Do you know about McDonaldland? It’s the fantastical world of fictional characters created by McDonald’s. Ronald McDonald, Grimace, Birdie, the Hamburglar, etc. These were staple characters in the 80s and 90s.
I recently wondered: how large is the McDonaldland universe? Let’s explore this question.
Ronald McDonald was in advertisements with a lot of popular characters to promote the McDonald’s restaurant. A notable one was this ad where Ronald and Grimace run into Mario, from Super Mario Brothers. This means Mario, Peach, and the Mushroom Kingdom are in the McDonaldland universe. Pretty cool! Let’s see how deep this goes.
Mario is a very popular character, and has appeared in games with many other characters. For example, Mario’s presence in the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series. This means the characters of Sonic are also in McDonaldland.
Sonic is also very popular. In 2013, he appeared in the “Worlds Collide” Archie comic. This involved a crossover with the Capcom character, Mega Man. This means that Mega Man also resides in McDonaldland.
Capcom pursued some ambitious games with their characters. A popular title was 1998’s Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes where Capcom characters (including the Blue Bomber, Mega Man) appeared alongside Marvel superheroes. All of the Marvel characters (Iron Man, Rogue, Wolverine, etc.) are part of McDonaldland.
Marvel characters haven’t just appeared in crossovers with their own properties. There were two comics where the characters of the Marvel universe also met with the crew of the Enterprise from both the original series in “Star Trek/X-Men” and the Next Generation in “Planet X”. All of Star Fleet exists in McDonaldland.
The Star Trek characters were in many films, books, and comics. An important one for the McDonaldland continuity was the “Star Trek/Green Lantern” series. This involved the crew of the Enterprise meeting the Green Lantern. Unsurprisingly, the DC Comics characters also exist in McDonaldland.
Superman has fought a lot of tough enemies. One of the most difficult was published in the year 2000. He battled against The Terminator in “Superman vs. The Terminator: Death to the Future”. Obviously, Sarah Connor and the Terminator are also from McDonaldland.
There were other comics featuring The Terminator. One put him in the middle of a triangle against two other battling foes in Aliens versus Predator versus The Terminator. This means the characters of “Alien” (Ripley, Peter Weyland, the alien, and others) are in McDonaldland.
The Alien franchise didn’t just feature in the popular films, but also video games. An important title was 2015’s Mortal Kombat X. Here, you could play as Alien and fight Freddy from “A Nightmare on Elm Street”. Freddy Krueger also exists in McDonaldland.
Freddy Krueger also appeared in Mortal Kombat (9) alongside some other characters. The roster included Kratos from God of War, another resident of McDonaldland.
The McDonaldland Multiverse (also called the McDonaldland / Mario / Sonic / Mega Man / Marvel / Star Trek / DC / Terminator / Alien / Nightmare on Elm Street / God of War Multiverse) is an expansive one. To help visualize it, I prepared this DOT file which you can see here:
