Media franchise in the context of "Shared universe"

The Mickey Mouse universe is a fictional shared universe which is the setting for stories involving Disney cartoon characters, including Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald and Daisy Duck, Goofy and Pluto as the primary members (colloquially known as the "Sensational Six"), and many other characters related to them, most of them being anthropomorphic animals. The universe originated from the Mickey Mouse animated short films produced by Disney starting in 1928, although its first consistent version was created by Floyd Gottfredson in the Mickey Mouse newspaper comic strip. Real-world versions also exist in Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, called Mickey's Toontown. The term "Mickey Mouse universe" is not officially used by The Walt Disney Company, but it has been used by Disney comics author and animation historian David Gerstein. The Walt Disney Company typically uses terms such as Mickey & Friends or Mickey & the Gang to refer to the character franchise.

Since 1990, the city in which Mickey lives is typically called Mouseton in American comics. In modern continuity, Mouseton is often depicted as being located in the fictional U.S. state of Calisota, analogous to Northern California. This fictional state was invented by comics writer Carl Barks in 1952 as the location for Donald Duck's home city, Duckburg.

Indiana Jones is an American media franchise consisting of five films and a prequel television series, along with games, comics, and tie-in novels, that depicts the adventures of Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr. (portrayed in all films by Harrison Ford), a fictional professor of archaeology.

The series began in 1981 with the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. In 1984, a prequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, was released, and in 1989, a sequel, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. A fourth film followed in 2008, titled Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. A fifth and final film, titled Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, was theatrically released on June 30, 2023. The series was created by George Lucas. The first four films were directed by Steven Spielberg, who worked closely with Lucas during their production, while the fifth film was directed by James Mangold. In 1992, the franchise expanded to a television series with The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, exploring the character in his childhood and youth. It included adventures with his parents and real life historical figures from the early twentieth century.

Looney Tunes is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series Merrie Melodies, during the golden age of American animation. Following a revival in the late 1970s, new shorts were released theatrically as recently as 2014. The two series introduced a large cast of characters, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig. The term Looney Tunes has since been expanded to also refer to the characters themselves.

Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were initially produced by Leon Schlesinger and animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising from 1930 to 1933. Schlesinger assumed full production from 1933 until he sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944, after which it was renamed Warner Bros. Cartoons. The Looney Tunes title was inspired by that of Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies. The shorts initially showcased musical compositions owned by Warner's music publishing interests through the adventures of such characters as Bosko and Buddy. However, the shorts gained a higher profile upon the debuts of directors Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, and Robert McKimson, and voice actor Mel Blanc later in the decade. Porky Pig and Daffy Duck became the featured Looney Tunes characters, while Merrie Melodies featured one-shot cartoons and minor recurring characters.

The Naked Gun is a media franchise based on the TV show Police Squad!, consisting of American crime spoof-slapstick comedy films, created by the comedy filmmaking trio Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker. It includes one television series, four theatrical films and a video game. The series centers on a bumbling police detective who solves criminal cases in comical fashion. Leslie Nielsen stars in the television series and the first three films as the protagonist Detective Sergeant Frank Drebin; a fourth film starring Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr. was released in 2025. Critics have praised the TV series and the films, all four of which have been financially successful.

The fighting game genre involves combat between characters, often (but not necessarily limited to) one-on-one battles. The mechanics of combat in fighting games often features blocking, grappling, counter-attacking, and the ability to chain attacks together into "combos". Characters generally engage in hand-to-hand combat, often incorporating martial arts, but some may include weaponry. Battles are usually set in a fixed-size arena along a two-dimensional plane, where characters navigate horizontally by walking or dashing, and vertically by jumping. Some games allow limited movement in 3D space, such as Tekken and Soul Edge while some are set in fully three-dimensional environments without restricting characters' movement, such as Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi, Jump Force, Kill la Kill: If, My Hero: One's Justice, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, One Piece: Burning Blood and Power Stone; these are sometimes referred to as "3D arena" fighting games.

The fighting game genre is distinctly related to the beat 'em up genre, which pits many computer-controlled enemies against one or more player characters. The first video game to feature fist fighting is Heavyweight Champ (1976), but Karate Champ (1984) actually features the one-on-one fighting game genre instead of a sports game in arcades. Yie Ar Kung-Fu was released later that year with various fighting styles and introduced health meters, and The Way of the Exploding Fist (1985) further popularized the genre on home systems. In 1987, Capcom's Street Fighter introduced special attacks, and in 1991, its highly successful sequel Street Fighter II refined and popularized many genre conventions, including combos. Fighting games subsequently became the preeminent genre for video gaming in the early to mid-1990s, particularly in arcades. This period spawned dozens of other popular fighting games, including franchises like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Super Smash Bros., and Tekken.

Call of Duty is a first-person shooter military video game series and media franchise published by Activision, starting in 2003. The games were first developed by Infinity Ward, then by Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games. Several spin-off and handheld games were made by other developers. The most recent, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, was released on November 14, 2025.

The series originally focused on a World War II setting, with Infinity Ward developing Call of Duty (2003) and Call of Duty 2 (2005) and Treyarch developing Call of Duty 3 (2006). Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) introduced a modern setting and proved to be the breakthrough title for the series, creating the Modern Warfare sub-series; a Modern Warfare remastered version was released in 2016. Two other entries, Modern Warfare 2 (2009) and Modern Warfare 3 (2011), were made. The sub-series received a reboot with Modern Warfare in 2019, Modern Warfare II in 2022, and Modern Warfare III in 2023. Infinity Ward has also developed two games outside of the Modern Warfare sub-series, Ghosts (2013) and Infinite Warfare (2016).

Star Wars is an American epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various films and other media, including television series, video games, novels, comic books, theme park attractions, and themed areas, comprising an all-encompassing fictional universe. Star Wars is one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

The original 1977 film, retroactively subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope, was followed by the sequels Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983), forming the original Star Wars trilogy. Lucas later returned to the series to write and direct a prequel trilogy, consisting of Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). In 2012, Lucas sold his production company to Disney, relinquishing his ownership of the franchise. This led to a sequel trilogy, consisting of Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017), and Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

The Expendables is an American ensemble action thriller franchise conceived by David Callaham, spanning a film series, the first three movies were cowritten by Sylvester Stallone, and additional media. The films star an ensemble cast, notably Stallone and Jason Statham, and are produced by Avi Lerner and Kevin King-Templeton. The film series, an acknowledgement of former blockbuster action films made in the 1980s and 1990s, also pays homage to action stars of former decades, and the more recent stars in action. The series consists of the films The Expendables (2010), The Expendables 2 (2012), The Expendables 3 (2014), Expend4bles (2023), and the addition of the comic series The Expendables Go to Hell (2021). Though criticism with regard to plot and dialogue between characters has been expressed, critics praised the use of comic relief in between action.

Mario is a video game series and media franchise created by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo. Starring Mario, the franchise began with video games but has extended to other forms of media, including a television series, comic books, a 1993 film, a 2023 film, and a theme park area. Mario made his first video game appearance in the arcade game Donkey Kong (1981) and was featured in multiple Donkey Kong games prior to Mario Bros. (1983), the first game with "Mario" in the title. Mario video games have been developed by a variety of developers, with the vast majority produced and published by Nintendo and released exclusively on Nintendo's video game consoles.

The flagship Mario subseries is the Super Mario series of platform games starting with 1985's Super Mario Bros., which mostly follows Mario's adventures in the fictional world of the Mushroom Kingdom and typically rely on Mario's jumping ability to allow him to progress through levels. The franchise has spawned over 200 games of various genres and several subseries, including Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Paper Mario, and Mario & Luigi; several characters introduced in the Mario franchise, such as Luigi, Wario, and Yoshi, sparked successful franchises of their own.

Donkey Kong is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo. It follows the adventures of Donkey Kong, a large, powerful gorilla, and other members of the Kong family of apes. Donkey Kong games include the original arcade game trilogy by Nintendo R&D1; the Donkey Kong Country series by Rare and Retro Studios; and the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series by Nintendo Software Technology. Various studios have developed spin-offs in genres such as edutainment, puzzle, racing, and rhythm. The franchise also incorporates animation, printed media, theme parks, and merchandise.

Miyamoto designed the original 1981 Donkey Kong to repurpose unsold arcade cabinets following the failure of Radar Scope (1980). It was a major success and was followed by the sequels Donkey Kong Jr. (1982) and Donkey Kong 3 (1983). Nintendo placed the franchise on a hiatus as it shifted focus to the spin-off Mario franchise. Rare's 1994 reboot, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) game Donkey Kong Country, reestablished Donkey Kong as a major Nintendo franchise. Rare developed Donkey Kong games for the SNES, Game Boy, and Nintendo 64 until it was acquired by Microsoft in 2002; subsequent games were developed by Nintendo, Retro Studios, Namco and Paon. After Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014), the franchise went on another hiatus, which ended with Donkey Kong Bananza (2025).