Fictional Universe

Star Wars is an epic space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas during the 1970s and significantly expanded since that time. The first film in the franchise was simply titled Star Wars, but later had the subtitle A New Hope added to distinguish it from its sequels and prequels. Star Wars was released on May 25, 1977 by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, initially spawning two sequels. Twenty-two years after Star Wars was released, Lucas began the...

The Whoniverse is the fictional universe in which Doctor Who, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures and other related stories take place. The term is used most widely to link characters, ideas or items which are seen across multiple productions, such as Sarah Jane Smith from Doctor Who, K-9 and Company and The Sarah Jane Adventures, or Jack Harkness from Doctor Who and Torchwood. The word "Whoniverse" is a portmanteau of "Doctor Who" and "universe". It is similar to the popular term "Buffyverse"...

Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment series and media franchise. The Star Trek fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry is the setting of six television series including the original 1966 Star Trek, in addition to ten feature films (with an eleventh in post-production), dozens of computer and video games, hundreds of novels and other fan stories, as well as a themed attraction in Las Vegas. The original TV series alone is one of the biggest cult phenomena of modern times...

Earthsea is a fictional realm created by Ursula K. Le Guin for her short story "The Word of Unbinding", published in 1964, but that became more famous in her novel A Wizard of Earthsea, first published in 1968. The books that follow A Wizard of Earthsea are The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu, Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind. All are set in the world of Earthsea, as are (to date) seven short stories by Le Guin two of which are not collected in any of these books. The world...

The Austin Powers series is a series of comedy films that is written, produced by and stars Mike Myers as the title character, directed by Jay Roach and distributed by New Line Cinema. The films mainly spoof the James Bond, Derek Flint, Jason King and Matt Helm franchises, incorporate myriad other elements of popular culture and follow the British spy's attempts to bring the villain Doctor Evil to justice. They poke fun at the outrageous plots, rampant sexual innuendo, and one-dimensional...

The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novel for children written by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 100 million copies in 41 languages. Written by Lewis between 1949 and 1954 and illustrated by Pauline Baynes, The Chronicles of Narnia have been adapted several times, complete or in part, for radio, television, stage, and cinema. In addition to numerous traditional Christian ideas, the series...

Monsters, Inc. is a 2001 film and the fourth computer animation produced by Pixar Animation Studios. The film was released to theaters by Walt Disney Pictures in the United States on November 2 2001, in Australia on December 26, 2001 and in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2002. The story for Monsters, Inc. was written by Jack W. Bunting, Jill Culton, Peter Docter, Ralph Eggleston, Dan Gerson, Jeff Pidgeon, Rhett Reese, Jonathan Roberts and Andrew Stanton. It was directed by Pete Docter, Lee...

The Space Odyssey series is a science fiction series of novels and films created from 1948 to 1997 primarily by the science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke and by the film director Stanley Kubrick. The series consists of two films and four novels. The two films were directed by Kubrick and by Peter Hyams, respectively. The first film screenplay was written by Stanley Kubrick and Clarke jointly, based on the seed idea in an earlier short story by Clarke (which bears little relation to the film...

Tortall is a major country in the universe in which the Song of the Lioness, Immortals, Protector of the Small, Trickster and the Provost's Dog books take place. Its capital is Corus, located near the western coast on the Emerald Ocean. To the north is Scanra, a wild and somewhat barbaric country with whom Tortall went to war in the last two books of the Protector of the Small quartet. To the east are Galla, Tusaine, and Tyra, and past them are Maren and Saraine. Carthak is south of Tortall...

Known Space is the fictional setting of several science fiction novels and short stories written by author Larry Niven. It has been also in part been used as a shared universe in the Man-Kzin Wars spin-off anthologies sub-series. It is the name given by humans to an area of the galaxy near the Earth which is explored and settled several centuries in the future and is peopled by alien races such as Pierson's Puppeteers, Kzinti, and the many races of the Ringworld. Late in the series, this area...

The Lovecraft Mythos is the term coined by the scholar S. T. Joshi to describe the imaginary mythical backdrop, settings, and themes employed by the American weird fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft's mythos is the foundation of a fictional myth-cycle known as the "Cthulhu Mythos", first recognized and developed by the writer August Derleth, that places a particular group of Lovecraft's stories into a separate and distinct category. Lovecraft himself, however, never used the term...

The Terminator series is a franchise encompassing a series of science fiction film and ancillary media concerning battles between Skynet's artificially intelligent machine network, and John Connor's Tech-Com forces and the rest of the human race. Skynet's most well-known products in its genocidal goals are the various terminator models, such as the original "Terminator" character, portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger in three films. The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction film written and...

Battlestar Galactica, or BSG, is a franchise of American science fiction film and television series, the first of which was produced in 1978. A series of book adaptations, original novels, comic books and video games have also been based on the concept. A reimagined miniseries aired in 2003, with a regular television series starting in 2004. All of the Battlestar Galactica productions share the same premise: In a distant part of the universe, a civilization of humans live on planets known as...

Discworld is a comedic fantasy book series by the British author Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which, in turn, stand on the back of a giant turtle, Great A'Tuin. The books frequently parody, or at least borrow ideas from, J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft and William Shakespeare, as well as mythology, folklore and fairy tales, often using them for satirical parallels with current cultural, technological and...