When theorizing how a cinematic cult status develops, we should bear in mind that there may be more than one kind of media cult, and also more than one way for audiences to meaningfully approach films and franchises as cults. Prior research has emphasized different types of cult texts, whether by distinguishing “the midnight movie from the classical cult film” (Telotte, “Beyond” 10), “residual” from “emergent” audience valorizations (see my own “Realising the Cult Blockbuster”), or transgressive cult movies from “cult blockbusters” (Mathijs and Sexton 214). Some writers have explicitly identified branches of cult movies: “One … branch of cult adores, worships and scrutinizes our leading actors, performers and celebrities,” while “the alternate branch … focuses on the very nature of strange worlds and unusual tales” (Havis 1–2). Of course, these may not be wholly separate branches: cult stars, for example, can appear in films depicting fantastical worlds (see the essay in this volume by Gerald Duchovnay). So cult value suggests a series of parallel universes—forked paths and expanding possibilities—rather than a single coherent logic. However, moving beyond these binaries, I will argue that cult films inhabit four categories that are not mutually exclusive and may come into tension with one another. These categories depend on differing processes of cult development: world–based, auteurbased, star–based, and production–based.

This chapter focuses primarily on the first two, examining how world–based and auteur–based cults operate in relation to two exemplary sf texts, Blade Runner (1982) and the rebooted Star Trek (2009) franchise. Despite the emergence of significant work on cult stardom (see that by Egan and Thomas, Nicanor Loreti, Jason Scott, and my own “Cult Movies”), I will not focus on cult stars here, but will emphasize questions of multiplicity and authority via cult world–building—or “world–sharing”—and authorship.

Cult worlds typically offer an expansive narrative space, which fan audiences can learn about, fill in via the creation of their own fan fiction, and imaginatively inhabit through such practices as cosplay or replica prop making. The intersection of cult and fantasy/sf is supported by this mode of cult development.