Did You Forget About These Cinematic Universes (That Aren't Marvel or DC)?

From Quick Stop to Quick Stop, filmmaker and storyteller Kevin Smith packed his View Askewniverse with lovable slackers just trying to get by. Even when one of these works differs in tone, like the violent religious musing Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob are still there to smoke a J and deliver the point of the movie in a late act 2 monologue. Snoogans.

If you've ever watched a movie about a wacky scientist, from Flubber to its predecessor The Absent-Minded Professor, chances are said wacky scientist attended Medfield College. The fictional university has appeared in eight Disney films, putting all of these films in the same universe. If we were in charge of university funding, we'd have some words to Medfield's dean. The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes? Those funds were allocated for cafeteria renovations!

How many monsters has Godzilla fought in its lifetime? From Ghidorah to Mothra to even King Kong, Japanese studio Toho has used their versatile giant-lizard-cum-nuclear-war-allegory to craft a long-spanning, complicated cinematic universe. All these films' tones are interestingly varied, from animated sci-fi cyberpunk, to muted bureaucratic satire. There are currently 31 films in the Tohoverse, and they show no signs of stopping.

In Trading Places, the classic John Landis/Eddie Murphy '80s comedy, the mega-rich Duke Brothers get their just desserts, losing their fortune on the stock floor. In Coming To America, the classic John Landis/Eddie Murphy '80s comedy, we see the Dukes again, as homeless men whom Prince Akeem takes pity on. This crossover, combined with Landis' penchant for "See You Next Wednesday" posters, means there is definitively a Landis-verse.

Despite lasting a whopping eight films, the original Harry Potter series still served as a tantalizing tease into an entire world. A, hmm, how can we put this, wizarding world. Then, thankfully, we got a new series, starting with Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, and turning the J.K. Rowling-created world of magic into a full-fledged cinematic universe.

Every movie deals with a bonkers monster (the same bonkers monster?) threatening the fate of the world. Yet the universe's latter two entries (10 Cloverfield Lane and The Cloverfield Paradox) were turned into Cloverfilms from pre-existing, orgiinal screenplays. This makes for a particularly unique universe, with different tones and vibes available depending on your mood.

Quentin Tarantino's work boasts not one, but two cinematic universes. There's the actual world of his films where Michael Madsen in Reservoir Dogs is brothers with John Travolta in Pulp Fiction and everyone eats Big Kahuna Burger. But there's also, as Tarantino puts it, "this special ‘movie’ universe... So basically when the characters of Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, when they go to the movies ... Kill Bill is what they go see." These "movie movies" tend to be Tarantino at his most stylish and unhinged, which makes sense given that they are "not real". Confused yet?

Scream and The Cabin In The Woods are good and all, but we think the Conjuring universe contains some of the most postmodern horror entries in recent years. Teased in the first Conjuring by a room full of spooky trinkets, each of the subsequent films builds on a hodgepodge of influences from the 1970s, classical gothic horror, and completely contemporary sound design. Or, if that's too pretentious for ya: Spooky dolls and scary nuns and horrible clapping games, ahhh!

Universe. Cinematic universe. One full of gadgets, golden guns, girls, and a gentleman by the name of Bond. We've seen a handful of handsome British men embody 007, and we've seen him surrounded by some of the same familiar faces even as his face changes. We've even seen a soft reboot into a "universe that retains continuity" with the gritty Daniel Craig entries. In other words, they shook, not stirred, their cinematic universe.

Are you wondering, "wait, did they really made a movie where the ghost kid from Ringu fights the ghost kid from Ju-On, or is that a bad Photoshop?" Because the former is thrillingly, excitingly true. Known primarily in the US from their remakes (The Ring and The Grudge, respectively), these cursed children face off in this bonkers J-horror flick, effectively mashing their mythologies together. Is an American remake, where Naomi Watts and Sarah Michelle Gellar have to solve a case together, far behind? Cause we'd watch the heck out of that.

Jason Voorhees has gone to camp, space, and Manhattan. Freddy Krueger has gone to, well, everyone's dreams. And Freddy Vs. Jason, these two titans of terror finally went to each other. Awww. The Friday The 13th series and Nightmare On Elm Street series have always shared a common trajectory of tone and content. Thus, their eventual "universifying" feels surprisingly natural.

This one's a doozy. You've got the original Alien series of four films. You've got the original Predator series of two films. You've got the Prometheus/Alien: Covenant offshoot of Alien spinoffs. You've got your Predators/The Predator offshoot of Predator spinoffs. And they all come crashing together by virtue of the two Alien Vs. Predator films, wonky and wacky action joints that retain none of their namesake's filmmaking chops, but are still dumb, fun rides. So many flavors to try in this universe!

"When I started making movies, I thought I would just invent a town where everything happened," said John Hughes, the filmmaker behind so many teen classics. "Everybody, in all of my movies, is from Shermer, Illinois... Ferris Bueller knew Samantha Baker from Sixteen Candles." That's right: all these wonderfully nostalgic movies exist together in one cinematic universe. What we wouldn't give to see Breakfast Club: Infinity War.

Because American cinema never met a foreign idea it didn't want to remake, we're getting a MonsterVerse, Legendary Pictures' take on a new Tohoverse. We've had a somber, subdued Godzilla and a bonkers, wild Kong: Skull Island. Next on the docket? Godzilla: King of the Monsters, from horror director Michael Dougherty. You know all these monsters eventually gonna meet.

If you want a big-screen Star Trek experience, you've got a lot of choices. Do you want something from the original cast? Or a Jean-Luc Picard-led offering? Or the one where he and Kirk meet? Or the rebooted series that thanks to some time travel trickery is kind of technically part of the original canon? When boldly going into this cinematic universe, just remember: Even ones good, odd ones bad.

While most folks only know about the three main Matrix films (and most would rather forget about the second two), there is another work that turns this into a bonafide cinematic universe. We're talking about The Animatrix, a curious anthology film with short segments helmed by acclaimed anime directors. It's worth a watch, as it explores some of the ideas hinted at in The Matrix even better than its sequels. Plus: damn, the animation is beautiful.

Ocean's 8 makes it clear within the first few minutes: Sandra Bullock's character is directly related to George Clooney's character from Ocean's 11, 12, and 13. Later, Elliott Gould shows up to reprise his character and basically shout at us, "We're making a cinematic universe, can you tell?" We can tell, and we're onboard. A series of films about dope people committing dope heists in stylish ways? Hell yeah.

Everything is awesome! Everything is cool when you're part of the Lego cinematic universe! The first film, The Lego Movie, quickly shifted from, "I'm sorry, why are we making that into a movie?" to "I'm sorry, can we have more, please?" Since then, we've gotten a brickified Batman and a take on the Lego's popular Ninjago series, with more to come.

For awhile, the Star Wars films went in a straight line forward, then backward, then forward again, all focusing on the Skywalker saga. Then, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story came and Force-lightninged the series sideways. Now we have a full-fledged cinematic universe to contend with, even as the kerfuffle of Solo complicates things.

There is nothing more pure or joyful than a damn Muppet. Created by Jim Henson in the 1950s, these creatures have gotten into all kinds of fourth-wall breaking shenanigans on the silver screen. They've taken on Dickens, Stevenson, and, uh, Segel. Each film is fundamentally self-contained, but we highly recommend watching them all if you, you know, enjoy life.

In 1968, Charlton Heston, a human, yelled, "Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!" In 2014, Caesar, an ape, yelled "No!" Both lines chill equally, and that's the genius of the Planet Of The Apes universe. From the older series to the newer entries, we witness an evolution in empathy, from humans to apes. It's a remarkable look into what a cinematic universe can do to survive and remain relevant.

The OG cinematic universe. Universal Pictures wrote the playbook everyone's playing with their classic roster of horror films. Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Invisible Man, the Mummy -- all of these iconic characters and more show up in each other's films in a way remarkably similar to the MCU.