History Main / TheMultiverse

It is '''not''' the same thing as AlternateContinuity -- which refers to a ''separate'' universe (but that might equally have its own {{Multiverse}} within its {{Continuity}}), but it makes for a handy way to link them if the writers are so inclined.

* ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'' establishes that every single version of the Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles (i.e., every single comic, TV, and film series) all exist simultaneously as separate universes in a multiverse. [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 The Shredder]] gets [[GoMadFromTheRevelation rather pissed]] when he discovers that there are teams of Turtles in each one.

* Creator/NanTheKeybladeMaster'''s stories take place in a giant multiverse which includes the [[Fanfic/TouhouGalaxy Touhouverse]], Sabrinaverse, [[Fanfic/SuperRWBYSisters [=SRS=]-verse]] and the universes in Super RWBY IF. Chapter 20 of [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11081162/20/Sora-s-Adventure-in-Flipside Sora's Adventure in Flipside]] has characters from the Sabrinaverse take part in the story and characters from the Sabrinaverse appear in Chapters 17 and 19 of Touhou: Dream Team and appear in Paper Jam, Rabbids: Kingdom Battle and Odyssey.

** This will be the main theme of the upcoming Universal Orlando park Universal’s Epic Universe, set to open in 2025. The park will feature a large central hub with celestial theming and portals that will take guests into different universes, aka themed lands based on Universal IPs, including Super Nintendo World, a third Wizarding World based on Wizarding Paris from the Fantastic Beasts films, and more.

* The word universe technically means all that exists all that exist, but theoretically even without AnotherDimension, there could be infinite earths. Some speculate that the universe is infinite in space, and every possible arrangement of atoms exists in some form further out. Some proponents speculate that the universe is eternal and that there was another universe that condensed and exploded to cause the Big Bang to make our own and that ours will condense in a Big Crunch to create another Big Bang creating another universe in a repeating cycle for all eternity. There is also the thought experiment of the Apple in the Box, which proposes that if you sealed an apple in a completely closed system, it would rot and disintegrate, but the stored energy would eventually result in the apple heating up and then taking on every possible form it can before returning to its original shape as a fruit over trillions of billions of years. The main concept of this though experiment is that the Milky Way the billions of galaxies around it are the apple and the universe is the box.

* While on the surface ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' appears to be a case of regular {{continuity reboot}}s, the UsefulNotes/WonderSwan video games establish it instead as a multiverse. Almost every anime series, manga and video game of the franchise has its own entirely separate versions of the real and Digital World (except ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' and ''Anime/DigimonXrosWarsTheYoungHuntersWhoLeaptThroughTime'', which are sequels and so exist in the same world); the UsefulNotes/WonderSwan games follow Ryo Akiyama's travels between a few of them. ''Manga/DigimonVTamer01'' had three special chapters in which [[TheHero Taichi Yagami and Zeromaru]] interact with other ''Digimon'' universes, namely those of ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' (which has its own version of Taichi Yagami), ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'' and the UsefulNotes/WonderSwan games. As such, almost all incarnations of ''Digimon'' take place in a different human world/Digital World pair in the multiverse, and if you know what you're doing (or have a dimension-jumping nemesis, in the case of [[VideoGame/DigimonAdventureAnodeCathodeTamer Ryo Akiyama]]) you can travel between them. In addition, some canons have other dimensions tied to that particular universe; ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' had the Dark Ocean and a surreal world wherein one's wishes defined reality, with others accessible through card combinations at a gate in Vamdemon's castle, and ''Anime/DigimonXrosWarsTheYoungHuntersWhoLeaptThroughTime'' features [=DigiQuartz=], a bizarre DarkWorld in between the Real and Digital Worlds.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'' posits that there are an infinite amount of realities, six of which collide in the movie, with each bringing in their own Spider-Person. [[spoiler:Plus two more in TheStinger.]] This is caused by the villain, Kingpin, building a machine to navigate the multiverse [[spoiler:so he can find a universe where his wife and son are still alive and bring them back.]] However, beings native to one universe can't stay in another too long, as they begin breaking down on the cellular level. The plot quickly becomes a matter of not only stopping Kingpin from destroying New York in a reality-breaking universe crash, but also returning the alternate Spider-People home before they all die a slow and painful death.
** The sequel, ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse'', reveals that despite the Spiders’ victory in the previous film, Kingpin’s machine has caused a ripple effect of anomalies across the multiverse. Spider-Man 2099, confirmed in the first film’s stinger to have created a safe method of multiverse traversal, has assembled a team of Spider-Men to repair the damage.

** And the ''WesternAnimation/UncleGrandpa'' / ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' crossover has Mr. Gus stating he is aware of all of the magical denizens of the multiverse. When Uncle Grandpa leaves at the end, he pulls out a checklist of other Cartoon Network shows he's visited, presumably elsewhere in the multiverse. Also on the list are some Creator/HannaBarbera / Creator/{{TBS}} characters- the WesternAnimation/SwatKats.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', "Road to the Multiverse". Another Brian and Stewie RoadTripPlot episode, this time going through a Sliders-inspired adventure. Some universes were an AlternateHistory (where Japanese never surrendered in WWII, the Cuban missile crisis, etc.), while others were the characters done in different art styles (the Disney universe, Robot Chicken universe, political cartoon universe, blocky universe, etc.). There was even a short trip to the real world.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' did this, and we discover a world where coin flips always have the opposite results -- as a result, Leela and Fry are married, Bender is gold-plated instead of his usual color ("Bite my glorious golden ass!"), etc. As it turns out, both universes are stored in a box inside the other one.
** They later visit dozens of other universes -- ones where they're all [[PlanetOfHats robots, or hippies, or Romans...]]
** Also, in an earlier episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', there was another universe from across the edge of the universe -- where the Planet Express crew saw their counterparts dressed as cowboys. Fry asks if there is an infinite number of parallel universes and Professor Farnsworth says "No, just the one".
*** WordOfGod claims in the DVDCommentary that the cowboy one was a parallel universe (thus they're always the same distance from but never accessible to each other), the others are ''[[ShownTheirWork perpendicular]]'' universes (which means they're accessible to each other but only for a limited amount of time).

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueCrisisOnTwoEarths'' takes a serious look at this trope to the point of near-deconstruction: [[spoiler:The main antagonist, Owlman, goes completely NietzscheWannabe over the realization that the multiverse consists of the ''sum of all universes made from all possible outcomes of every single choice ever made by any sentient being'' (let's just be generous and say 'infinity'). Anything done is by definition meaningless because an infinite amount of universes exist that contain all possible outcomes of everything. Naturally, his conclusion [[OmnicidalManiac is to perform the one action]] that would, by definition, have any purpose at all because it cannot have a different outcome: '''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond Blow it all up!]]''']]
** This was also alluded to in the series ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''. The main timeline exists on its own, and any changes to the past (as seen in both "The Savage Time" and "Hereafter") will affect the future itself as opposed to branching off -- the BadFuture of both respective stories is completely erased after someone SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. That said, there ''are'' implied to be multiple universes which diverge off the regular one seen -- "A Better World" showed a ForWantOfANail wherein Lex Luthor became President of the United States, had the Flash executed and nearly started WorldWarIII. This led to Superman killing him, and caused the Justice League to reinvent themselves as a group called the Justice Lords, with a KnightTemplar policy towards peace and security. In addition, the above-mentioned "Crisis On Two Earths" was originally written for the DCAU. Although reinvented as a more general tale, it's fair to say that some version of that movie's events did happen in between JL and JLU (albeit with John Stewart as the serving Green Lantern, among other aesthetic differences), meaning that its own multiversal concept would apply here as well (if unexplored).

** In an episode where Rick opens up several different portals with his portal gun, we see a mug with a question mark on it, a pen, and a notepad come out of one of them. These are implied to be the same ones that Stan had pulled away from him through the portal from ''Gravity Falls.'' The creators of the shows are friends, so this was intentional.
** Season 7 Ep 5 shows a Deconstruction. If there is an infinite number of alternate dimensions and it's possible for people to invent ways to travel across realities, then there will be an infinite number of dimensional travellers across The Multiverse. And it's absolute ''hell'', where portals pop out all the time at random, potentially [[PortalCut gibbing]] anyone standing at that spot, creatures and abominations from different realities making their home, and and [[WorldOfChaos logic and physics no longer seem to apply on this hellscape.]]

* The end of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' featured a team-up of several Spider-Men to prevent [[OmnicidalManiac Spider-Carnage from destroying a multiverse.]] One of them didn't have any powers and was really an actor playing Spider-Man in a movie. [[RealWorldEpisode His universe was strongly implied to be "ours".]]
* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': Star boasts she's "a magical princess from another dimension" in the series premiere, and her adventures with Marco occasionally take the two of them and their friends to other dimensions. The most common form of travel between dimensions is apparently "[[DimensionalCutter dimensional scissors]]", which are forged by Hekapoo of the Magic High Commission and given to those she feels worthy. Some people, like [[DemonLordsAndArchDevils Tom]] and eventually Star, can make interdimensional portals under their own power. The only other way known is [[spoiler:through the Realm of Magic, which has permanent passageways connecting Earth and Mewni at the very least.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'':
** The TV movie ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'' establishes that every single version of the ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' (i.e. every single comic, TV, and film series) all exist simultaneously as separate universes in a multiverse. [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 The Shredder]] [[GoMadFromTheRevelation gets rather pissed]] when he discovers that there are teams of Turtles in each one.
** The Battle Nexus fighting tournament draws in combatants from all over a multiverse that appears to be a sort of different multiverse concept. ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo's world is one of them. The Turtles are later scattered across the multiverse by Drago: Donny and Mikey end up in worlds with turtles (a BadFuture and a superhero reality), but Raph and Leo end up in totally different places.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'', and ''WesternAnimation/CraigOfTheCreek''. All the shows take place in a fictional depiction of Maryland (or "Delmarva", as its referred to in ''Steven Universe''), but on different levels of reality. WordOfGod [[https://twitter.com/ianjq/status/1168288866899378176 states that]] ''OK KO'' is a video game series within the universes of the other two shows, while ''Craig'' is the "real world" that additionally has ''Steven'' and every other Creator/CartoonNetwork series as television shows.

* Some particularly out-there ideas question what can truly be called "real," and whether things conceived in the mind are any less "real" than things we can touch or feel. Based on this, characters in book or novel are just as real as you or me. Of course, if one subscribes to any number of multiverse theories based in quantum mechanics, this is indeed the case: ''any'' story written as a work of fiction in our world must really, truly happen in another universe (so long as nothing in the story violates the laws of physics).

* The Philosophy of Ontology begs the question of what the difference between reality and fiction truly is, but it can be argued that fiction is no more fake than our universe. After all, all existence is at a fundamental level is information, and all a fictional story is at its most fundamental level is information. Characters in stories could be considered self aware as a piece of the author and the reader's consciousness, and when they write or read about feeling joy or feeling pain, the characters truly are in their respective universes. Therefore every author is a god of a pocket universe, and the web of knowledge and all human information becomes a pocket universe. This becomes even more existential when one considers that there could be a higher reality in which we are words on a page. What if instead of God being a character we made up as part of one of our fictional stories, we are characters He made up as part of a fictional story? You reading this article, might be words on a page in a higher reality.

* ''Anime/{{Noein}}'' has this where every universe is a ForWantOfANail situation, running off the theory that for every decision made, AnotherDimension is created where the other option was chosen. [[ContemplateOurNavels Much philosophy ensues]].

* The Philosophy of Ontology begs the question of what the difference between reality and fiction truly is, but it can be argued that fiction is no more fake than our universe. After all, all existence is at a fundamental level is information, and all a fictional story is at its most fundamental level is information. Characters in stories could be considered self aware as a piece of the author and the reader's consciousness, and when they write or read about feeling joy or feeling pain, the characters truly are in their respective universes. Therefore every author is a god of a pocket universe, and the web of knowledge and all human information becomes a pocket universe. This becomes even more existential when one considers that there could be a higher reality in which we are words on a page. What if instead of God being a character we made up as part of one of our fictional stories, we are characters He made up as part of a long story? You reading this article, might be words on a page in a higher reality.

* The word universe technically means all that exists all that exist, but theoretically even without AnotherDimension, there could be infinite earths. Some speculate that the universe is infinite in space, and every possible arrangement of atoms exists in some form further out. Some proponents speculate that the universe is eternal and that there was another universe that condensed and exploded to cause the Big Bang to make our own and that ours will condense in a Big Crunch to create another Big Bang creating another universe in a repeating cycle for all eternity. There is also the thought experiment of the Apple in the Box, which proposes that if you sealed an apple in a completely closed system, it would rot and disintegrate, but the stored energy would eventually result in the apple heating up and then taking on every possible form it can before returning to its original shape as a fruit over trillions of billions of years. The main concept of this though experiment is that the Milky Way the Billions of Galaxies around it are the apple and the universe is the box.

* The Philosophy of ontology begs the question of what the difference between reality and fiction truly is, but it can be argued that fiction is no more fake than our universe. After all, both are comprised of information, and characters in stories could be considered self aware as a piece of the author and the reader's consciousness, and when they write or read about feeling joy or feeling pain, the characters truly are in their respective universes. Therefore every author is a god of a pocket universe, and the web of knowledge and all human information becomes a pocket universe. This becomes even more existential when one considers that there could be a higher reality in which we are words on a page. What if instead of God being made up, we are His fictional characters.