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 The Marvel Cinematic Universe is so influential that it has even changed the way books are published. Publishers and readers are embracing shared universes, such as Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse and Jeremy Robinson’s Nemesis Saga. While book series are nothing new, a shared literary universe is different because it can focus on different characters and different time periods in a shared continuity, whereas a series will tell a linear story with the same characters.

Brandson Sanderson, who created the Cosmere literary universe, recalls how the shift began after the MCU took off. “I thought I want to do all these magic systems, all these different planets, and I want to connect them all,” Brandon Sanderson says during New York Comic Con 2022’s Titans of Fantasy panel. “People were really scared of continuity back then. When I was doing this, this was a few years before the MCU came out. Publishers were scared. They wanted one series but they didn’t want this big interconnected thing because the conventional wisdom was this would scare off readers.”

After publishing Elantris in 2005, Sanderson was encouraged to write a sequel, but he was more interested in expanding the universe with a new series set in the same continuity. “[Tor Books] came to me and said, ‘Alright, write a sequel to Elantris.’ I said, ‘No. I am not going to write a sequel to Elantris. I’m going to write something new.’ And they’re like, ‘You will take a sales hit if you do that. Write a sequel to Elantris.’ And I said, ‘No. I’ll take the sales hit. It’s going to be worth it.’ And I launched into a new series which was Mistborn.”

“Then the MCU came out and everyone’s no longer scared of continuity. And so suddenly I’ve been doing this thing for years that everybody wanted and that kind of helped propel it forward.”

The MCU may not have created the concept of a shared universe, but it certainly showed publishers that audiences were interested in it.

Are you interested in more Brandon Sanderson? Check out our guide to learn how to read Cosmere in release and chronological order.