# What fictional franchise, universe, or characters have been reimagined most often? **URL:** \ **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:** 2
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/21 "2025-04-21T15:26:35Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > > [@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). Yep, House’s address on the show is even the same as Holmes’: 221B Baker Street. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/22 "2025-04-21T15:28:33Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > the familiar Johnny Weissmuller version definitely isn’t Burroughs’ vision (although he approved it). In one of the Tarzan books, he goes to Hollywood but gets rejected for the role of Tarzan for not being right for the part. I believe he fights an escaped lion on the soundstage. Burroughs could be very funny at times. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/23 "2025-04-21T15:29:45Z")
I think that Greek mythology is probably the top. But other contenders include the Matter of Britain (i.e., King Arthur) and the Matter of Troy (the Trojan War). Though of course there’s overlap between the Matter of Troy and Greek mythology. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/24 "2025-04-21T15:33:46Z")
I would lump the Iliad & the Odyssey in with Greek Myths. Aeneid, not so much unless we consider Greek & Roman myths one. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/25 "2025-04-21T15:40:07Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Yep, House’s address on the show is even the same as Holmes’: 221B Baker Street. You know, I did notice that when watching and even said to my partner that it was a reference to Sherlock Holmes, but I still didn’t make the connection with House and Wilson as Holmes and Watson… and now I’m typing it I can see they’ve got the same surname initials too! ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/26 "2025-04-21T15:44:14Z")
According to [Guinness](https://guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/97587-most-portrayed-literary-character-in-film) the most portrayed literary character is Dracula, by a long margin. Sherlock Holmes is second, but quite far behind. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/27 "2025-04-21T15:44:59Z")
Well, we’ve already mentioned Dracula, so we might as well include Frankenstein’s monster, although I prefer to simply call him “Frankenstein”. People have been calling the monster that since he started appearing in stage versions in the 1820s. There have been LOTS of versions on stage and on film of the original story, and they’ve envisioned the character in all sorts of ways. They’ve given him various demises (buried by a rolling ball of snow, immolated in a volcano, burned in a windmill, etc.) He’s been everything from downright handsome to beastlike to Jack Pierce’s flat-topped bolt-necked monstrosity. He’s been created in a watchtower, a castle, a garret, and elsewhere (nobody has yet shown him being constructed as Mary Shelley envisioned him being made, by his brilliant undergrad creator making him by candlelight on the floor). But then there are the re-imaginings –Hammer film’s version – _Frankenstein: The True Story_ (1973) – which wasn’t – Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein/Flesh for Frankenstein –Frankenstein as robot in _Frankenstein vs. the Space Monster_ (1965) – the classic Universal Frankenstein – the 1910 Edison films Frankenstein – The 1960s Dell comic Frankenstein as super hero – The 1970s Marvel “Monster of Frankenstein” – Dick Briefer’s two comic book interpretations – one funny, one serious, from the 1940s and 1950s And that doesn’t even begin to cover the many imitations and parodies Young Frankenstein Milton the Monster David Carradine in Death Race 2000 I was a Teenage Frankenstein Frankenstein 1970 Frankenstein’s Daughter Herman Munster in _The Munsters_ Etc. etc. etc. What amazes me is that, although Universal invented the “flat-topped, bolt-necked Frankenstein”, they haven’t really asserted their rights to it. Lots of people not associated with Universal have gotten away with depicting the monster that way, without paying any royalties to Universal. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/28 "2025-04-21T15:47:43Z")
One of my favorite pastiches of Sherlock Holmes is in Poul Anderson’s story _The Martian Crown Jewels_, which features a Martian Sherlock Holmes named Syalock, who wears a “tirstoker cap” and lives on “The Street of those who Prepare Nourishment in Ovens”. He smokes a pipe, but has to soak his tobacco in potassium permanganate. Anderson loved Holmes, and tributes to him show up several times in his works. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/29 "2025-04-21T16:10:26Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > I still didn’t make the connection with House and Wilson as Holmes and Watson… and now I’m typing it I can see they’ve got the same surname initials too! I’m surprised the writers gave House the first name “Gregory” and not “Sherman” or something similar to Sherlock. > [@CalMeacham](#): > > Well, we’ve already mentioned Dracula, so we might as well include Frankenstein’s monster, although I prefer to simply call him “Frankenstein”. Another good one.The Frankenstein story is so ubiquitous there’s even a metaphorical saying arising from it, meaning to inadvertently make happen a bad situation that gets out of one’s control: “to create a Frankenstein”. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/30 "2025-04-21T16:15:05Z")
The first patient was even Rebecca **Adler** , as in Irena Adler. They made no bones about it being Sherlock as a Doctor. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/31 "2025-04-21T16:28:45Z")
Would each Doctor after regeneration count in this thread? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/32 "2025-04-21T16:31:12Z")
I feel like no, but [the two movies in the 60s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Who_(Dalek_films)#:~:text=The%20character%2C%20portrayed%20by%20Peter,reception%20for%20the%20second%20film.) starring Peter Cushing probably do. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/33 "2025-04-21T16:33:25Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > The first patient was even Rebecca **Adler** , as in Irena Adler. Interesting. I hadn’t known that. Got me wondering if there was ever a Moriarty on House M.D. [Sure enough…](https://house.fandom.com/wiki/Jack_Moriarty) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/34 "2025-04-21T16:35:31Z")
Isn’t Grandpa Munster actually Count Dracula? I know I heard him called it in the show. (Which means Lily is Dracula’s daughter, so her name should be Gloria Holden.) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/35 "2025-04-21T16:38:13Z")
It appears you’re correct. I didn’t remember that. At least he is a Count Dracula, Sam Dracula to be precise. Possibly a descendant of Vlad instead. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/36 "2025-04-21T16:39:45Z")
Sam Dracula? I love it! ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/37 "2025-04-21T16:41:42Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Sam Dracula? Apparently in a late 80s reboot called “The Munsters Today” they [retconned his name to be Vladimir Dracula.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandpa_(The_Munsters)#Character_background) Or maybe ‘Sam’ was always just a nickname to be more American-sounding. > Grandpa’s identity as Count Dracula is alluded to in both the original series and The Munsters Today. In the 1965 episode “The Musician”, Mr. Gateman refers to him as “Count Dracula” when he comes to dinner. In “The Fregosi Emerald”, Grandpa refers to himself as Count Dracula to an operator in Transylvania. He is also referred to as “The Count” various times in The Munsters Today, most notably in the season one episode “Farewell Grandpa”, when the family find out he isn’t an American citizen, with the threat of being deported back to Transylvania by the U.S. government. In the episodes “Herman’s Rival” and “Happy 100th Anniversary”, Lily notes her maiden name is Dracula. Throughout The Munsters Today, _ **Grandpa is referred to as “Vladimir Dracula”.** _ (Emphasis mine) ETA: Just fell down a little Munsters rabbit hole: I had always assumed that Lily Munster was a “Bride of Frankenstein” type monster, since she’s married to Herman and has a streak of white in her hair, similar to the iconic Elsa Lanchester look. Which, when I was googling Grandpa Munster, got me thinking "how did a vampire father a ‘bride of Frankenstein’ style monster? Turns out she’s actually [also a vampire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Munster), with the maiden name ‘Dracula’. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/38 "2025-04-21T16:56:59Z")
> [@solost](#): > > > [@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. The conversation about Christmas and Scrooge got me wondering where Santa Claus would place on the list. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/39 "2025-04-21T16:58:12Z")
Good one! Yes, depictions of Santa Claus have to be up there, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304/40 "2025-04-21T17:01:41Z")
I’m guessing the suggestion of Jesus (or God) might be too provocative for this thread? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-franchise-universe-or-characters-have-been-reimagined-most-often/1017304.md?page=3)