One Story, Many Screens: Connected Universes Weighed
A shared universe is a relay with dozens of runners and one baton. Here's who kept it moving, and who sent it skittering across the track.
Why Universes Are the Hardest Race
A trilogy needs three good hand-offs. A connected universe needs dozens, often with different directors, writers and lead actors running each leg. The baton isn't just plot. It's tone, rules, character continuity and the audience's trust that the next film will matter. That's why our verdicts here weigh consistency more heavily than spectacle. One brilliant entry can't rescue a universe whose films contradict each other.
We also judge whether a casual viewer can drop in. The best universes reward completists without punishing newcomers. The worst turn every release into homework.
The Ranked Verdicts
Marvel Cinematic Universe
Starting with Iron Man in 2008, Marvel Studios did something no studio had managed: a decade of interlocking films that culminated in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). The genius was patience. Phase One introduced heroes individually, The Avengers (2012) proved they could share a screen, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) showed a sub-series could change genre, here a 1970s-style conspiracy thriller, without breaking the brand. The verdict after Endgame is more mixed. The multiverse era has delivered hits like Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), but also entries that felt like set-up for set-up. Still, the Infinity Saga alone earns top spot.
- Instalments
- 35+
- Years
- 2008–present
- Peak
- Avengers: Endgame
Harry Potter & the Wizarding World
Eight films adapted J.K. Rowling's seven novels between 2001 and 2011, with the same young cast ageing on screen. Directors rotated (Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell, then David Yates for the last four) yet the hand-offs stayed smooth. Cuarón's Prisoner of Azkaban is the stand-out, the moment the series found its visual identity. The three Fantastic Beasts films (2016, 2018, 2022) are the weak leg: a prequel arc that was planned for five films and stopped at three with threads dangling.
- Instalments
- 11
- Years
- 2001–2022
- Peak
- Prisoner of Azkaban
Star Wars
George Lucas's 1977 original and The Empire Strikes Back (1980) remain the high-water mark of the franchise era. The prequels (1999 to 2005) divide audiences but built a coherent tragedy around Anakin Skywalker. The sequel trilogy (2015 to 2019) is where the relay wobbled: three films with visibly different ideas about where the story was going. Rogue One (2016) is the surprise, a standalone side leg that leads directly into the 1977 film and arguably makes it better.
- Instalments
- 11 films
- Years
- 1977–2019
- Peak
- The Empire Strikes Back
MonsterVerse
Legendary's shared kaiju world began with Gareth Edwards's Godzilla (2014) and ran through Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024). It never aims for prestige, and that self-awareness is its strength. Five films, consistent rules, steadily growing scale. Kong: Skull Island, a 1970s-set war-movie riff, is the most fun leg.
- Instalments
- 5
- Years
- 2014–2024
- Peak
- Kong: Skull Island
X-Men (Fox era)
Thirteen films from X-Men (2000) to The New Mutants (2020), including the Wolverine and Deadpool spin-offs. Highs like X2 (2003), First Class (2011) and Logan (2017) are genuinely great. But timeline contradictions piled up so badly that Days of Future Past (2014) had to rewrite history to tidy them. Brilliant runners, messy hand-offs.
- Instalments
- 13
- Years
- 2000–2020
- Peak
- Logan (2017)
Dropped Batons
- DC Extended Universe
From Man of Steel (2013) to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), fifteen films that never settled on a direction. Wonder Woman (2017) and The Suicide Squad (2021) shine, but the line between them zigzags. Watch individual highlights rather than the full run.
- Dark Universe
Universal's planned monster universe launched with The Mummy (2017) and ended there. A single-leg relay is a cautionary tale about announcing a universe before earning one. Leigh Whannell's standalone The Invisible Man (2020) did more for the brand than the whole plan.
The Analyst's Takeaway
Universes that win plan their finish line early and let individual films be different genres. Universes that lose chase the next announcement. If you're planning a marathon, start with the Infinity Saga or the eight Potter films. Both offer a satisfying end point, which is the single most underrated quality in long-form franchise viewing.
Not sure which order to watch in? Marvel's chronological route and the Fantastic Beasts placement both get tables on our route planner.
Next heat: spy, heist and action series · or trilogies worth the full run