In 1934, a book called Sidewise in Time and that’s when we found ourselves in a different timeline so to speak. This book is the reason as to why does every story become a multiverse. As the name suggests and what this book is about is that, countless different universes of time or variations of what did or didn’t happen to converge in a complete catastrophic event. This can either be different realities or some sort of time warp. Multiverse is itself a multiverse of sub categories all under the same umbrella.

You were probably first exposed to this genre with the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, more specifically 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” when literal multiple Spidermans from different universes (film series) all met each other in one single movie. Their realities colliding and they all finding out with did and didn’t happen as their timelines diverged. However, DC first formally established the concept of multiverse 60 years earlier than the Spiderman movie with 1961’s “The Flash of Two Worlds” when one Flash met the other.

So Why Does Every Story Become a Multiverse?

Well, speaking as a (semi) competent fiction writer, there’s a term we writers used called ‘Discover Writing’. Essentially a writer may have the characters, setting and basic plot set but beyond that they just have a basic notion on where the story is going. You see that’s when they ‘discover’ the plot themselves and follow where it leads them in real time. They bank that their world and character motivation make the pacing seem organic and realistic.

Many writers (including myself) have experienced that ‘Aha!’ moment where the story would be better like this and ditched their original plan for this newly minted one. Although different from books, shows have done this countless times where a planned one off character became a recurring favorite and the story changed dynamically because of it. Some examples include:

• Steve Harrington from Stranger Things
• Mike Ehrmantraut from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul
• Castiel from Supernatural
• Benjamin Linus from Lost
• Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z

However, with these constant on the spot decisions additions, with popularity rising to meet demand, and with some franchises never truly ‘ending’ anymore, but rather now go through a cycle of soft or hard reboots. Thus, the door that is multiverse is very much wide open and has become pretty much a trope or fad depending if you’re sick of it or not.

The thing is that some franchises go on for so long and everything gets convoluted that it kinda ‘cannibalizes’ itself. They have so much material written, fan favorite legacy characters, and ‘what if’ questions that someone goes and says “Hey, why make a story if there’s a story already here?”. Well it either does that or does a dreaded retcon that some die hard fans feel is end of the road writing itself into a corner.

All in all, the reason why does every story become a multiverse trope is simply because how easy it is to re use or repurpose the things you’ve already written or did and make a story out of that. Have a character go back in time to change a part of history and irreversibly make a new universe because of that decision? Boom multiverse. Have a character that is a foil of the same character but just one thing happened to be different? Boom multiverse. Have a character teleported to a different alternative time where everything seems normal but not quite? You guessed it multiverse.

Batman has had so many alternate universes alone that each story of his can be a giant multiverse alone.

What Does a Crab Have Anything to do With It?

I know how that reads but bear with me for a moment as I explain please.

In nature there is a process called carcinisation which essentially means to evolve into a crab like shape. Now obviously, a crab isn’t the most fearsome animal (crustacean?) but it is well suited to survive in its environment. In fact, 5 separate species have naturally and independently evolved into a crab because it is the most optimal.

Multiverse stories will be that proverbial crab and its eventual final form.

So many of our favorite franchises already incorporate some type of multiverse and sometimes without us realizing it. Or in another case where it is slowly but steadily creeping towards it.

Pokemon has been toying with multiverse trope with all these plotlines of space, time distortion, wormholes and cosmic anomalies. Sure one can argue that it can be a big shared universe, but I think one day that big shared universe will collide more so. Another would be the Mortal Kombat series where they flat out went all out in their latest story Mortal Kombat 1. Even theories flirt with the idea of it like all Pixar movies being connected to each other or all television shows having a shared universe like the Tommy Westphall universe theory.

The What ifs Always Makes Us Want More

People are always naturally curious as to how their favorite characters would react to eachother even if they have no business meeting. I mean, just look at King Kong and Godzilla. Some people might say it’s a multiverse trope and that its creatively bankrupt sure, but I think even thinking about they would react is creativity in itself.

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