Meta: Crossover Potential (Henry Danger)
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Title: Crossover Potential
Fandom: Henry Danger
Word Count: 1232
The Henry Danger world is one that's ripe for crossover application, though the tone of the show could present matching problems.
Besides the core series, a number of other series nominally already share the universe. Henry Danger was created by Dan Schneider, who has stated that all his shows are meant to take place in the same universe. As a popular producer and writer for Nickelodeon until he was fired in 2018, this means that HD has a long list of other series with which it co-exists (or potentially does, provided they're not deliberately excluded), some of which we know cross over with others of his productions and some of which can’t. Amongst the DanWarp shows, for example, Game Shakers has the strongest connection, with the cast of GS appearing in-universe on HD, and the character of Henry Hart/Kid Danger appearing in-universe on GS. This obviously makes further GS crossovers easy because the characters already have established relationships with one another.
Another connection is found via the character of Goomer, a henchman of the villain Frankini. Goomer (same character and same actor) comes directly from the DanWarp show Sam & Cat, which is a joint spin-off of his other shows iCarly and VICTORIous, thereby tying all four of them together. (iCarly and VICTORIous also directly crossed over with each other.) The crossover potential here is a little more difficult because none of the latter three shows have either superpowers or superheroes built into their canons—but that's hardly an insurmountable problem. It's easy enough to imagine that superpowers and superheroes aren't common in HD's world either, and only appear to be so after Henry joins the club, as it were.
Conversely, we see the characters on HD watch Drake & Josh on TV and they quote from the movie Good Burger while holding a video tape of it. By implication, these DanWarp properties are not in the same universe as HD, though that may actually make any crossover easier.
As Nickelodeon's highest rated show, HD also scored canonical crossovers with properties that weren't part of DanWarp. Most notably, the first in-universe crossover of the series that brought the main characters of the superhero show The Thundermans over to fight alongside our heroes, Kid Danger and Captain Man. (The Thundermans had an unrelated crossover of their own with The Haunted Hathaways, which puts all three shows in the same universe). There's also an HD crossover with Knight Squad. This one, however, is done via a device that allows the characters from KS to come into the HD universe.
That parallel dimensions exist is thoroughly established on HD, first in the first season episode "Opposite Universe," and then overtly reused a couple times throughout the show’s five season run. (There also also a few episodes where problems with characterization or continuity are probably best explained with the assumption that we're watching one of those parallel dimensions instead of our normal HD characters.) The dimension hopping device used for the KS crossover also later establishes that HD is not in our universe. Having a canonical means for combining universes, or for characters from HD to be able to travel to other universes, is an excellent facilitator for those crossover writers who want or need a mechanism to bring the different properties together.
Along with parallel dimensions, time travel and the existence of aliens are also established in the HD canon. This provides an easy means to cross over with properties that are not contemporaneous or are not on/from Earth. (As long as one is willing to ignore certain factual errors, such a significant story-arc being based on cavemen living one hundred million years ago). To make it even nicer, the rules of time travel in HD have no consistency, a fact which is directly called out on the show, so there is no issue with trying to make the rules from HD mesh with the rules of any other property. (Continuity errors could also be explained as us seeing the ripple effects of a time traveler making changes in the past — an interpretation that could also work as a crossover mechanism.)
On a different note, it's generally a given that spin-offs are in the same universe as their parent shows. In the case of HD, that's only half true. HD has two spin-offs (three, if you count the Motion Comic). The live-action spin-off, Danger Force is clearly in the same universe, as it was both set up in the final episodes of HD and characters from HD—including Henry himself—appear on it. Crossovers here are easiest, for obvious reasons, inasmuch as characters from a parent show appearing on its spin-off can be considered a crossover. However, The Adventures of Kid Danger, the animated spin-off, cannot be in the same universe as its parent show because of the episode "Toon in for Danger," in which we see our characters write the first episode of the cartoon, and then watch it with an audience. Since we know there has to be a lot of overlap between the characters' experiences in the live-action vs. the animated show, the crossover challenge there is in figuring out which experiences are exclusive to each, and how the one version of the character would relate to his or her other version. At least getting the characters from one medium to the other wouldn't be difficult; the show's resident genius-inventor-and-possible-alien, Schwoz, has a device for that.
The biggest issue with crossing HD with other properties, then, isn't the logistics; it's the tone of HD. The show had, rightfully, been characterized as a filmed shitpost. Not only is it a kids' show, the writers play fast and loose with their own worldbuilding and in-universe logic (e.g. the rules for time travel changing). On top of that, characters might, sometimes, have some sense of the fourth wall; though, as with everything else, their recognition of such answers to the Rule of Funny.
As HD is a kids' show and a superhero show, the laws of biology and physics are also routinely ignored. No one ever receives an injury more serious than a broken arm, being knocked unconscious is no more than a mild inconvenience (likewise, being caught in an explosion causes no damage worse than some dirty clothes and skin), and distance only exists when—and to the extent that— the plot requires it to. This could cause world-combining problems for canons where characters can suffer and get killed.
Also, HD is so trope conscious as to dip into being a parody of both kids' shows and superhero shows, from characters directly identifying when they're engaged with certain tropes to subversions that require familiarity with the tropes well beyond what the child-age audience would have. For writers who don't care about this, or who are adept at manipulating and meshing tones, there's no problem. Writers who are more fixed may have a hard time bringing the lighter and farcical tones of Henry Danger into darker properties, or vice versa—especially when it comes time to decide how much the characters should understand about the crossover properties they're encountering.
The ease by which HD's canon makes it possible for its characters to go to other canons, or for characters from others to come to HD's, eliminates a lot of logistical issues with writing crossovers. Meshing the tones of the properties may be a bigger impediment—or a more fun challenge.
fffcTitle: Crossover Potential
Fandom: Henry Danger
Word Count: 1232
The Henry Danger world is one that's ripe for crossover application, though the tone of the show could present matching problems.
Besides the core series, a number of other series nominally already share the universe. Henry Danger was created by Dan Schneider, who has stated that all his shows are meant to take place in the same universe. As a popular producer and writer for Nickelodeon until he was fired in 2018, this means that HD has a long list of other series with which it co-exists (or potentially does, provided they're not deliberately excluded), some of which we know cross over with others of his productions and some of which can’t. Amongst the DanWarp shows, for example, Game Shakers has the strongest connection, with the cast of GS appearing in-universe on HD, and the character of Henry Hart/Kid Danger appearing in-universe on GS. This obviously makes further GS crossovers easy because the characters already have established relationships with one another.
Another connection is found via the character of Goomer, a henchman of the villain Frankini. Goomer (same character and same actor) comes directly from the DanWarp show Sam & Cat, which is a joint spin-off of his other shows iCarly and VICTORIous, thereby tying all four of them together. (iCarly and VICTORIous also directly crossed over with each other.) The crossover potential here is a little more difficult because none of the latter three shows have either superpowers or superheroes built into their canons—but that's hardly an insurmountable problem. It's easy enough to imagine that superpowers and superheroes aren't common in HD's world either, and only appear to be so after Henry joins the club, as it were.
Conversely, we see the characters on HD watch Drake & Josh on TV and they quote from the movie Good Burger while holding a video tape of it. By implication, these DanWarp properties are not in the same universe as HD, though that may actually make any crossover easier.
As Nickelodeon's highest rated show, HD also scored canonical crossovers with properties that weren't part of DanWarp. Most notably, the first in-universe crossover of the series that brought the main characters of the superhero show The Thundermans over to fight alongside our heroes, Kid Danger and Captain Man. (The Thundermans had an unrelated crossover of their own with The Haunted Hathaways, which puts all three shows in the same universe). There's also an HD crossover with Knight Squad. This one, however, is done via a device that allows the characters from KS to come into the HD universe.
That parallel dimensions exist is thoroughly established on HD, first in the first season episode "Opposite Universe," and then overtly reused a couple times throughout the show’s five season run. (There also also a few episodes where problems with characterization or continuity are probably best explained with the assumption that we're watching one of those parallel dimensions instead of our normal HD characters.) The dimension hopping device used for the KS crossover also later establishes that HD is not in our universe. Having a canonical means for combining universes, or for characters from HD to be able to travel to other universes, is an excellent facilitator for those crossover writers who want or need a mechanism to bring the different properties together.
Along with parallel dimensions, time travel and the existence of aliens are also established in the HD canon. This provides an easy means to cross over with properties that are not contemporaneous or are not on/from Earth. (As long as one is willing to ignore certain factual errors, such a significant story-arc being based on cavemen living one hundred million years ago). To make it even nicer, the rules of time travel in HD have no consistency, a fact which is directly called out on the show, so there is no issue with trying to make the rules from HD mesh with the rules of any other property. (Continuity errors could also be explained as us seeing the ripple effects of a time traveler making changes in the past — an interpretation that could also work as a crossover mechanism.)
On a different note, it's generally a given that spin-offs are in the same universe as their parent shows. In the case of HD, that's only half true. HD has two spin-offs (three, if you count the Motion Comic). The live-action spin-off, Danger Force is clearly in the same universe, as it was both set up in the final episodes of HD and characters from HD—including Henry himself—appear on it. Crossovers here are easiest, for obvious reasons, inasmuch as characters from a parent show appearing on its spin-off can be considered a crossover. However, The Adventures of Kid Danger, the animated spin-off, cannot be in the same universe as its parent show because of the episode "Toon in for Danger," in which we see our characters write the first episode of the cartoon, and then watch it with an audience. Since we know there has to be a lot of overlap between the characters' experiences in the live-action vs. the animated show, the crossover challenge there is in figuring out which experiences are exclusive to each, and how the one version of the character would relate to his or her other version. At least getting the characters from one medium to the other wouldn't be difficult; the show's resident genius-inventor-and-possible-alien, Schwoz, has a device for that.
The biggest issue with crossing HD with other properties, then, isn't the logistics; it's the tone of HD. The show had, rightfully, been characterized as a filmed shitpost. Not only is it a kids' show, the writers play fast and loose with their own worldbuilding and in-universe logic (e.g. the rules for time travel changing). On top of that, characters might, sometimes, have some sense of the fourth wall; though, as with everything else, their recognition of such answers to the Rule of Funny.
As HD is a kids' show and a superhero show, the laws of biology and physics are also routinely ignored. No one ever receives an injury more serious than a broken arm, being knocked unconscious is no more than a mild inconvenience (likewise, being caught in an explosion causes no damage worse than some dirty clothes and skin), and distance only exists when—and to the extent that— the plot requires it to. This could cause world-combining problems for canons where characters can suffer and get killed.
Also, HD is so trope conscious as to dip into being a parody of both kids' shows and superhero shows, from characters directly identifying when they're engaged with certain tropes to subversions that require familiarity with the tropes well beyond what the child-age audience would have. For writers who don't care about this, or who are adept at manipulating and meshing tones, there's no problem. Writers who are more fixed may have a hard time bringing the lighter and farcical tones of Henry Danger into darker properties, or vice versa—especially when it comes time to decide how much the characters should understand about the crossover properties they're encountering.
The ease by which HD's canon makes it possible for its characters to go to other canons, or for characters from others to come to HD's, eliminates a lot of logistical issues with writing crossovers. Meshing the tones of the properties may be a bigger impediment—or a more fun challenge.
