' and ''The Underwood See'', concerns comings and goings between initially two, later many parallel realities.
*In ''Mirror Dreams'' (2002) and ''Mirror Wakes'' (2003) by Catherine Webb, there are mirror universes, one a magical universe where technology barely works, the other a scientific universe where magic barely works. The inhabitants can physically visit each other's worlds in dreams.
*In the '' Stravaganza'' series by Mary Hoffman various people travel between present-day England and an alternative, somewhat magical Renaissance Italy called Talia.
*In the Alastair Reynolds novel ''Absolution Gap'', (2003) a race called the "Shadows" drives the action. They claim to be from a parallel universe which has been overrun by a rogue terraforming system that has destroyed their entire universe. They have sent instructions to our world on how to build machinery to let them across.
*In ''The Divide trilogy'' by Elizabeth Kay (2002–2006), Felix Sanders crosses into a parallel universe where magic and magical beings exist while science and human beings are considered mythical.
* Andrew Crumey's novel ''Mobius Dick'' (2004) features a parallel world in which Nazi Germany invaded Britain and Erwin Schrödinger failed to find the quantum theory equation that bears his name. The parallel worlds become connected due to experiments with quantum computers. The same alternate world (in which post-war Britain falls under Communist rule) also appears in his novels ''Music, in a Foreign Language'' (1994) and ''Sputnik Caledonia'' (2008).
*In Darren Shan's ''Demonata'' series (2005–2010) a boy can open windows to parallel worlds with his hands. A part of the story also plays in one of these parallel worlds, the Demonata.
* Harry Turtledove's ''Crosstime Traffic'' series of books (2003–2008) by Harry Turtledove centers on an Earth that has discovered access to alternate universes where history went differently. "Crosstime Traffic" is the name of the company with a global monopoly on the technology.
*'' Pet Force'', a series of children's books by Jim Davis and a spinoff of Garfield, one of his comic strips. The series contains five novels and takes place in a parallel universe and features alternate versions of the comic strip's main characters.
* Michael Crichton's '' Timeline'' (1999) tells the story of historians who travel to the Middle Ages to save a friend of theirs who already traveled back in time before them. The book follows in Crichton's long history of combining technical details and action in his books, addressing quantum physics and time travel. The time travel mechanism incorporates the concept of the multiverse.
* Greg Egan's ''Diaspora'' is a novel about sentient software intelligences living inside computer "polises" who undertake expeditions throughout the multiverse.
* Alan Dean Foster's ''Spellsinger'' series concerns a 20th-century college student who finds himself transported to a world populated by sentient animals and featuring magic, which he learns how to perform himself through a guitar-like instrument.
* Alan Dean Foster's ''Parallelities'' is a novel about a tabloid reporter whose interview subject inadvertently infects him with a condition making him shift between alternate versions of Los Angeles seemingly at random.
* Three of Jack Womack's "Dryco" novels, '' Terraplane'', ''Elvissey'', and '' Going, Going, Gone'', concern an "evil" parallel universe which is also chronologically shifted about fifty years into our past, in which among other things, slavery wasn't abolished until the 20th century, the US government commits genocide in the 1940s and Elvis Presley is a psychopath.
* Micheal Buckley's N.E.R.D.S: The Cheerleaders of Doom features thousands of alternate realities in which the main characters form an army from.
* Richard Bach's ''One'' (2001) is a novel where Bach and his wife Leslie are catapulted into an alternate world, one in which they exist simultaneously in many different incarnations.
*The protagonist of Roger Zelazny's '' Chronicles of Amber'' belongs to a royal family of magician-types who can alter details of the world around them at will. These alterations are known as "walking in Shadow". The farther the desired Shadow-world lies from one's present reality, the more details need to be changed and the longer the walk.
* Stephen Lawhead's ''Song of Albion'' trilogy (published in 1991) tells the tale of a pair of university students who stumble into an alternate world (Albion).
*The conceit of Charles Stross's Merchant Princes series is that the ability to travel between worlds is a recessive trait possessed by a clan of narcotics runners from a medieval world. They travel to an alternate present where the northeast coast of North America has been settled by Norsemen.
*'' Dark Matter'' by Blake Crouch (2016)
* Daedalus Howell's ''Quantum Deadline'' (published in 2015) finds a reporter helping a boy who claims to be from a parallel universe return using an Easter Egg hidden in a popular mobile phone game. To complicate matters, the name of the reporter is also "Daedalus Howell" and a preface to the book reads "Based on a true story. Somewhere..." making the novel itself something of an alternate reality. (FMRL)
* Road to Eugenica by A.M. Rose is a novel where the main character Drea is actually from another dimension on Earth named Eugenica.
*Kristen Cashore's ''Jane Unlimited'' (published in 2017), contains many genres. In one section, protagonist Jane experiences the multiverse hinted at throughout the book.
*Overstrike by C. M. Angus (published in 2020) features high-functioning schizophrenics with the ability to simultaneously perceive multiple realities.
*James S. Peet's ''Corps of Discovery'' Series is set in the multiverse and follows the adventures of Corps of Discovery Explorer Bill Clark as he and fellow Explorers navigate between parallel Earths. The series consists of three books to date, ''Surveyor'' (published in 2017), ''Trekker'' (published in 2018), and ''Explorer'' (published in 2020). ''The Hayek Chronicles'' series is set in the same timeline as the ''Corps of Discovery'' Series, but it's from the point where the portal to parallel Earths is first discovered. Their is only one book in the series to date, ''Openings'' (published in 2022).

Feature films

*'' Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse'' (2024)
*''The Flash'' (2023)
*'' Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse'' (2023)
*'' Night of the Coconut'' (2022): a video essayist travels to a parallel dimension with a clout hungry coconut who has aspirations of multiversal domination.
*'' Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'' (2022)
*''Everything Everywhere All At Once'' (2022)
*'' Spider-Man: No Way Home'' (2021)
*'' Venom: Let There Be Carnage'' (2021)
*''Isn't It Romantic'' (2019)
*'' Avengers: Endgame'' (2019)
*'' Yesterday'' (2019)
*''Love at Second Sight'' (2019): French film depicting the story of Raphaël and Olivia who fall in love with each over. But, after a huge argument, Raphaël wakes up in a parallel word in which he has never met Olivia.
*'' Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse'' (2018)
*'' Deadpool 2'' (2018)
*'' The Cloverfield Paradox'' (2018)
*''Parallel'' (2018)
*'' Parallels'' (2015)
*'' Tomorrowland'' (2015)
*'' Time Lapse'' (2014)
*'' Edge of Tomorrow'' (2014)
*'' X-Men: Days of Future Past'' (2014)
*'' irandam ulagam'' (2013)
*'' My Little Pony Equestria Girls'' (2013)
*''Coherence'' (2013)
*'' Source Code'' (2011)
*''Another Earth'' (2011)
*'' Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension'' (2011)
*'' Shrek Forever After'' (2010)
*''Maximum Shame'' (2010)
*'' Paradox'' (2010)
*'' Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths'' (2010)
*'' Turtles Forever'' (2009)
*''Garfield's Pet Force'' (2009): Based on the children's book series, which takes place in a parallel universe and stars alternate versions of the main characters of the ''Garfield'' comic strips.
*''Star Trek'' (2009)
*'' Mr. Nobody'' (2009)
*'' Next'' (2007)
*'' The Mist'' (2007)
*'' The Golden Compass'' (2007)
*'' Déjà Vu'' (2006)
*'' The Butterfly Effect'' (2004)
*'' Webs'' (2003): A group of electricians find a machine in an abandoned building that can create a portal to a parallel Earth that has been overrun by giant spiders.
*'' The One'' (2001): Travel between parallel universes in the Multiverse is possible by using "quantum tunnelling" technology, but restricted and policed by the Multiverse Authority (MVA). Alternate versions or "Multiverse Counterparts" (MVCs) of all living persons are connected by an "energy string." Gabriel Yu-Law, a rogue, former MVA agent learns that killing alternate versions of himself in parallel universes divides the "energy" among the surviving MVC's and subsequently embarks on a mission to kill all of his MVC's in order to gain ultimate power and become "The One." He travels to what appears to be our universe to kill his last remaining MVC, Gabriel Law. The task becomes exceedingly more difficult as Law realizes that the energy he shares with Yu-Law has given them both super-human strength and agility.
*'' Donnie Darko'' (2001)
* ''Oshikiri'' (2000)
*''The Family Man'' (2000)
*''Escaflowne'', 2000 : Based on the anime Escaflowne features a girl who doesn't fit in. She is soon magically sent to the land of Guya where she is to help a prince gain access to the legendary Escaflowne in order for him to avenge his destroyed homeland.
*'' Pokémon 3: The Movie'' (2000)
*''Run Lola Run'' (1998)
*'' Sliding Doors'' (1998)
*'' The Lake'' (1998): The natives of a small town discover that they are slowly being replaced by that counterparts from a parallel Earth.
*''Crossworlds'' (1996)
*'' Fatherland'' (1994): "Based on the book of Robert Harris. Hitler won the war against the Western allies but the war against the Soviet Union is still raging on. It is 1964, the 75th birthday of the Führer..."
*''Doorways'' (1993)
*'' Super Mario Bros.'' (1993)
*'' Julia and Julia'' (1987)
* '' Prisoners of the Lost Universe'' (1983)
*'' The Stranger'' (1973)
*''Doppelgänger'' (AKA ''Journey to the Far Side of the Sun'', 1969)
*'' Last Action Hero'' (1993)
*'' The NeverEnding Story (film)'' (1984)
*''Enchanted (film)'' (2007)

Television

* ''Sonic Prime'' sends Sonic the Hedgehog into the "Shatterverse", a multiverse created by Sonic shattering the Paradox Prism, containing several "Shatterspaces", alternate versions of Sonic's world.
* '' What If...?'' (2021 – present) explores various realities within the Multiverse that diverged from the main timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), presented as variations of the events seen in mainline MCU entries.
*''Loki'' (2021 – present) follows an alternate version of Loki and other variants of himself as they journey across time into the past and future, while evading a bureaucratic agency that aims to maintain the stability of time.
*'' Dark'' (2017 – 2020) involves time and parallel worlds.
* ''Counterpart'', TV series 2017 – 2019, in which a parallel Earth was created in 1987 during an experiment by East German scientists: the protagonist works for an organization that communicates between the universes.
* ''Stranger Things'' (2016 – present) features an alternate dimension called the Upside Down which is a dark version of the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana filled with monsters and connected by a hive mind.
* ''The Flash'' (2014 – present) features many alternate universes after a singularity allowing multiversal travel opens in the finale of the first season. The multiverse is ultimately destroyed in the Crisis on Infinite Earths Arrowverse crossover, and reborn as a new multiverse connecting most DC television series, as well as the DC Extended Universe.
* '' Lost in Austen'' (2008): A woman from modern London enters the world of the Jane Austen novel ''Pride and Prejudice'' through a portal in her bathroom.
* '' The Twilight Zone''s 1963 episode " The Parallel" was one of the earliest examples of parallel universes as a key plot element on American television.
* The '' Babylon 5'' television movie ''Thirdspace'' involves the discovery of an alternate universe.
* '' Dark Shadows'', the 1960s fantasy/horror soap opera, introduced the concept of "parallel time" when the main character, Barnabas, witnesses unexplainable changes in a closed off part of his family's house. During one of these changes, he becomes trapped for a time in a parallel world.
* ''Star Trek'' featured the recurring mirror universe, a dark reflection of the normal universe in which the regular characters are twisted, self-serving and more than willing to resort to torture and murder to achieve their goals. The mirror universe was introduced in the original ''Star Trek'', and it also appeared in '' Enterprise'', but was featured most often in ''Deep Space Nine''. Other ''Star Trek'' episodes featuring parallel universes outside the Mirror Universe include " Parallels" and "The Alternative Factor".
* ''His Dark Materials'' (2019 – present) deals with two children who explore multiple different parallel universes, including a version of our own.
* ''Doctor Who'' occasionally featured parallel worlds. Examples include " Inferno" (1970), where Great Britain has been a republic since at least 1943 (the Royal Family having been executed after a military coup) and is ruled by a totalitarian regime led by a figure reminiscent of Oswald Mosley who uses the title of "the Leader". The 1980–1981 "E-space" trilogy of episodes (" Full Circle", " State of Decay", and "Warriors' Gate"). The second series of the 2005 revival of the show made frequent use of the concept beginning with " Rise of the Cybermen" and " The Age of Steel", postulating a parallel world with yet another Republic of Great Britain, Zeppelins filling the sky, and an alternate race of Cybermen are created. Since the Time War, travel between parallel universes is supposedly near-impossible, but a breach between the universes makes frequent visits easy in the second series finale " Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday". These visits cause increasing damage to the universes and the breach is permanently sealed.
* ''Sliders'' dealt with a group of mostly-unwilling travellers who ended up "sliding" between various parallel Earths in an attempt to find their way back to their own universe. Plots included an Earth in which the population is controlled through a lottery, an Earth where most of the males were killed by germ warfare, an Earth where dinosaurs are still alive, and an Earth in which the population have been turned into flesh-eating zombies. According to a main character Quinn, there were an infinite number of universes where different single decisions were different and even a world where the Earth formed differently and rotated around the Sun slower, slowing down that timeline.
* ''Futurama'' has included some parallel universe episodes like "I Dated a Robot" which features a universe where everyone's a cowboy/girl and "The Farnsworth Parabox" features boxes which hold a variety of universes inside them.
* '' Spellbinder'' series is about a group of teenagers who discover a gateway to a parallel universe, in which one of them becomes trapped. Its sequel " Spellbinder: Land of the Dragon Lord" features some of the same characters, who now have a trans dimensional "boat" with they use to travel between worlds.
* ''Parallax'' is about a boy named Ben, who discovers a portal to multiple universes, and explores them with his friends: Francis, Melinda, Una, Due, Tiffany and Mundi as well as newfound sister, Katherine.
* ''Stargate'' television franchise ('' Stargate SG-1'', '' Stargate Atlantis'' and '' Stargate Universe'') have had several episodes dealing with parallel universes. The first had Daniel Jackson finding a mirror looking device, known as the Quantum Mirror, where by touching the "mirror" he was taken to a parallel universe in which things hadn't gone so well compared to his reality. Another episode has a Samantha Carter and a character killed off in the second episode of the show come through the mirror to request help from the show's normal reality. With the end of that show the Quantum Mirror was destroyed. The next episode, "Ripple Effect", dealing with alternate realities has a lot of different SG1 teams coming through the same Gate. The latest episode, "The Road Not Taken", had Samantha Carter travel to an alternate reality where martial law was in effect.
* ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and '' Angel'' have featured both parallel universes, such as Pylea, and alternate realities, such as one where most of the regular cast were either dead or vampires. Also mentioned, but never seen, is the hypothetical World Without Shrimp and the confirmed-real World With Nothing But Shrimp. Episodes of this type include "Doppelgangland" and " The Wish."
* ''Charmed'', there exists an alternate dimension where all the evil are good and all the good are evil. The reason for this given that there has to be balance in the universe, so there can never be an area where everything is all good and one where it is all bad as this would affect the grand design of life. So for every good thing that the Charmed Ones do for good in this world, it is done for evil in another to keep things balanced. Mostly, everything occurs exactly the same way, mirroring the real world. Some differences are that all Whitelighters are Darklighters and vice versa, and that The Underworld is a Garden of Eden-like paradise. The Demon of Fear is the Demon of Hope, and Wyatt Halliwell faces a future in which he turns good one day as opposed to one where he turns evil. Some figures, such as the morally ambiguous Gideon, remain largely similar.
* '' The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour'', the main characters move back and forth from the respective universes of '' The Fairly OddParents'' and '' The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius''.
* In ''Smallville'' episode " Reckoning", Lana Lang is killed in a car crash while being chased by Lex Luthor. Clark Kent journeys to his Fortress of Solitude where he uses a Kryptonian crystal to go back in time and save Lana (creating an alternate timeline to the original events); however the universe 'finds a balance' and Clark's father Jonathan Kent dies instead. More recently, the season 10 episode "Luthor" explores a world where Clark was discovered by Lionel Luthor rather than Jonathan and Martha Kent.
* '' Charlie Jade'' describes three parallel universes: Alphaverse, Betaverse, and Gammaverse.
* ''Red Dwarf'' offers several humorous takes on the concept that don't involve an evil twin joke, including one episode where women are the dominant gender (Nellie Armstrong was the first person on the moon, and Wilma Shakespeare wrote great plays such as ''Rachel III'' and ''The Taming of the Shrimp''), and another where Arnold Rimmer becomes the far more dashing and debonair Ace Rimmer.
* '' Kamen Rider Decade'', the Japanese tokusatsu show, features ten parallel worlds, nine of which feature alternate versions of Kamen Riders from 2000–2008.
* In '' The O.C.'' episode "The Chrismukkah-huh?", Taylor Townsend and Ryan Atwood venture into a parallel universe in which they never existed, in order to set things straight to get back to their own world.
* '' Fringe'' has a recurring subplot in its first season about a terrorist group called ZFT who seek to prepare 'warriors' for a coming conflict between parallel universes. The final two episodes of the season deal with recurring villain David Robert Jones attempting to travel into a parallel universe in order to kill the mysterious William Bell. Series protagonist Olivia Dunham experiences visions of this other world before traveling there and meeting Bell in the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Background details show that in this universe, the White House was destroyed in the 9/11 attacks rather than the Twin Towers. In season 2 the main plot is manage to stop warriors from the other side, the shape-shifters. At the end of the season, the three main characters cross to this parallel universe. A character from the other side attempt to create a machine to destroy our universe, in order to save his own world. The main character, Olivia, remains trapped in the parallel universe by the end. In season 3, in odd-numbered episodes the episode takes place with Olivia, in the parallel world, while the other characters are in even-numbered episodes. In episode 8, the two story arcs collide, resulting with the end of the appearance of the parallel universe, but the upcoming war remains.
* The miniseries '' The 10th Kingdom'' concerns a parallel world in which the fairy tales of Grimm are historical events.
*''An Englishman's Castle''
*'' The X-Files'' episode " 4-D"
*'' The Day After Tomorrow''
*The '' Justice League'' episode "Justice Lords"
*''Awake''
*The '' Community'' episode "Remedial Chaos Theory"
*The '' Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' episode " Stranger in a Strange World"
*The Psych episode " Right Turn or Left for Dead"
* Rick and Morty is a television show, provided by Adult Swim, that involves many different parallel universes. A majority of these universes are shown in the second season.
*''Supernatural'' In season 6, the protagonists Sam and Dean Winchester travel to another universe where they are actors on a TV show called ''Supernatural''. Throughout season 13, a major plotline centers around a parallel universe known as Apocalypse World, a dark post-apocalyptic wasteland where Sam and Dean never existed and thus could not save the world. In the same season, another universe called The Bad Place is introduced which appears to be mainly inhabited by monsters that are different than what is in the Winchesters' world. This particular universe appeared in the backdoor pilot to the proposed spin-off series ''Supernatural: Wayward Sisters''.
* The City and the City (TV series)
* Ben 10: Omniverse: In the final half of the series, Vilgax forges an alliance with several evil alternate versions of Ben Tennyson. Ben actually visits one of them in the two parter "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Ben World", where the world underwent an apocalyptic event a la Mad Max, and the Ben of this timeline became a ruthless dictator.
* If I Hadn't Met You (2018)
* The Man in the High Castle
* The Magic Trolls and the Troll Warriors, Siegfried said that the magic trolls world was connected to Princess Celia's world.
* Once Upon a Time (TV series)
*Mia and Me

Anime

Isekai is a particular genre of anime where the main character is transported into another world. Although sometimes this is a virtual reality, most commonly it consists of parallel universes, especially fantasy worlds. There are a few examples in the list below.

* Black Rock Shooter while each piece of media takes place in its own universe, they each focus around Black Rock Shooter, a mysterious black haired girl who possesses a burning blue eye and a powerful cannon that can shoot rocks at high speed. Other characters also appear in more than one form of media. The OVA focuses on a girl named Mato Kuroi, who befriends another girl, Yomi Takanashi, upon entering school. As the two start to drift apart, with Yomi becoming jealous of Mato's friendship with Yuu Kotari, Yomi suddenly disappears. As Mato searches for her, she is taken to a strange world where she meets the mysterious Black Rock Shooter, who merges with her and helps her search for Yomi, fighting off the evil Dead Master who possessed her. The television series uses the same characters from the OVA in a similar but slightly different storyline. As Mato enters middle school and becomes friends with Yomi, she soon faces personal troubles and the influence caused by another world where Black Rock Shooter fights other girls.
* '' Amagami SS'' follows protagonist Junichi as every few episodes moves to an alternate timeline in which Junichi makes different decisions resulting in ending up with a different girlfriend.
* ''Digimon'' features an alternative perceived reality called the ''Digital World''. The Digital World is created as a result of the Earth's electronic network, with everything being made up of data instead of matter. Also, certain seasons, games, and manga are set in a different parallel Earth, with its own version of a Digital World. In the second season of the series a third world was introduced near the series finale; this world was a place where the wishes and desires of the Digidestined came true, only for their ideal realities to be shattered after coming to the realization they're not real.
* ''Dragon Ball'', there exists an alternate future timeline where the protagonist, Goku, dies of a heart disease, and without Goku to defend it, the Earth falls victim to a pair of androids who attack the Earth six months later and kill all other warriors who come to its defense. The character Trunks, who lives in the terrible destruction of Earth in this timeline, travels back in time to warn Goku about his disease and to warn him about the androids. As a result of this, in the "standard" timeline, Goku never dies of the disease, and the warriors never die in battle with the androids. Also resulting from this is that there are two versions of the character Trunks – the one from the alternate future, and the one from the standard, or altered, timeline. '' Dragon Ball Super'' later reveals the existence of twelve parallel universes, and that each timeline has its own set of these universes. The universes are numbered from one to twelve, and are in matching pairs, with each pair's numbers adding up to thirteen. Goku's universe is Universe 7, which is matched with Universe 6. Grand Zen'o, the Omni-King, eventually decides to arrange a massive battle royal tournament between eight of the universes, in which the losing universes will be erased from existence.
* '' Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure'' is based on two parallel universes that formed from a critical choice made in the past (each came from the assumption of one of two possible choices) and revolves around a protagonist able to see and later travel from one universe to the other.
*" Higurashi no Naku Koro ni"
* '' Rockman EXE'' Beast involves another dimension parallel to Earth named Beyondard, in which there are parallel versions of the characters in the world, where a war between the antagonists Falzer and Greiga are fighting over control, as well as the Synchronizer, Trill. Many Navis from Earth are in this world serving as the lower antagonists for the series, preferring to be called 'Zoanaroids' (strangely, many of the Zoanaroids were already deleted on Earth—a concept used by Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa), then their real name. These Navis had special forms that gave them increased strength and an altered appearance. In this world, a Navi could be materialized within Beyondard without the need of a dimensional area, due to its strange environment caused by an accident. The environment would also cause those using Cross Fusion pain while merged.
* ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'', the final episode of the series presents the main character Shinji Ikari with an alternate universe, wherein the cataclysmic event Second Impact had not occurred and all the main characters live peaceful lives. This universe went on to be the basis for numerous spin-off series, including '' Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days''. It is also stated in the episode that this universe was just one of many possible alternate universes.
* '' Noein'' is a story comprising both parallel universes and temporal juxtapositions; space and time are distorted (and the perception of such becomes vague), and past and future versions of characters (from different realities) co-exist in the same dimension.
*''Sonic the Hedgehog'', this parallel universe is called "Planet Freedom", which is split into two distinct realms: the Land of the Sky and the Land of Darkness. The Land of the Sky consists of an unknown number of continents that drift high in the stratosphere of the planet, all of them connected to a massive ice formation which also serves to anchor them to the planet's surface below. According to Knuckles, if this ice network was destroyed, Planet Freedom's rotation would hurl the Land of the Sky into outer space, undoubtedly killing everyone on it. The Land of Darkness is the actual surface of Planet Freedom, a post-apocalyptic wilderness with Robotnik as its sole living inhabitant. The Land of Darkness can only be accessed in one of two ways: by a whirlwind-like "portal" in the Land of the Sky, or via a warp zone, an extradimensional link between two points on Planet Freedom. Most of its terrain is untamed and mountainous, but a crumbling city serves as the location of Robotnik's empire. The city and terrain strongly imply that Planet Freedom is a post-apocalyptic Earth that was built upon with floating islands, with certain landmarks suggesting that the ruins are those of New York City.
*'' Sonic X '', there is two difference of parallel universe, Sonic's world and the world of humans, during Sonic's battle against his arch-enemy Doctor Eggman he crosses time and space and ends up in the human world along with his friend's Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Cream and Cheese, and there are other characters who appear along with them, Rouge, Chaotix, Big and his frog friend named Froggy, and other non-anthropomorphic animals from Sonic's world. Sonic meets a 12-year-old boy named Christopher Thorndyke who befriended Sonic and helps him and his friends to stop Eggman from getting hands-on Chaos Emeralds and stopping him frequently from taking over the human world while gathering the Chaos Emeralds which were the only key for Sonic and his friends to return back to their world.
* ''The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya'', a tie-in movie to the anime adaptation of '' The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'' light novels, features the world being altered by Yuki Nagato so that the main characters who possess supernatural abilities are ordinary humans, with protagonist Kyon being the only person who was affected by the alteration.
* ''Spider Riders'' (Kid Friendly): when a boy is transported to another world he soon finds out its filled with hero spider riders and he soon gets his own.
* '' Clannad: After Story'', during the final episode where protagonist Tomoya is sent to an alternate universe where his wife Nagisa, and daughter Ushio have not died.
* '' Outbreak Company'' mainly is about a shut-in otaku from Japan being sent to a magical alternate universe newly discovered by the Japanese government, in means to spread Japanese culture across the lands of the new world.
* '' Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE'' centers on a group of characters traveling through a multitude of alternate realities—essentially parallel universes—on a quest to restore someone's memories.
* '' The Familiar of Zero'' focuses on a human boy on Earth being accidentally sent to a magical world, by a spell. It is mentioned several times that others have traveled between the two universes through a portal from an annual solar eclipse.
* '' Bakugan Battle Brawlers''
* '' Inuyasha'' is a manga and anime about a young girl that travels back in time to a world full of demons and monsters by falling into a well. There, she meets a half-demon called Inuyasha.
*'' Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa'' depicts two worlds: our world, which is well on its way to WWII, and the world of alchemy where a majority of the series' events take place.
* '' Fairy Tail'' features a story arc in which guild members travel to a parallel world called Edolas which is devoid of the magic they are used to.
* ''Steins;Gate'' Multiple scenarios depending upon player's actions.
* '' Vision of Escaflowne'' A girl is accidentally taken to the land of Guya when a prince on a dragon hunt, so he can awaken the legendary mecha Escaflowne, arrives in our world. After defeating the dragon they are both sent back to Guya where adventure soon occurs after the prince's land is destroyed by our villains.
*''Isekai Izakaya "Nobu"'' An izakaya was opened for customers from the parallel worlds that serves drinks and food.
*'' Naruto the Movie: Road to Ninja'' Naruto and Sakura was teleported to an alternate world, in which the situation are in reverse, like Hinata developed an aggressive nature, Kiba loves cats, Neji's a pervert, Sasuke's a lady's man, Kushina and Minato are alive and Sakura's parents are dead, Tenten are clumsy and among others. They must fight Menma, Naruto's alternate.
*'' Restaurant to Another World'' a Western Restaurant was serving people from another world every Saturday via a magical warped door.
*''Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody'' The protagonist became stuck on the game he managed.
*''The Girl in Twilight'', known in Japan as ''Akanesasu Shoujo'' explores the ideas of parallel worlds when the main group of protagonists accidentally stumble upon them and meet their parallel counterparts.
*''Gate (novel series)''

Radio

* ''Fifth Dimension'' is a radio drama adaptation of the short story, "The Plattner Story" by H. G. Wells. A chemistry teacher is accidentally thrust into a parallel world with alien inhabitants. The regular world continues to be visible, though translucent and intangible.
*''Undone'' is a radio comedy based on the idea of parallel versions of London, in particular "Undone". Undone is seen as a place where weirdness is normal, while mundaneness is normal in London, with some "Leakage" between the two. There is also a third version called "Donlon", a more mundane version of London in which everything is generic.
*'' Married'' is a radio comedy with science fiction themes that first aired in 1999. Robin is happily single when he wakes up in a parallel universe, with a wife and kids.

Comics

Alternate/parallel universes are often used as an explanation for crossovers between different comic companies' characters.

* '' The Adventures of Luther Arkwright'' is based around the concept of parallel universes.
* Various alternate universes in Archie Comics

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