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Space Odyssey is ascience fictionmedia franchise created by writerArthur C. Clarke and filmmakerStanley Kubrick, consisting of two films and four novels. The first novel was developed concurrently with Kubrick'sfilm version and published after the release of the film. The second novel was made intoa feature film directed byPeter Hyams and released in 1984. Two of Clarke's early short stories have ties to the series.

Short stories:

• "The Sentinel" – short story written in 1948 and first published in 1951 as "Sentinel of Eternity"
• "Encounter in the Dawn" – short story first published in 1953 (re-titled "Encounter at Dawn" or "Expedition to Earth" in some later collections)

Novels:

• 2001: A Space Odyssey – produced concurrently withthe film and released in 1968
• 2010: Odyssey Two – 1982 novel, adapted as the 1984 film2010: The Year We Make Contact with screenplay byPeter Hyams
• 2061: Odyssey Three – 1987 novel
• 3001: The Final Odyssey – 1997 novel

Comic books:

• 2001: A Space Odyssey – 1976 oversizedMarvel single-issue comic book adaptation based upon the 1968film of the same name
• 2001: A Space Odyssey – ten-issue Marvel comic book series based upon the 1968film of the same name that ran from 1976 to 1977
• 2010 – based on the 1984film of the same name, originally published inMarvel Super Special #37, then again as a two-issue miniseries; both versions published by Marvel Comics in 1984

• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)

It was reported onYahoo! in 2000 thatMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer andTom Hanks were in discussions regarding turning both2061: Odyssey Three and3001: The Final Odyssey into movies (Hanks would reportedly play Frank Poole in the3001 film). An update in 2001 stated that there was no further development on the project.^[1]

In November of 2014, it was reported that the U.S. cable channelSyfy had ordered a miniseries adaptation of3001: The Final Odyssey into production, planned for broadcast in 2015. The miniseries would be executive-produced byRidley Scott,David W. Zucker andStuart Beattie; the latter would also be the primary script-writer. The estates of both Clarke and Kubrick were reported as having "offered their full support", but the extent of their involvement was not known at the time.^[2] In February 2016, the series was mentioned as one of Syfy's "in development pipeline" projects during their press release forPrototype,^[3] though no further announcements have been made since that time.

The2001 screenplay was written by Clarke and Kubrick jointly, based on the seed idea in "The Sentinel" that an alien civilization left an object on the Moon to alert them to humankind's attainment of space travel. In addition, the 1953 short story "Encounter in the Dawn" contains elements of the first section of the film, in which the ancestors of humans are apparently given anevolutionary nudge by extraterrestrials. The opening part of another Clarke story, "Transience", has plot elements set in about the same time in human history, but is otherwise unrelated.

The 1972 bookThe Lost Worlds of 2001 contains material that did not make it into the book or film.

Clarke's first attempt to write the sequel to2001 was a film screenplay, though he ultimately wrote a novel instead that was published in 1982. Clarke was not directly involved in the production of the second film, although he did communicate with writer/director Peter Hyams a great deal during the production via the then-pioneering medium ofe-mail (as published in the bookThe Odyssey File) and also made a non-speakingcameo appearance in the film. Kubrick had no involvement in the2010 novel or film, or any of the later projects.

TheSpace Odyssey series combines several science-fiction narrative conventions with ametaphysical tone. Since the stories and settings in the books and films all diverge, Clarke suggested that the continuity of the series represents happenings in a set ofparallel universes. One notable example is that in the2001 novel, the voyage was to the planet Saturn. During production of the film, it was decided that the special effects for Saturn's rings would be too expensive, so the voyage in the film is to Jupiter instead. The second book,2010,retcons the storyline of the first book to make the destination Jupiter as seen in the film.

Clarke stated that theTime Odyssey novels are an "orthoquel" – aneologism coined by Clarke for this purpose, combining the wordsequel withortho-, the Greek prefix meaning "straight" or "perpendicular", and alluding to the fact that time isorthogonal to space inrelativity theory – to theSpace Odyssey series.^[4]

• HAL 9000 is a sentient supercomputer (orartificial intelligence) that becomes the primary antagonist of2001: A Space Odyssey. HAL is also in the sequel novels and the film sequel2010. In both films he is voiced by actorDouglas Rain.
• Dr. David "Dave" Bowman serves as theprotagonist of2001: A Space Odyssey. The character later appears in the sequel story released first as a book,2010: Odyssey Two, and then as a movie,2010: The Year We Make Contact, albeit as a non-corporeal entity, and also returns in two more books by Arthur C. Clarke,2061: Odyssey Three and3001: The Final Odyssey. In the forewords to both2010 and2061, Clarke makes it clear that the plots of the movies and books do not necessarily follow a linear arc, and should be seen as taking place inparallel universes, or as being variations of a main theme; consequently there are apparent inconsistencies in the character of David Bowman throughout the series. In the two movies, Bowman is played byKeir Dullea.
• Dr. Heywood R. Floyd first appears in2001: A Space Odyssey as being in charge of the mission to investigate the alien Monolith found on theMoon. After the events that took place in2001: A Space Odyssey, he is theprotagonist of2010: Odyssey Two and2061: Odyssey Three. Floyd was born in 1958 in America, and by 1999 is chairman of the National Council of Astronautics, overseeing all American spaceflight operations. He has two daughters (only one in the movies, born 1994) and was widowed when his wife Marion died in a plane crash. In2010: The Year We Make Contact, Floyd has a new wife and a five-year-old son named Christopher. Floyd was played byWilliam Sylvester in the film version of2001: A Space Odyssey and byRoy Scheider in2010: The Year We Make Contact.^[5]
• Dr. Frank Poole is an astronaut aboardDiscovery One on the first crewed mission toJupiter in2001: A Space Odyssey (Saturn inthe novel). He andDave Bowman are the only crew members who were not put on board insuspended animation (hibernation). His boyhood hometown wasFlagstaff, Arizona, where he visited theLowell Observatory at its museums on many occasions. These visits sparked his interest inastronomy andastronautics, and hence he went to college to study these subjects.^[6] He is the main character of3001: The Final Odyssey. InStanley Kubrick's2001: A Space Odyssey, Poole was portrayed byGary Lockwood.Tom Hanks once expressed interest in directing a film version of3001, in which he would have played Poole, but this never came to fruition.
• Walter Curnow appears in the book and movie versions of2010: Odyssey Two as the American engineer who designsDiscovery and helps to buildDiscovery II to go back toJupiter. When the joint Soviet-American mission on theLeonov is planned instead, Curnow is one of the three American experts to go on the trip, along withHeywood Floyd andDr. Chandra. Curnow is one of the first people to set foot onDiscovery again, along with Maxim Brailovsky. Due to his engineering expertise,Discovery becomes operational again. In the 1984 film adaptation,2010: The Year We Make Contact, Curnow is played byJohn Lithgow.
• Dr. Sivasubramanian Chandrasegaram Pillai (often abbreviated toDr. Chandra) is mentioned in the novel of2001: A Space Odyssey as a scientist who instructed the computerHAL 9000 in its basic functions (in the film, it was instead a "Mr. Langley"). He is a main character in2010: Odyssey Two where it was established that he was in fact the creator of HAL, and he is a member of the joint Russian-American expedition toJupiter on board theSoviet spacecraftLeonov. Although the character does not make any further appearances in theSpace Odyssey novels, he is briefly mentioned by an elderlyHeywood Floyd in the novel2061: Odyssey Three. In2010: The Year We Make Contact, Chandra was played byBob Balaban and is referred to as Dr. R. Chandra.

• Space Odyssey
• Book series
• American film series
• Science fiction book series
• Science fiction film series
• Novels about ancient astronauts
• Films about ancient astronauts
• Novels set on Jupiter
• Book franchises introduced in 1968
• Film series introduced in 1968
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer franchises
• Warner Bros. Pictures franchises
• Films adapted into comics

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