Crossovers

A fictional crossover occurs when two or more otherwise separated fictional characters, stories, settings, universes, or media meet and interact with each other. more...

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Most fictional crossovers take the form of stories in which these separated characters and others are brought together and united with (or pitted against) each other over the course of the story that is being told. Official fictional crossovers usually occur between characters owned by the same person, company or production team (such as most comic book crossovers) or through the incorporation of characters and fictional universes within the public domain (or those that are at least considered to be; examples include Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, or other classical characters), as the crossing over of characters owned by different people or production companies usually raises complicated issues over copyright, ownership and royalties. Many crossovers generally take the form of a marketing tool, a joke or gag, or to play out a "what if" scenario.

Reasons for crossover

There are a number of different reasons for fictional crossovers to occur:

To establish a unified continuity and a 'universe' for the works of a particular author or production company;;

To explore a particular 'what-if' scenario devised by the author or production company;;

To promote and market other works produced by a particular author or production company by including them in a particular piece of work (especially if the works being included and marketed are a spin-off of the original work, which may not be as successful or well-known as the original);;

To reference, homage, parody an existing piece of work, regardless of ownership.;

A crossover story may try to explain its own reason for the crossover, such as "they live next door" (one example being the casts from Golden Girls and Empty Nest) or "a dimensional rift brought them together" (a common explanation for superhero/science fiction properties that have different owners). Some crossovers are not explained at all. Some are absurd or simply impossible within the fictional setting, and have to be ignored by the series' respective continuities. Some even intentionally make the relations between two or more fictional universes confusing (a good example of this phenomenon involves The Simpsons and Futurama, where each show is fiction in the other.)

Standard crossover scenarios

Single author and public domain crossovers

In officially published and broadcast media, the most common form of crossover occurs either between properties owned by a single author or production company, or between properties already existing in the public domain.

Read more at Wikipedia.org