In the last article, we looked at how one story can branch out to become many stories. In this article, we’ll be looking at the other side of this coin; when many stories join to become one.
Most story writers and fans of fiction are aware of the A, B, and C storyline structure. Every now and then, the writer will pull out of the central narrative to focus on a secondary character or storyline, and then weave the two, three, or however many strands together in the final act. Think of Lord of the Rings. After the Fellowship disband, the story splits into several distinct stories that run alongside each other, culminating in the final confrontation between the main heroes and the dark forces of Sauron.
Multimedia Linear Narrative storytelling is a way of telling a multi-strand story by utilising a different medium or ‘franchise’ for each strand. The result is the same, but the journey feels markedly different.
How can audiences know which strands go together? Sequels and spin-offs are easily identified. What happens when a character’s journey continues in a completely different franchise that audiences much watch in order to see the connection?
What storyteller, what audience member, would be stupid enough to follow a story like that?
Well, dear reader, the chances are that YOU are stupid enough, and you love it. When done well, this form of transmedia is the smartest and most modern of all the models. So, let’s look at how to do it.
Despite audiences having to hop, skip, and jump from franchise to franchise in order to keep up to date, a central story is still essential to this method succeeding.
There must be a protagonist or protagonists. Though their story can begin in one franchise, evolve through others, and culminate elsewhere, the existence and prominence of a central ‘hero’ is essential for audiences to latch onto.
There must be a central conflict. Drama is conflict. A story is an exploration of a single conflict. So, whatever story is told, there must be a central conflict either at the forefront or under the surface of all the material produced.
There must be distinct turning points. With conflict comes change. Each instalment of this transmedia type should offer some new perspective on the central conflict and evolve it in some way.
There must be a final act confrontation. All stories end. Patience runs out. It can be easy to ride the high of this method succeeding so much that storytellers forget that that is their job. To tell a story.
But the question remains. If it’s not clear if, how, or why two seemingly disconnected stories are tied together, how and why will audiences try to follow it? Well, there’s a few different ways to ensure some natural flow between each product. For one, it may be helpful to have a single creative voice at the head of proceedings. This doesn’t need to be a single person, as the task is enough to fry anyone’s brain. It could be a team of creatives in a “writers’ room” style environment. They could be anything from being a guiding hand to being the writer of the whole thing, but the point is that they are there from start to finish. Audiences will associate them with the story and be drawn to whatever their next project is in the hope it’ll be connected to the central story. Alternatively, ensuring that characters from one project appear in another tells the audience, “This is the next step on your journey.” Of course, if the story(s) take place in a distinct world other than our own, then the setting alone will be enough to inform audiences (think Alien, Star Wars, The Lord of The Rings etc.).
There are other ways as well. A single directorial vision. Musical cohesion. A consistent and distinct art style. But this is a writing blog, so we’ll stick with that.
It’s a bit like a jigsaw. It’s like giving the audience the pieces of a jigsaw without telling them what the picture is. The first thing they’ll do is look for the corners and edge pieces, working inward. Depending on the detail, they may try and put together smaller images, placing them where they think they should go within the frame, moving them around as more of the puzzle fills out. Soon they’ll be sure they know what the picture is, and they will steamroll to the end, unsatisfied until that final piece is clicked into place. The difficulty for the storyteller is that although they know the basic shape, they’re designing the final image at the same time as the audience putting the jigsaw together.
DAMN that’s a good analogy.
Unlike Exposition in External Mediums, nothing in this storytelling style is pre-established. So, consistency is key. This is never more important than with characterisation.
Characters are what audiences will cling to, dragging them from one franchise to another, so getting this wrong could cost the story greatly. Of course, things may happen ‘off screen’, but these developments should be kept to a minimum. If a character is struggling with substance abuse, then rehab happening off-screen feels like a betrayal of the core struggle of the character.
Within this consistency, they must also be adaptable. Every character may be the protagonist of their own franchise, but they aren’t the protagonist of someone else’s. Their story must be adaptable enough to be centre of attention in one story and relegated to the ‘mentor’ or ‘antagonist’ of another, even if the overall connective story is theirs.
The story must be ‘someone’s’. Every story needs a protagonist. While each strand of this method will have their own main character, the overall narrative needs one to tie it all together. Remember, the core tenets of storytelling still apply.
If you haven’t worked it out by now, I’ll just tell you that the main example of Multimedia Linear Narrative storytelling is the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The world’s largest, most profitable ‘franchise’ of the current era essentially created and perfected this storytelling model. Through their post-credit scenes and occasional cross-overs, the MCU told a single story (The Infinity Saga) over ten years and 23 feature films of various franchises and trilogies.
Under various creative stewards, guided by Kevin Feige and his team, each of the core protagonists had journeys that jumped from title to title, culminating in Avengers: Endgame.
Tony Stark (Iron Man)
Egotistical war profiteer to selfless hero
Iron Man (2008) – Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway
The Incredible Hulk (2008) – Zak Penn
Iron Man 2 (2010) – Justin Theroux
The Avengers (2012) – Joss Whedon
Iron Man 3 (2013) – Drew Pearce, Shane Black
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) – Joss Whedon
Captain America: Civil War (2016) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) – Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Jon Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, Eric Sommers
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Avengers: Endgame (2019) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Steve Rogers (Captain America)
Fighting for peace to having peace
Captain America: The First Avenger (2008) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
The Avengers (2012) – Joss Whedon
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) – Christopher Marlkus, Stephen McFeely
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) – Joss Whedon
Captain America: Civil War (2016) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Avengers: Endgame (2019) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Thor
Fighting for the right to be called a god
Thor (2011) – Ashley E.Miller, Zack Stentz, Don Payne
The Avengers (2012) – Joss Whedon
Thor: The Dark World (2013) – Christopher L. Yost, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) – Joss Whedon
Thor: Ragnarok (2017) – Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle, Christopher L. Yost
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Avengers: Endgame (2019) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow)
Redemption of her past
Iron Man 2 (2010) – Justin Theroux
The Avengers (2012) – Joss Whedon
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) – Joss Whedon
Captain America: Civil War (2016) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Thor: Ragnarok (2017) – Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle, Christopher L. Yost
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Avengers: Endgame (2019) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Bruce Banner (The Hulk)
Escape duality
The Incredible Hulk (2008) – Zac Penn
The Avengers (2012) – Joss Whedon
Iron Man 3 (2013) – Drew Pearce, Shane Black
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) – Joss Whedon
Thor: Ragnarok (2017) – Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle, Christopher L. Yost
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Avengers: Endgame (2019) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Clint Barton (Hawkeye)
Prolific vs Private life
Thor (2011) – Ashley E.Miller, Zack Stentz, Don Payne
The Avengers (2012) – Joss Whedon
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) – Joss Whedon
Captain America: Civil War (2016) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Avengers: Endgame (2019) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Despite the many creative voices that penned the scripts of the Infinity Saga, the characterisation was almost impeccably consistent between franchises. The above weren’t the only characters in the ‘Infinity Saga’, but they were the protagonists, with Tony Stark’s ‘Iron Man’ being the lynchpin that held the team together.
There was also, of course, their antagonist: Thanos.
Thanos
The Avengers (2012) – Joss Whedon
Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 1 (2014) – James Gunn, Nicole Perlman
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Avengers: Endgame (2019) – Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
During the Infinity Saga, the MCU knew what it was. We can all point to the various creative issues the multi-franchise behemoth went through at the time. But when you look at the box set, it really is a complete story. One story, told over multiple franchises.
The key to Marvel Studios’ success in this was their post-credit scenes. Audiences around the world loved the content of a Marvel Studios film, but they stayed to the end of the credits to get the all-important context. In Iron Man that was the promise of The Avengers. In The Avengers it was the introduction of the threat that would loom large in the MCU for the foreseeable, the threat of Thanos. When the credits of The Avengers had finally faded to black, there was no doubt in audiences’ minds of what the MCU was going to be. The Avengers versus Thanos.
Perhaps in anticipation of the narrative feat and ‘Infinity War’ adaptation would be, Marvel Studios deployed a simple narrative tool that allowed individual creatives to make the movie of their dreams, while also tying each instalment to the central conflict: the MacGuffin. Through the simple act of including an ‘Infinity Stone’, Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Strange tied themselves imperatively to the narrative climax despite neither including an Avenger (though Guardians did also include Thanos in a cameo role). Without realising it, audiences were preparing for a final multi-franchise crossover.
Another, now seemingly accidental, trick the MCU pulled in the storytellers’ handbook is structure. Phases 01, 02, and 03 are simply narrative acts.
Act 01 introduces the protagonist(s) and establishes the threat
Act 02 consists of various trials and tribulations for the hero(s) against the backdrop of the rising antagonism
Act 03 is the inevitable confrontation.
At each crunch point, the MCU would bring together a group of protagonists to face a threat of personal or universal significance. These crunch points, usually an Avengers film, remind the audience who their protagonists are and why they care, while also operating as natural act breaks and turning points in the overarching narrative.
It goes without saying at this point, but the MCU was a simple, effective, and prolific feat in storytelling.
Was.
So, what happened?
When on top of the world, especially in Hollywood, executives can feel untouchable. We can debate until the cows come home about the validity of executives even being in the room for these conversations, so I won’t bother. Instead, I’ll focus on the main issue executives, no matter how previously successful, will never understand:
You do not deviate.
Audiences need focus. Storytelling is structured escapism. Yes, mystery is a large part of engagement, but the audience must always feel as though the storyteller knows where they’re going. So, what happened to the MCU?
It forgot where it’s going.
After WandaVision and Loki aired, audiences seemed comfortable in the knowledge that whatever came, this was culminating with a Maximoff-led Avengers team going up against Kang the Conqueror. This then refocused to a Maximoff-led Young Avengers team when multiple members of that team began springing up in the likes of Ms Marvel and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. But then Moon Knight came and went, Black Widow and The Eternals introduced seemingly random elements, and Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness seemed to accidentally destroy the narrative promises set up in WandaVision. Married with the off-screen issues surrounding the actor playing Kang the Conqueror, it became clear: Marvel Studios don’t know what they’re doing.
It's understandable they’d want to do something different with the Multiverse Saga, but in doing so they completely abandoned the core storytelling principles that made them so strong. There hasn’t been an Avengers film since 2019, and there won’t be again until 2026, when the mystery lineup will go toe-to-toe with Dr Doom, a character that hasn’t been seen or alluded to in a single instalment of the Multiverse Saga. Rather than mine the material they’ve got to find a solution, Marvel Studios appear to, again, be led by executive and studio greed over solid storytelling.
While the MCU is the most prolific of this transmedia form, others have tried and failed to emulate it. Marvel Studios understood that their comic source material allowed for characters to jump between titles, having full narratives without a core franchise of their own (Maria Hill, for example). Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, however, have only ever existed in their own story. Making them the antagonist of The Mummy (2017) does a disservice to both the character of the Mummy, and Dr Jekyll. This is a lesson that can be traced throughout this series of essays.
Know your story.
Hasbro are heading down a similarly dangerous path, putting the behemoths of Transformers and G.I.Joe on screen together and expecting both to be fully realised.
The joy of this type, as the MCU once exemplified, is that connection can begin slow, ramping up and up to a natural conclusion. When writing making Iron Man, there’s no way Kevin Feige knew that the saga would end with Tony Stark facing off against a purple time-travelling alien while surrounded by wizards and superheroes. But, when you take that moment and look back, it could only ever have ended there.
This was a long essay, so well done and thank you if you got to the end! This method of transmedia is one of my favourite, and probably one I’ll come back to in the future, using this essay as a spring board. In future, it’ll be a little less wordy.
To round off, though, Multimedia Linear Narrative storytelling, when looking backwards, is exactly the same as Exposition in External Mediums. The Infinity Saga is actually four Avengers films with various spin-offs.
The difference is the journey. And isn’t that what storytelling is all about?
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