SuperWhoLock is a fan-made crossover of the television shows Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock.[1][2] SuperWhoLock differs from most other fan-created texts in that there is no explicit canon, as references between the shows are minimal. Instead, the connections between the three shows are entirely created by fans.[3] Fan activities include fanfiction, fanart, creating "gif fics",[needs context] and cosplay.[4][5] SuperWhoLock is known for GIF fics.[5][6]
The fandom originated in the early 2010s on the social media site Tumblr, among predominately young, female, LGBTQ fans.[7][8]Paul Booth, a media scholar, reports that the earliest SuperWhoLock work (consisting of a GIF fic, several GIFs from the different TV shows arranged to form a single narrative) he was able to find was dated December 30, 2011, though the term had been coined before then.[9] The crossover may have gained steam from a fake trailer for SuperWhoLock, made by a fan in April 2012.[10][11] It "dominated Tumblr"[12] until the mid-2010s, before abruptly declining in popularity.[13][14][15]
Sherlock and Doctor Who were both shows from the UK which shared writers (Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss), while Supernatural and Doctor Who were both sci-fi/fantasy shows; all three had large Tumblr fandoms in 2012.[4][10] Booth quotes a fan who believed that the crossover grew popular in part "because of the similar dynamics of the shows ... In all three shows the characters solve problems and crimes, be [they] supernatural or not, so it's easy for the fans to think of a plot that could include characters from all these shows."[16] Each subset of the three-way crossover (e.g. Supernatural and Doctor Who) also had their own fans,[10] and some fans began watching other shows from the trio after being introduced to SuperWhoLock through one of the other shows.[17] Fan engagement with SuperWhoLock often focuses on the characters from the three shows and their reactions and possible relations with one another.[18] A fan analyzes SuperWhoLock as "the combination not of the three texts, but of the three fandoms", and many fans identify primarily with the individual fandoms rather than the SuperWhoLock label.[19][20]
In 2014, a joke article published on April 1st announced a (fake) official crossover of the three shows.[21]
