Heroics (franchise)
Heroics is an Elarian media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superheroes. The films are based on characters that appear in Elarian media published by Firefly, Dragon Studio, and franchise creator Charles Madgett. The franchise includes short films, digital series, and timelines, and literature. The shared universe was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters. Characters from the franchise include Super Soldier, Yankee, Tighten, Galactios, Lang, among numerous others.
Heroics is further depicted as a "multiverse" consisting of numerous separate universes, all of which are the creations of Madgett and all of which are, in a sense, "Heroics universes". In this context, "Heroics Universe," followed by letters A, B, C, D, E, and X are taken to refer to the mainstream Heroics continuity, which is known as the Heroics Timeline Telling. The multiverse initially began in Phase Three, with "The Accomplice and the Timelines of Tenacity" serving as the first event or point in the timeline where separate universes had been explored. Separate universes are also separate timelines of the franchise, branching off the first initial telling of the franchise in what would be known as "Heroics Universe A" or "Timeline A."
Generally, the canon of the Heroics franchise's overall continuity - or the Timeline Telling - is contested by 3 parties, being Firefly, Dragon Studio - which left the former back in November 2021 - as well as the main party being franchise creator and main writer Charles Madgett. Fans generally perceive Madgett's version of the franchise canon as the "real" or "reliable" timeline, referred to as the "Madgett Cut" or "Madgett Telling."
Development
Initial Timeline
In September 2021, Charles Madgett started having ideas of a superhero-themed universe, even thinking of a multiverse. He would go on to form the first formation of what would happen. This would later go on to become known as Phases One through Five, though separate timelines were not considered separate universes at this point. Later on, Madgett would create Phases Six through Eight and then Nine through Ten.
Films
At the point of the initial timeline's creation, all that was known were the characters and a general plot overall concerning each of the ten phases and - at the time - four timelines which would later become known as Universes A, B, C, and X. Later on, he would be approached by Firefly and Dragon Studio - which at the time had been merged to create Dragonfly Studio - to develop a film for the franchise surrounding Phase One. Charles agreed, and soon after the Super Soldier trailer released online to support from fans. After the film's release, Dragonfly would later also create a Tighten film, which was received better as it was longer and featured more than a fight in the eyes of fans. Dragonfly Studio would later unmerge, with Dragon Studio leaving Firefly. Dragon Studio alone would take on the task of creating the Yankee film, which would release later than initially promised to fans.
The films, which were initially going to be the only official release of the Heroics franchise - initially thought out as a cinematic universe - broke down after the unmerge between Dragon Studio and Firefly. The two companies began to argue and legally battle over who held the rights to the franchise. Later on, in Elarian law, it would be decided that Madgett was the owner of the IP seeing as he created it. Madgett would later grant partial ownership to both companies so that they could work on their own film franchises. However, Dragon Studio opted to not work on a single film after Yankee. Firefly did work on three untitled films which supposedly would have gone over the end of Phase One and the beginning of Phase Two, with the first movie being the "Heroics Together!" storyline, the second film being the "Heroics VS Lang" storyline, and the third film being the "Trained Heroes" and the "New Heroics" storylines respectively.
Timeline Telling
On 19 December 2021, Madgett announced that the film franchises - which had not yet been revealed to have branched out of the initial franchise - had been cancelled, leaving in its place an official timeline for all Heroics franchise storylines. For the most part, the Timeline Telling goes over Madgett's initial timeline going up to the tenth phase. However, due to the ownership still partially being owned by Firefly and Dragon Studio, the two companies later decided to change certain storylines for the timeline. This resulted in the timeline being formatted as follows;
Green dots are points and storylines which all parties agree to have happened at the place they are at.
Golden dots are points and storylines which Madgett believes to have happened at the place they are at. Golden dots are very important, as most fans interpret them as the true telling of the franchises' storylines, with other dots - excluding green - being branches off of that telling.
Red dots are points and storylines which Dragon Studio believes to have happened at the place they are at.
Purple dots are points and storylines which Firefly believes to have happened at the place they are at. Notably, Firefly does not want to have a multiverse. This leads to essentially all events out of Universe A in the Timeline Telling of the franchise to be contested in some way.
Ownership
| Month, Year | Firefly | Dragon Studio | Charles Madgett |
|---|---|---|---|
| September, 2021 | IP, Media | ||
| October, 2021 | Media | Media | IP |
| November, 2021 | Media | Media | IP, Media |
| December, 2021 | Media | Media | IP, Media |