The James Tolkan Cinematic Universe

Written: August 27, 2026

I think we have all missed the greatest cinematic universe ever created, and it has been sitting right in front of us the whole time.

James Tolkan’s character in *Back to the Future*, Principal Strickland, clearly found the DeLorean one afternoon and just started bouncing through time and alternate realities having increasingly ridiculous careers.

Think about it. First he is a pissed-off high school principal screaming about slackers. Then suddenly he is in *WarGames* working for the FBI because apparently teenagers have escalated from skateboarding in the hallway to nearly starting World War III. Then he gets fed up with civilians altogether and ends up in *Top Gun* as Commander Stinger, where he finally finds the perfect job: standing on an aircraft carrier screaming at Maverick, who is basically Marty McFly with an F-14.

Then something goes wrong with the time machine and he ends up dealing with He-Man and Skeletor in *Masters of the Universe*. At another point he apparently overshoots Hill Valley by 100 years and becomes Marshal Strickland in 1885. We all assumed that was his great-grandfather. Nope. SAME GUY. He just gave up trying to get home and started arresting Old West slackers.

At one point he even lands in Napoleonic Europe and apparently decides, “Fine, I’m Napoleon now.”

This man's entire filmography suddenly makes sense.

Principal Strickland didn't hate Marty McFly because Marty was a slacker. Marty was simply the first slacker he encountered before discovering that slackers exist throughout the entire space-time continuum.

The MCU has nothing on the James Tolkan Cinematic Universe.