Thanks to fan theories and hints dropped in specific movies, there are many films that people are convinced are connected to bigger franchises. Many of these films have no apparent connection to the franchises beyond small Easter eggs that seem to have been added. However, others have entire theories built around the connection.

In some cases, it is a line of dialogue, a character’s name, or even something visual that appears on the screen in either the solo movie or one of the franchise efforts. In other cases, franchises like Pixar or Disney seem to connect everything. Either way, these connections, real or not, remain fun for audiences to dissect.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Star Wars)

George Lucas brought the world the first Star Wars movie in 1976 and never looked back. That franchise has grown to include several movies, streaming shows, and multiple media properties. However, there is also something in the franchise that connects it to a Steven Spielberg movie that hit theaters in 1982.

Spielberg directed the science fiction family movie E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, which tells the story of an alien scientist stranded on Earth and the boy who tries to protect him. Lucas and Spielberg are close friends, and they even collaborated on another franchise with the Indiana Jones movies. It makes sense they would reference each other.

This happened first in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace during the Galactic Senate of the Republic meeting. The aliens were all shown and, in one pod, some aliens looked just like E.T.’s alien race, making fans convinced they all exist in the same shared universe.

Nobody & Nobody 2 (John Wick)

The idea that Nobody is set in the John Wick universe has been an ongoing topic of discussion since the first Nobody movie hit theaters. With the second movie arriving in 2025, more people are wondering if the two films are set in the same shared universe, thanks to several interesting scenes.

From the start, both movies are about aging ᴀssᴀssins, with Keanu Reeves at 60 and Bob Odenkirk at 62. However, when pushed, they are still able to kill multiple people at once. That said, there was nothing in the first Nobody movie that connected the worlds, but that didn’t stop fans from remaining convinced they were.

When Nobody 2 had a fight scene in a hall of mirrors, something the John Wick franchise also did, it made it even harder to overlook their similarities. Add in the similarity of the Barber (Colin Salmon) to the members of Wick’s High Table, and the two franchises could easily cross paths.

The Rock (James Bond)

There are many reasons why fans remain convinced that the former British Intelligence agent Sean Connery portrayed in The Rock was previously James Bond. In The Rock, Connery played John Mason, the only man to escape Alcatraz after he stole microfilm from J. Edgar Hoover with classified information.

He was kept alive since he never revealed the microfilm’s location. In The Rock, he is offered his freedom if he will help a chemical weapons specialist break into Alcatraz after some rogue Marines overtake it and threaten a lethal gas attack on San Francisco if their demands are not met.

What ties this to James Bond is that John Mason is a former MI6 agent whom the British government disavowed. Since James Bond is believed to be a cover name for MI6 agents, the theory is that Mason is a former Bond and has been rotting away in prison since he stole the microfilm, while a new Bond replaced him.

Blade Runner (Predator Via Alien)

There seems to be a shared universe for Blade Runner. The shared universe connects Blade Runner to Alien, which means it is also part of the Predator franchise. It is easy to see some hidden items in Blade Runner from Alien since Ridley Scott directed both films. After that, Alien crossed over with Predator.

Both Alien and Blade Runner are set in dystopian futures where corporations dominate the world. Both movies paint a dark future for humans, and each features Android characters who question the meaning of life. Alien connects to Blade Runner because Captain Dallas once worked for Blade Runner’s Tyrell Corporation.

Later, in Prometheus, Peter Weyland also mentions Tyrell in a memo. This suggests that both movies take place in the same world. There were also two films where Aliens and Predators battled each other, so it means Blade Runner is also in the same universe as Predators.

Captain America: The First Avenger (Indiana Jones)

Of course, Captain America movies exist in one of the biggest shared universes in all of Hollywood. There are 37 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, and since the Fox movies and Sony films have crossed over, the number is even bigger than that. This means Captain America has crossed over with almost more movies than anyone.

However, there was also a line in Captain America: The First Avenger that hints that the film also crosses over with another franchise. In the movie, set during World War II, the Red Skull and Arnim Zola discuss the Cosmic Cube and their plans for world domination, separate from Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

That is when the Red Skull said they would watch as Hitler “digs for trinkets in the desert” while they do the real work with the Cosmic Cube. This led many fans to draw a connection to Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Hitler’s Nazi minions are in the desert searching for artifacts, including the Ark of the Covenant.

Collateral (Transporter)

The connection between Collateral and the Transporter franchise is a little more apparent, although it was never slammed home in the movie. Collateral is a Michael Mann movie that stars Tom Cruise as an ᴀssᴀssin named Vincent who forces a cab driver played by Jamie Foxx to help him on a spree where he takes out various targets.

Transporter is an action film from 2002 starring Jason Statham as a driver who takes on jobs delivering packages, with the agreement that the deal will never be changed, no names will be given, and he will never open the package. However, in a shocking moment, Statham shows up in Collateral as what appears to be the same character.

In the credits, Statham is called “Airport Man,” and he only briefly interacts with Cruise’s Vincent at the start of the film. He was never called Frank Martin, although co-director Louis Leterrier said the character was always meant to be Frank Martin, and that he would appear in cameos in other movies in the future.

Psycho (Halloween)

The movie credited with popularizing the slasher movie genre was Halloween in 1978, although that was a couple of years after Black Christmas. With that said, a decade earlier, another movie pioneered the genre with Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. However, many fans are convinced that Psycho and Halloween are set in the same universe.

This is thanks to two characters. In Psycho, Janet Leigh played Marion Crane, a woman who disappeared after going on the run after stealing from her employer. John Gavin played her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, who went to the Bates Motel looking for her along with her sister Lila (Vera Miles).

In Halloween, which arrived 18 years later, a character named Dr. Sam Loomis is a criminal psychiatrist and has been treating Michael Myers for years. Fans are convinced that Sam Loomis from Psycho dedicated his life to working with others after his traumatic experience with Norman Bates, and they are the same person.

Piranha 3D (Jaws)

The connection between Piranha and the Jaws franchise is all thanks to the comments by one actor. While Richard Dreyfuss might have been joking about the connection, it gave many fans something to latch onto and run with. In Jaws, Dreyfuss played Matt Hooper, and in Piranha 3D, he played Matt Boyd.

Dreyfuss said that the two characters are the same person. According to the actor, “I play the older Matt Hooper, who escaped being eaten by the shark and is now eaten by a bunch of piranha fish.”

In Jaws, Dreyfuss played a marine biologist who went out to help find the shark killing people in a New England resort town. In Piranha 3D, he was the first person killed when he fell into the lake while fishing and was eaten by piranhas. There is no other connection other than the first names, but it’s a fun theory.

Friday The 13th 2009 (Transformers)

Many fans believe the 2009 Friday the 13th reboot takes place in the same universe as Transformers. What connects the slasher horror movie to the action franchise is one character. Actor Travis Van Winkle appears in the two films, portraying a character named Trent DeMarco in both.

In Transformers, he plays an arrogant jock named Trent who is dating Megan Fox’s Mikaela when the movie starts. She ends up dumping him for Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), and most fans felt he deserved the dumping. Moving forward to Friday the 13th, released two years later, Van Winkle returned as Trent.

Michael Bay, who directed Transformers and produced Friday the 13th, said the characters were the same person. Two years after Megan Fox dumped him, he cheated on his girlfriend, and Jason killed him. This means Jason Voorhees exists in the same world as the Transformers.

Better Luck Tomorrow (Fast & Furious)

Fans fell in love with Han Lue (Sung Kang) in Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift. Han is still a big part of the franchise after his teased death was retconned, and he remains a beloved member of Dom’s team in the series. However, he appeared in another movie.

While no one mentions Better Luck Tomorrow when discussing the Fast & Furious franchise, it is a secret prequel. This movie came out in 2002, four years before Tokyo Drift, and one year before the first sequel to the Fast & Furious franchise even hit theaters.

Justin Lin, who took over the Fast & Furious franchise with Tokyo Drift, also directed Better Luck Tomorrow. The movie tells the story of four bored teens who get involved in petty crimes. Sung Kang plays Han Lue in the film, making it an origin story for the beloved Fast & Furious ​​​​​​character.