Epilogue: After the End

Abstract

This short chapter briefly explains many key concepts in transmedia storytelling and explains why the post-apocalyptic is a genre of choice for convergence culture. Joyce explains the media eco-system perspective on media change and the factors that have contributed to the rise of transmedia storytelling. The chapter then explains the significance of narrative and industrial cores, franchise guardians, and infinitely suspended narratives for media franchising. It illustrates how franchises can use ancillary media for R&D, coherence, transmedia localisation, and transmedia bridging. Finally, it shows how the post-apocalyptic has been adapted by creators across media into a perfect vehicle for transmedia worldbuilding and argues that the genre’s popularity should be seen in terms of transformations in media production and consumption rather than cultural anxieties.