In the cinema or in video games, some works of fiction were already winking at the year 2023.
Fiction keeps predicting the future, with more or less acuity. Imagining 2019, blade runner described a future that was a little too technological, but it is true that it echoed elements of the present. Likewise, Green Sun took place in 2022, and even if we are far from the dystopia of the film, the ecological emergency is indeed there. For 2023, the fictions located in that year are more winks than true futuristic descriptions.
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Part of the saga X-Men in cinema was in the future. Days of Future Past, released in 2014, was set in the year 2023. We are in a somewhat dystopian world where mutants have been eliminated after a war against powerful men designed to hunt them down and kill them. Professor X and Magneto then manage to send Wolverine’s spirit back to his 1973 body… in order to change the course of things.
Avengers: Endgame
We remain in the superheroic domain: yes, the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) chronology no longer really runs in parallel with our present. During Avengers: Endgamereleased in 2018, events have suddenly jumped five years into the future: from the end of the film, everything therefore takes place in 2023 and beyond.
Wanda Vision
It’s math: Wanda Vision is located just after Endgameso the series that kicked off Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is set in 2023, like most of the works in this phase that span between 2023 and 2024.
The Tomorrow War
Prime Video’s sci-fi movie starring Chris Pratt and Yvonne Strahovski, The Tomorrow War, begins in December 2022 and runs until 2023. It is the story of a group of time travelers arriving from the future to warn Humanity that in 2051, Earth will be invaded by aliens. They then call on soldiers from the present to participate in the war of 2051. Well, we are going to cross our fingers very strongly that no time traveler arrives this year to warn us that we must go and fight aliens in the future.
The Purge: Anarchy
The saga of horror and dystopian films The Purge (American Nightmare en VF), whose first film was released in 2014, started in 2022 with the “fifth purge” (the purge being a 12-hour period during which all criminal activity is permitted). Its direct sequel, anarchytakes place in 2023. And we’re glad it’s pure fiction.
Cyberpunk 2077
You’re probably thinking that the author of this article was a little cracked up to put in this guide a game whose title contains the year 2077. And yet! In fact, the story of one of the major characters of Cyberpunk 2077 — Johnny Silverhand, played by Keanu Reeves — begins in 2023 in the lore of this universe. Johnny is supposed having died that year during a thermonuclear attack on the Arasaka Tower.
Crysis 2
Still on the side of video games, the events of the famous Crysis 2 take place in a New York of 2023 completely destroyed by an alien invasion. The routine like every year for this city, that said, in American fiction.
