# What fictional franchise, universe, or characters have been reimagined most often?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, movies
**Created:** [April 21, 2025, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304 "2025-04-21T13:37:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/1 "2025-04-21T13:37:46Z")
This thread:
[In Defense of Irene Adler](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defense-of-irene-adler/1016849)
And this, among other posts in the " [Series you’ve recently watched, are now watching or have given up on](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108)" thread:
> [@Series you've recently watched, are now watching or have given up on](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/6185):
>
> There is yet another Sherlock Holmes related series starting: Sherlock and Daughter, set in 1896 and broadcast on CW. I liked the first episode.
…got me thinking, Sherlock Holmes, along with his sidekick Watson, may be the most rebooted, reimagined, recreated fictional characters ever. Both verbatim, and in thinly disguised analogues like ‘House, M.D.’ and the 1998 movie ‘[Zero Effect](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120906/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_1)’.
I could not think of any other fictional characters or universe that’s had so many iterations of it created. I’m thinking of actual characters, such as my Sherlock Holmes example, or settings / universes such as the ‘Lord of the Rings’ universe in which there have been various characters appearing within the existing universe. Not so much general mythic plotlines such as 'The Hero’s Journey" which might be argued to be the most-used general plotline in history.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/2 "2025-04-21T13:39:18Z")
Greek Gods & Heroes probably beat even Sherlock.
But when I read the title of your thread, I immediately thought Sherlock.
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/3 "2025-04-21T13:40:14Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#):
>
> Greek Gods & Heroes probably beat even Sherlock.
Hmm, great answer, right out of the gate. You might be right.
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### Author:  [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/4 "2025-04-21T13:46:13Z")
If you look at faithful dramatizations, adaptations, parodies, etc., etc., etc. I’d have to think Dickens’s _A Christmas Carol_ should be in the conversation.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/5 "2025-04-21T13:46:32Z")
If fanfiction counts, I’d guess Star Wars and/or Star Trek. If myths count, I suspect the Chinese have the Greeks beat.
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### Author:  [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/6 "2025-04-21T13:46:37Z")
Ebenezer Scrooge and the “Christmas carol universe” has to be a contender
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/7 "2025-04-21T13:51:17Z")
> [@dirtball](#):
>
> I’d have to think Dickens’s _A Christmas Carol_ should be in the conversation.
> [@griffin1977](#):
>
> Ebenezer Scrooge and the “Christmas carol universe” has to be a contender
This is an interesting choice. I remember as a kid every sitcom seemed like it had to have some sort of takeoff on ‘A Christmas Carol’ every time the season came around.
But I’m not sure if it fits my OP qualification since I asked for repeated characters or setting, not general plotline. There have been many verbatim recreations of the story though, so maybe it does qualify.
> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> Star Wars and/or Star Trek
These are very likely in the running for some point in the future, but I’d guess that Sherlock Holmes has them beat for now, just out of sheer longevity.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/8 "2025-04-21T13:52:31Z")
Lately they’ve been re-imagining Bram Stoker’s **Dracula** a lot.
It’s not just the multiple versions of _Nosferatu_. There’s been _The Last Voyage of the Demeter_. And PBS/Granada in 2006 came out with an interesting version in which the much-neglected Arthur Holmwood is a pivotal character (he’s diagnosed with syphilis before his wedding to Lucy Westenra, and his efforts to eliminate the disease involve black magic and propels the plot to bring Dracula to England). Or the Netflix/BBC version from 2020 written by Steve Moffat and Mark Gatiss that goes WAY outside the scope of the original novel, with Dracula finally landing in England 123 years after he left Transylvania.
In addition, Dracula was a superhero in Dell comics back in the 1960s (so were Frankenstein and the Werewolf – it was a weird time).
> **[Dracula (Dell Comics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_(Dell_Comics)#/media/File:DraculaDell2.jpg)**
>
> Dracula is a superhero comic book series published by Dell Comics, based on the literary and movie character Count Dracula. The book was part of a line of three superhero comics based on the Universal Monsters characters; the other two were Frankenstein and Werewolf.
> Dracula lasted 3 issues from 1966 through 1967, numbered 2 through 4. (#1, published in 1962, was an adaptation of the 1931 film). In 1972–73, Dell reprinted the series, numbering them #6-8 (the reason for skipping issue #5 is unkn...
Marvel comics stuck closer to the Stoker version of that character in their _Tomb of Dracula_ series, but they had to expand his features – they had comics to sell.
What amazes me is the variety of depictions of Dracula’s castle. It could be a crumbling, virtually abandoned ruin, as in the 1931 Universal films and the PBS 2006 version, or it could be a grand old, but maintained castle as in most versions. Or it might be a very nice and well-kept home as in the 1958 Hammer film. In the Dan Curtis/Jack Palance 1974 TV version his “castle” looks like a neat, trim suburban home. There’s no dust inside, and it doesn’t appear to be made of stone at all.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/9 "2025-04-21T13:52:42Z")
Not sure if Batman or Superman wins out on the superhero side of thangs.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/10 "2025-04-21T13:56:43Z")
**Tarzan**
the familiar Johnny Weissmuller version definitely isn’t Burroughs’ vision (although he approved it). His Tarzan is a rootless white guy inexplicably dropped into Africa and raised by apes. No Lord Greystoke stuff here. The first silent movie tried to be faithful to the book. So did the Disney animated version, but the two are completely different.
Other Tarzans have been varying mixes of the two.
The 1966 Mike Henry movie _Tarzan and the Valley of Gold_ re-imagines Tarzan as a James Bond-ish hero who dresses in suits when not in his jungle loincloth (and wears it much better than Weissmuller’s Tarzan in _Tarzan’s New York Adventure_) and flies first class.
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/11 "2025-04-21T13:57:11Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Lately they’ve been re-imagining Bram Stoker’s **Dracula** a lot.
Great one. Especially if you include _ **every** _ vampire in formal wear and a cape who is clearly a Dracula knockoff. Grandpa Munster, for example.
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### Author:  [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/12 "2025-04-21T14:00:44Z")
> [@solost](#):
>
> But I’m not sure if it fits my OP qualification since I asked for repeated characters or setting, not general plotline.
Well, I was working off the idea that the thread title says “or characters,” and those characters are readily identifiable and much reimagined over the years.
But then again, Dickens himself wrote just the one book, so fair enough if you don’t feel it meets the ask in the OP.
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/13 "2025-04-21T14:09:22Z")
Yes, I did include characters that are thinly disguised alternates, like House and Wilson on ‘House M.D.’ for Sherlock Holmes and Watson. So sure, ‘A Christmas Carol’ could be in the running. Anyway, it’s not as if this is really something that can be easily quantified to the point we’ll have a definitive answer.
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### Author:  [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/14 "2025-04-21T14:10:29Z")
I’m not sure if he counts as fictional (more mythological perhaps), but Robin Hood must have had many, many portrayals, not just on film or TV but on media predating that i.e. theatre?
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### Author:  [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/15 "2025-04-21T14:11:51Z")
> [@solost](#):
>
> Yes, I did include characters that are thinly disguised alternates, like **House and Wilson on ‘House M.D.’ for Sherlock Holmes and Watson**. So sure, ‘A Christmas Carol’ could be in the running. Anyway, it’s not as if this is really something that can be easily quantified to the point we’ll have a definitive answer.
Bolding mine.
I should post this on ‘Obvious things about a creative work that you only just realised’ (my excuse is I have only just finished watching the thing from start to finish, for the first time).
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/16 "2025-04-21T14:14:32Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#):
>
> I’m not sure if he counts as fictional (more mythological perhaps), but Robin Hood must have had many, many portrayals, not just on film or TV but on media predating that i.e. theatre?
I recently read a modern retelling where “Robin Hood” is a Middle Eastern teen girl, and Richard the Lionheart is one of the villains.
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/17 "2025-04-21T14:16:46Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Lately they’ve been re-imagining Bram Stoker’s **Dracula** a lot.
I was going to nominate Dracula as well. There have been a lot of different Draculas since Stoker’s book.
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/18 "2025-04-21T14:22:55Z")
> [@solost](#):
>
> Both verbatim, and in thinly disguised analogues
A large chunk of the fantasy genre consists of bad imitations of Conan the Barbarian. I would even argue that Elric of Melnibone is the Anti-Conan.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/19 "2025-04-21T14:44:12Z")
> [@mbh](#):
>
> I would even argue that Elric of Melnibone is the Anti-Conan.
…which makes it particularly interesting that Marvel actually featured the two together in two of the early issues of **Conan the Barbarian** circa 1970.
> **[Conan Meets Elric](https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/04/conan-meets-elric.html)**
>
> What If ...? wasn't the only Marvel comic series where the Cimmerian found himself encountering the inhabitants of another world. Several ye...
I hadn’t heard of Elric before this. After reading them I tried reading some of Moorcock’s stories, but really couldn’t get into them.
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### Author:  [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2025, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/20 "2025-04-21T14:53:25Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Or the Netflix/BBC version from 2020 written by Steve Moffat and Mark Gatiss that goes WAY outside the scope of the original novel, with Dracula finally landing in England 123 years after he left Transylvania.
I was fascinated by that series making “Sister Agatha,” who is only briefly mentioned in Stoker, into a major character.
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