5 Reasons Why We All Should Do More Crossovers

I love crossover but they are rarely done and if they are it’s bad.

Competent writers and a good story bible can fix bad crossovers. But why are crossovers rare?

Whether it’s because of legal reasons or something else, it doesn’t matter. You and the big corporations should try to do more honest and good crossovers.

Here are 5 reasons why.

For Fun

I prefer canon and serious crossover but most are just for fun. It makes sense, seeing your favorite character have fun together is always a treat.

From the writer’s perspective, the fun comes in when writing with other great writers. Crossovers allow for some of the greats to come together to produce something amazing.

It can also just be fun to write as a solo writer with over 2 stories. Putting your characters in unique and fun situations can be relaxing. Especially if your characters are usually in pain.

Fate Carnival Phantasm comes to mind for crossovers like this.

But there’s a more devious reason for crossovers that I should probably get out the way.

Sigh, Money…

You see it a lot with shameless promotional crossover DLC in video games. The biggest offenders are Fortnite and mobile gacha games.

They take a popular world and inject it into their game. I won’t blame them, it works. These crossovers with RWBY, Naruto, Star Wars, and much more sell the game.

Good thing these crossovers don’t have a story so there’s need to pay any attention to them.

As a writer, I would advise not doing crossovers for this reason alone. It can be a great motivator but there needs to be a narrative reason for the crossover unless it’s pure fun.

Imagine an official crossover between your favorite franchises. The money would flood in easily just by concept alone.

But that’s not where the true money is anyway. Don’t settle for the bottom-of-the-barrel crossovers, start a shared universe.

Starting a Shared Universe

It will take time and probably more than 1 writer but you too can build an MCU. With things as they are, probably a universe better than the MCU.

Crossovers and other methods can help build out a shared universe. This will increase your fan base and bring in more money.

Unique crossover like Kingdom Hearts can create their own unique stories. With enough creativity, discipline, and integrity you can build a living universe.

One where characters across time and space can live and interact in year-long sagas.

Eventually, it can even become modern mythology that shapes culture. But that’s way into the future, let us focus on 1 crossover.

It just takes 1 crossover to lit a spark in your budding fandom.

Stronger Community

This happens during the creation of your shared universe or after the first crossover. There will be people like me who love connecting the dots.

Building up to a crossover can encourage fans to theorize the connections. It keeps the conversation alive and healthy.

Many horror games use this method to get attention, hiding clue for fans to find. Do the same when building up to your crossover.

When it finally happens, it pays off the build up and the fans will be on board for everything after it.

Story Continuation

This is the one that I wish would happen more often by writers with integrity. Some stories end because nearly everything is tied in a neat bow.

There’s little to add and the writer has concluded the story. But the fans, they want more from the great story. There are threads that can be expanded upon.

But returning to the world as is might ruin or stretch out the story past its limit.

That’s where a good crossover comes in.

They can be like an extension cord for stories like this. The other verse can bring in story elements that weren’t present before.

This gives the original world and writer more to work with. The story can continue for one last grand send-off.

The only one to do this was Kingdom Heart 3 with Big Hero 6. Any future crossover with Gravity Falls by Owl House and Amphibia will do this.

You can do this with an old story you’ve finished but wouldn’t mind returning to. Make a sensible crossover to give the story a meaningful continuation.

You can also do this one-shot stories or ideas you didn’t fully explore. I plan to do that for some stories that have potential but were only one-shots.

Comment below stories you think can benefit from this.

Conclusion

Those are the 5 reasons you and some companies should do crossovers. It might be hard to do sometimes but the rewards are worth it.

In summary:

• Do it fun

• Do it for the money. Only if you have a good idea.

• Do it to start a shared universe

• Do it build a strong community of fans

• Do it to continue your favorite stories or ones that didn’t get a chance to shine

Like a great man once said, just do it. With that, I’m done.