How everything went everywhere in pop culture

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has popularised the concept of the multiverse—an idea that infinite, parallel universes can exist along similar trajectories. But the idea of alternate realities, second selves and jumping through time loops, is hardly new. Science fiction has played around with them for decades. Follow the trail as we track pop culture’s trysts with the multiverse.

1923 1934

Murray Leinster’s short story, Sidewise in Time (published in the American sciencefiction magazine Astounding Stories) introduces the idea of parallel universes. A team of scientists set off on an expedition to uncover why sections of the Earth are being swapped by their equivalents in alternate timelines. In this quest for learning more, they travel to primitive timelines at the risk of losing contact with their original world.

1939

HG Wells’s novel, Men Like Gods is the first to take readers through an invisible portal into a strange dimension called Utopia. In his social satire, Utopia is 3,000 years ahead of humanity as we know it on Earth. We’ve transcended religion and politics. Science flourishes alongside principles of truth and freedom. We see it all through the eyes of London journalist, Mr. Barnstaple, who’s accidentally landed here.

The Wizard of Oz film – half black-andwhite, half colour – becomes the definitive adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel. Farm girl Dorothy and her dog, Toto, are literally whisked off, home and all, to an alternate dimension, the Land of Oz. Here, magic is possible. There are good witches, yellow brick roads and a Tin Man. But how do you get back home?