The accidental multiverse: Adaptations and reboots and the new superhero content strategy

Ever since Batman Begins (2005) introduced Hollywood audiences at large to the concept of the live-action reboot, it has become a popular strategy for long-tail film and television franchises to wipe the slate (mostly) clean and start afresh for new audiences. Before the 2020s and the cinematic popularization of the multiverse as both a narrative device and a branding umbrella, most franchise reboots were intended to be the dominant continuity for viewers. Thanks to the multiverse, some of these reboots – and the versions preceding them – now exist in a complex web of narrative, thematic and intertextual relationships. This article charts the how, why and so what? of the accidental multiverse; superhero franchises that have multiple narrative versions existing concurrently that were not originally intended to do so. As a potential blueprint for entertainment franchises in the future, the accidental multiverse offers a site for interpreting changing dynamics in industry production and audience reception logics and reminds us that in the streaming, niche-targeted content era, everything is connected.