Do historical films about the same event count as “original cinematic universes”?

From the MCU to those who fight against booming moms beasts of the Dark universe, cinematic universes are a big deal in filmmaking right now. And for good reason: Like the comic strip multiverse so many draws of, nnothing gets butts in seats like the promise to hand out the next little piece of story for a big shared narrative. Same if you know, it wasn’t on purpose.

This is the thesis of the above new video from YouTube movie critic Patrick Willems, who puts forward the idea that there are a whole bunch of CUs that precede M—just not on purpose. Willems cites the multiple films about the US space program as a prime example, while codifying, say, how The King’s Speech leads to The darkest hour, which itself serves as a political and family version of the same events of Dunkirk.

Willems himself acknowledges that “Some events in history have multiple movies about them” isn’t an inherently mind-boggling idea, but his video makes some things compelling and more nuanced. points, highlighting The way in which, say astronaut Deke Slayton—Performed by Scott Paulin, Kyle Chandler, Evan Holtzman and Chris Ellis in Good things, First man, Hidden numbers, and Apollo 13, respectively — has a recognizable character arc between the different films, going from a promising astronaut to a NASA veteran commander. Or the way Steven Spielberg The post office intentionally sets itself up as a prequel to All the president’s men– even imitating some famous shots from the previous film– despite the fact that no one involved in this last movie was a part of the first.

Willems’ video ends up looking a bit light in terms of examples—our minds leap immediately To Brave Heart and recently published Outlaw king, two very different points of view on roughly the same period in Scottish history, but he does make some interesting remarks about how these accidental ‘universes’ provide a better variety of movies than something more purposefully constructed like the MCU. Ppresumably because of, well, being made by entirely different people who weren’t trying to stick to some sort of corporate-mandated house style.