Sons of Anarchy  creator Kurt Summer has said his series, following a biker gang in the town of Charming, California, was heavily inspired by Shakespeare’s  Hamlet . Using Jax Teller, the focal gang’s conflicted leader, as a stand-in for the morally compromised Prince of Denmark, the award-winning FX drama directly referenced  Hamlet  in numerous episode titles across its seven-season stint. Alongside the obvious  Hamlet  comparisons,  Sons of Anarchy  has also drawn parallels between other Shakespearean works, namely  Macbeth  through the gang matriarch Gemma’s chilling similarities to the ruthless, scheming Lady Macbeth.

Though originally pitched as “Bambi in Africa,”  according to  director Rob Minkoff, the 1994  Disney  classic  The Lion King  slowly started resembling the Shakespearean tragedy  Hamlet  once the creatives mapped out the film’s plot. After the similarities between the play and the burgeoning animated feature were noted, Minkoff leaned further into Shakespeare’s tragedy and began incorporating other elements of  Hamlet  into the film. Also drawing inspiration from the biblical tales of Joseph and Moses, the original,  much more morbid ending  for  The Lion King  even included the line “Good night, sweet prince,” an unforgettable quote from Horatio to a dying Prince Hamlet near the conclusion of the play.

Starring  Christopher Walken , Maura Tierney, and James LeGros,  Scotland, PA  is a dark crime comedy from director Billy Morrissette based on  Macbeth . Shifting the setting from the Highlands of 11th-century Scotland, the film instead takes place in a mid-1970s fast-food restaurant tucked away in the small town of Scotland, Pennsylvania. Complete with homophonic main character names appropriate for the new region like Joe ‘Mac’ McBeth for Macbeth and Anthony ‘Banko’ Banconi for Banquo, Morrissette  first conceived  the idea for this Shakespearean parody while working part-time at Dairy Queen as a teenager and simultaneously studying  Macbeth  at school.

A modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s comedy  The Taming of the Shrew , the 1999 teen romcom  10 Things I Hate About You  stars Julia Stiles as Katarina Stratford, a misanthropic loner and stand-in for Shakespeare’s titular “shrew” Katherina, and  Heath Ledger  as the rebellious Patrick Verona, the bad boy of the high school and a facsimile for  The Taming of the Shrew ’s Petruchio. Serving as big Hollywood breakouts for both stars,  10 Things I Hate About You  was both critically and commercially successful, pulling in more than $50 million worldwide and spawning a twenty-episode spin-off series for ABC starring Lindsey Shaw.

Drawing inspiration from both Shakespeare’s  King Lear  and playwright James Goldman’s 1966 play  The Lion in Winter ,  Lee Daniels ’ musical drama series  Empire  is a must watch. The show follows the Lyons, a wealthy family fighting for control of Empire Entertainment, an entertainment and production company founded by the ailing family patriarch, hip hop mogul Luscious Lyon. Even containing a direct reference to the Shakespearean drama during the show’s pilot episode, both  Empire  and  King Lear  follow three siblings vying for control of their dying father’s kingdom—in the case of  King Lear , the literal kingdom of Britain, and in  Empire , the powerhouse media company founded by Lyon.

Set in Manhattan’s Upper West Side during the 1950s,  West Side Story  follows the forbidden relationship of Tony and Maria, affiliates of the clashing white American Jets and Puerto Rican-American Sharks gangs. Initially titled  East Side Story  and imagined as a musical taking place in Manhattan’s Lower East Side chronicling a conflict between an Irish Catholic and Jewish family, the modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s  Romeo and Juliet  was eventually reworked to instead follow tensions in a multiracial neighborhood. Though both works tackle themes like forbidden love, familial tensions, and suffocating social constraints,  West Side Story  features a less tragic ending than  Romeo and Juliet  with the exclusion of Juliet’s suicide—instead ending with the Jets and Sharks uniting to mourn the slain Tony and Maria taking up the end of the procession

Drawing inspiration from numerous Shakespearean works including  King Lear ,  Macbeth , and  A Midsummer Night’s Dream ,  J.R.R. Tolkien ’s  The Lord of the Rings  series (and subsequent film and television franchise) is heavily inspired by Shakespeare’s works despite Tolkien’s  self-professed disdain  for the playwright, particularly taking issue with his unflattering characterization of elves which also appear throughout Tolkien’s work. Despite Tolkien’s derision for Shakespeare’s writing, he admitted that some elements in  The Lord of the Rings , most notably Ents (a species of anthropomorphic giant trees that appear throughout the series), were inspired by Tolkien’s total disappointment in a plot point near the end of Shakespeare’s  Macbeth .

Based on Isaac Marion’s 2010 best-selling novel of the same name,  Warm Bodies  is a 2013 zombie rom-com inspired by Shakespeare’s  Romeo and Juliet . Starring Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer, the film follows the unlikely budding romance between a wayward zombie named R, and Julie, a survivor of the zombie apocalypse that devastated the planet almost a decade before the film begins. A decidedly more lighthearted interpretation of the Shakespearean tragedy, director Jonathan Levine’s deadpan comedy (pun not intended) feels like a midpoint between the cheesy romance of the  Twilight  series and the absurd humor of Simon Pegg’s beloved  Shaun of the Dead .

Yet another adaptation of  The Taming of the Shrew , 1953’s  Kiss Me Kate  was not only inspired by the aforementioned Shakespearean work itself but also by the  acrimonious on- and off-stage quarreling  between actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne throughout their 1935 stage production of the comedy at New York City’s August Wilson Theatre.  Kiss Me Kate  is a fun meta-story that follows two divorced musical theatre actors who play the leads in a musical adaptation of  The Taming of the Shrew  and feud relentlessly during the production. Most critics thought this to be a faithful adaptation of the stage musical it came from and a fun take on Shakespeare’s work, though it wasn’t a financial smash-hit.

She’s the Man   (2006)

Starring  Amanda Bynes ,  Channing Tatum , and Laura Ramsey,  She’s the Man  is a 2006 teen romcom following Viola Hastings, a young girl who disguises herself as her fraternal twin brother Sebastian in order to secure a spot on the boys soccer team at her brother’s new preparatory school. Inspired by another gender-bending romantic comedy, Shakespeare’s  Twelfth Night , both works center around a cross-dressing twin who falls for someone while disguised as the opposite sex, landing them in a hilariously absurd romantic quandary. A novel interpretation of one of Shakespeare’s more overlooked works,  She’s the Man  initially received mixed critical reviews but later garnered a cult following and helped launch Tatum’s career as an actor.