Fanfic Fuel / Live-Action Films

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Fanfic Fuel in Films — Live-Action

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• Carrie (2002): In the film's new ending, Carrie survives the prom and moves to Florida. This was meant as a setup for a TV series that was never made; what adventures would she have had there?
• The Dark Crystal:
  • The urSkek—the race that was split into the urRu and the Skeksis—are canonically not native to the planet of Thra, but arrived there after being banished from an entirely different world. Where did they come from? What was their world like? And what kinds of adventures did they have there?
  • Mother Aughra is canonically one of the oldest beings in Thra, and has witnessed most of the important events in the planet's long history. What kind of adventures did she have in her younger days?
  • Even before The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance came out, there were tons of fanfics speculating about what Thra was like before the Skeksis seized the Crystal, and what Gelfling society was like before the Skeksis wiped them out.
• Happens a lot with The Dark Knight Trilogy fanfics featuring how The Joker got those scars of his, simply because he was so inconsistent about them in the film.
  • The third film, The Dark Knight Rises, seems to practically be powered by fanfic fuel. First off, it's the Time Skip — the film takes place eight years after The Dark Knight, hence a gap for fanfic writers to have a stab at. Then, there are all the backstories of the characters introduced in the film. Bane's background and how he got excommunicated from the League of Shadows. Wayne Enterprises board member Miranda Tate, how she rose up the ranks and her relationship with her father, Ra's al Ghul, and the slightly shippy nature of her relationship with Bane. GCPD Officer John Blake - his growing up in the orphanage, his police training and, once the film ends, how he takes on the mantle of Batman as a Batman-Robin-Nightwing hybrid. And of course, Selina Kyle. Her past, how she met her roommate Jen, her misadventures as a younger girl and all the little Bat-Cat babies she and Bruce would have, since the film ends with them together.
  • To say nothing of the fact that everyone in Rises seems to go out of their way to pretend The Joker never even existed.
  • And specifically related to Batman Begins: the League of Shadows' involvement in world history, in light of Ducard's claim that they were responsible for the Fall of Rome, the Black Plague and the Great London Fire. For that matter, there's the careers of the men who previously held the title of "Ra's al-Ghul".
• Forest Warrior: Did McKenna ever get revenge against his killers and halt their plans after gaining his powers?
• Inception:
  • The movie's famously ambiguous ending, which suggests that Cobb may have stayed in the Dreamworld after his big heist, practically begs for a Continuation Fic.
  • The details behind the history of dream-sharing technology are left very vague, beyond a brief mention of it being developed by the military for training simulations. And since the existence of the technology is apparently kept hidden from most people, it makes one wonder what kind of unsavory stuff the government has used it for in the past.
  • Related: how did thieves like Cobb and his crew first get their hands on dream-sharing technology?
  • Even if you believe that Cobb retires from crime by the end of the movie, what will other dream-thieves do once word gets out that inception (read: undetectable brainwashing) is possible? What's to stop them from using it on world leaders? What's to stop world leaders from using it on terrorists and political dissidents? If one inception job could stop an industrialist from monopolizing the world's energy supply, how will inception affect the world's political landscape?
• Indiana Jones:
  • Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull establishes that Indy was an active OSS agent throughout the whole of World War II, opening up six years' worth of high-stakes adventures fighting the Nazis in the middle of an all-out shooting war (the original trilogy took place in the years just prior to the war). And that's not counting the ten-odd years that he spent spying against the Russians with the CIA between the events of Last Crusade and Crystal Skull.
  • Also, there's the famous ending of the original Raiders of the Lost Ark, which heavily implies that the US government has a secret warehouse of mystical artifacts that other G-men like Indy acquired in previous secret missions. What artifacts are the government hiding? How did they obtain them? What are they planning to do with them?
• Inglorious Basterds:
  • How did Aldo get his scar?
  • The Basterds have spent years killing their way across Europe in Terror Hero style, and given how only a small, small fraction of their exploits are shown onscreen (with several group members getting little screentime or combat scenes), imagining their early adventures can be pretty cool.
• Jurassic World has both pre and post-canon examples:
  • Pre-canon: How did the titular park become a reality? What happened to Isla Sorna? How did they manage to recapture Rexy? Why did Hammond change his mind about the park? What is Simon Masrani's connection to him?
  • Post-canon: Blue, Rexy, a flock of pterosaurs and who knows however many prehistoric creatures have been left to roam free all over Isla Nublar. What are they getting into now? How is Blue doing after losing her pack? Are she and Rexy working together to survive? Will the Mosasaurus live or will she starve without anyone to feed her?
• Labyrinth fanfics speculating on Jareth's backstory are common, in part because even the All There in the Manual material had little to say on the issue. How exactly did a handsome Reality Warper who looks, for all intents and purposes, human wind up as the ruler of a land of Ugly Cute baby-stealing goblins who turn their captives into more of their kind?
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Following the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the titular Winter Soldier flees in search of a way to move on with his life or reclaim his lost memories. So, what all did he get up to, and what was it like for him to adjust to civilian life?
  • The ending of Avengers: Infinity War managed to become fanfic fuel for other fandoms — to wit, the fan author takes a list of relevant characters, flips coins to see who does and doesn't live through The Snap, and deals with the aftermath from there.
  • The ending of Avengers: Endgame opens up multiple storytelling possibilities, which may or may not be explored in future movies:
    • Tony Stark now has a daughter named Morgan, who could be in any number of Future Fics.
    • Steve Rogers now spent about 50 years Happily Married to Peggy Carter, but also apparently got a new shield to replace the one that Thanos destroyed. So, what else did he get up to during those 50 years?
    • Hawkeye spent five years as a lethal vigilante after his wife and children got snapped away. During that time, he apparently battled Mexican drug cartels and Japanese yakuza gangs, among other things. What else has he been up to?
    • During the events of that movie, Steve Rogers goes back in time to steal Loki's scepter. While he's there, he cons the scepter out of the wrong hands by claiming to be HYDRA, then gets into a fistfight with his past self and tricks his way out of that by telling him that Bucky's alive, and then gets the hell out of there. So, with all that in mind, what happens next?
  • Pick any fic with Peter Parker as the focus. One of the following scenarios will likely be explored:
    • Aunt May's subsequent reaction to the end of Homecoming when she discovers Peter's identity, and how Peter convinces her to let him continue.
    • Aunt May gets a bridge dropped on her solely so that Tony can swoop in and adopt the boy as a son, sometimes with Pepper as his new mother. Occasionally, a different Avenger becomes Peter's primary caretaker before Tony comes into the picture, or several Avengers (sometimes in a Civil War-noncompliant arrangement or not; Bucky Barnes optional) become his new family, but it's usually just Tony.
    • Tony elevating Peter's "internship" to an actual one, allowing him to work alongside him on various projects.
    • An explanation of the exact circumstances of Peter getting his powers, usually involving Oscorp.
    • The Avengers reuniting after Civil War, and their reaction to the knowledge that Tony had drafted a kid in the battles. Expect such nuances as Black Widow calling Peter "Little Spider", Cap freaking out at his having dropped an airport bridge on Peter, and them deciding to train Peter better since he won't stop being Spiderman.
  • Peter's class taking a field trip to Avengers Tower/Facility, and their reactions, (especially Flash's), reaction to finding out that Peter does know Tony Stark and the Avengers. For bonus points and hilarity, Peter's identity may be revealed to them.
• MonsterVerse: The “17… and counting.” line has given rise to fanfics exploring new Titan discoveries by Monarch, be they Sailor Earth original kaiju or Toho favorites updated to the continuity. Anguirus, Battra, Biollante, and Gigan are especially popular.
• The A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) remake briefly suggested at a Plot Twist where Freddy Kruger was actually innocent of the crimes he'd been killed for — this turned out to be nothing more than a Red Herring, but nevertheless, the fanfic writers took to it like a fish to water...
• Red Eye is a standalone film, but it has a pretty devoted following full of fanfic writers. Common plots include Jackson Rippner's past, as well as who his employers are, and most especially the Continuation Fics exploring where the story could go after the events of the movie.
• Star Trek:
  • The alternate timeline started by Star Trek (2009) blows the doors wide open for stories exploring the new lives of the main characters, the altered history of the Federation and Starfleet, the new balance of power between the Federation, the Klingons, and the Romulans (Starfleet having bigger, faster ships thanks to scans of the Narada, the Romulan/Vulcan connection being known early, etc.)
  • Star Trek Beyond: The USS Franklin was lost long before the timeline was altered, so there should be a Prime universe version of Krall out there.
• Star Wars:
  • Long before the prequel trilogy was released, there were fanfics about the rise of the Empire and Anakin Skywalker's turn to the Dark Side.
  • Not to mention events that happened longer before the prequel trilogy, such as the founding of the Republic and of the Sith Order.
  • There are also a ton of Luke and Darth Vader stories. Luke/Vader stories are among the most popular nonromantic stories in fan-fiction history.
  • Now that the release of The Force Awakens has led to every previous Expanded Universe work (with the exception of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and its spinoffs) being Exiled from Continuity, the 30-year gap between Return of the Jedi and the Sequel Trilogy (along with pretty much everything before the Prequel Trilogy) is a giant blank slate, and this is fertile ground for fanfics.
  • Speaking of, the gap between the prequels and the original trilogy has been popular since Revenge of the Sith. Especially since that movie teases other Jedi surviving the orginal Order 66 purge.
  • The year between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker is also a relatively undetailed period of time, making it a goldmine of fanfic content, between Kylo Ren's reign as the First Order's Supreme Leader, Rey's continued Jedi training under Leia, and Palpatine preparing his Final Order.
  • Speaking of the Expanded Universe: since the sprawling Star Wars Legends saga is now effectively cancelled, and may never get any new material following the adventures of Ben, Jaina, Jag, Corran, Kyp, Allana, and the rest of the gang, it's now open season for finally concluding their stories and wrapping up the last few dangling plot threads. In particular: there's the 85-year gap between Star Wars: Crucible and Star Wars: Legacy that covers Luke Passing the Torch to a new leader of the Jedi Order, and the rebirth of the Empire under Jaina Solo and her husband Jagged Fel. Who took over the Jedi in Luke's absence? How did Han and Leia handle the news of their daughter becoming a Galactic Empress? And what became of Han and Leia's granddaughter Allana, who was implied to be the true Chosen One of the Jedi?
• Superman Returns ends with the rather divisive Reveal that Jason White is actually Superman's son, and that he's in the process of developing Superman's powers. Since the movie never received a sequel, and the films were rebooted with Man of Steel in 2013, we never got to see what kind of man Jason would grow into, and how he would choose to follow in his father's footsteps.
• Total Recall (1990): The ancient terraforming reactor on Mars. Even though one who believes that Quaid's spy adventure is fake can simply view it as a Deus ex Machina to have him save the planet as part of his Rekall memory, it's still intriguing to speculate who could've built it and why. The film's novelization and the 2011 comic book sequel by Dynamite Entertainment offer different solutions about it being left by the ancient Martian civilization, but since in the movie the builders of the reactor are always referred to as "aliens", it could imply that some other advanced civilization came along and planted it before leaving for whatever reason, thus the possibilities are many.
• Transformers Film Series:
  • An example from Transformers: Dark of the Moon. By the third film, The Masquerade is completely broken, and everyone is aware of the Autobots' existence. The movie doesn't go into much detail about this, but there are many ideas that can inspire a fanfic. One is how the nations of Earth are shown to dislike the Transformers (there's a mentioning of poll results stating that half the world would feel safer if the Autobots left). One must also wonder how other countries feel about the US using Autobots for non-Decepticon related problems (such as destroying illegal nuclear plants in the Middle East). Overall, there's a whole potential to explore how Earth must cope with the knowledge that one of the world's most powerful nations has Humongous Mecha on its side, as well as the fact that said support also warrants even more alien attacks.
  • There's also the matter of why Mikaela broke up with Sam.
  • Before DotM, there was a fairly large number of Day in the Life-style fics regarding Ironhide and Captain Lennox's family. Then Dark of the Moon happened...
• TRON:
  • Due to her status as a Sequel Non-Entity in TRON: Legacy (and material expanding on its canon), Yori has become a recurring element in Tron fanfic whether she is the focus or is only mentioned in passing. Depending on the Writer she either is in hiding as a rebel against Clu's dictatorship who survives the events of Legacy, was killed during the initial coup or executed during the rebellion (usually Clu has "Rinzler" do it in an epic level Kick the Dog), was never brought over from the ENCOM servers to begin with, etc.
  • After the third film was controversially cancelled, it has become very common for fans to write fanfics about Quorra experiencing the human world after she escaped The Grid, or Tron after breaking free of Clu's rectification over him.
  • Patchwork Fic with TRON 2.0 elements became more common after the game was released on Steam. It's also common to do "what if" scenarios where Alan ends up investigating the arcade for himself and ends up "getting in."
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit:
  • The history and origins of the Toon race.
    • The process of how a Toon is actually "born" or, perhaps "made".
  • Toons' effects on world history.
  • Eddie and Teddy Valiant's careers as Private Investigators.
  • The early years of various Toon characters and how they came to know each other while getting their start in showbiz.
    • How Roger and Jessica met and fell in love.
    • Judge Doom's origin and Start of Darkness.
  • If Toontown survived into the present day, what does it look like now?
  • The ending seems to open up the possibility that certain features of the modern world (like freeways) don't take off in the movie's universe. How will that affect the state of the world (if at all)?
  • The appearance of contemporary digitally-animated or computer generated characters. This may even include Video Game characters.
  • Toons from other countries (such as anime characters) and what their equivalents of Toontown are like.
• Yesterday (2019):
  • Whatever caused the blackout that led to Jack and two other people being transported to another timeline has been a prime source of fan theories.
  • What the other discrepancies between Jack's new timeline and the one he left are is a prime source for fan theories.