What year is it again? With everyone talking about Jedi, Ghostbusters, road warriors, and hoverboards, it could be 1985. Then again, fans are also buzzing with news about the Gilmore Girls, Harry Potter, and even Death Note, so maybe it’s 2005.

It’s easy enough to spot frequent waves of nostalgia throughout any given fandom, but rarely have so many fandoms at once enjoyed such a thriving period of renewed engagement and attention in pop culture. In 2015 fandom was unquestionably the year of the comeback.

With all of the old-school fandoms having their day in the sun, you might wonder if any new creations managed to squeeze into the public eye, much less develop fandoms of their own. In fact, only one of this year’s top fandoms came into the world in 2015—but what a fandom it is.

We present our picks for the fandoms that made headlines in 2015, thanks to the fans whose timeless love and enthusiasm made them all deserving of a renaissance.

1) Hamilton How does an upstart, hip-hop

musical you haven’t even seen yet

take over Broadway and the Internet,

land upon this list ahead of hoverboards and Potter, and, oh yeah—somehow defeat a global superpower?

Lin-Manuel Miranda and a baby cosplaying as Alexander Hamilton at #Ham4Ham on Halloween

YouTube

If you’d told us while we were writing last year’s top 10 list that another fandom—much less one for a Broadway musical—would unseat Star Wars in 2015, we’d have probably sent for the doctor to see if you were feeling OK. But if last year in fandom was the year of diversity powered by feminism and social justice activism, then it only makes sense that this year, the fandom that took everyone by shock and storm was one that took all those conversations to the next level—and several levels beyond.

Put simply, Hamilton is the story of a single founding father, retold through a modern lens with a cast mainly composed of black actors. Nothing about Hamilton is simple, though—starting with the music, a stunning, stirring hip-hop language that crams three times more text into its run time than the average Broadway musical. In addition to being inherently modern, Hamilton is also an inherently fannish text—a kind of AU (Alternate Universe) fanfic that also serves to critique its canon, which in this case is the historical narrative we’re all taught. That narrative all too frequently leaves out marginalized voices, and evades the messy politics of a revolution carried out by white men, many of whom distrusted urban industry and had no intention of freeing their slaves. Composer Lin-Manuel Miranda inserts his own viewpoint as a hip-hop fan born to Washington Height’s immigrant Latino community into that of Alexander Hamilton, who immigrated to New York in poverty from St. Croix. Hamilton typified the revolutionary spirit Miranda reclaims on behalf of #BlackLivesMatter and other current political movements.

Rarely has theatre seemed to loom as large over the cultural landscape as Hamilton does, but rarely has theatre managed to intersect so neatly with both the immediacy of current political issues and the constant cries for representation from fans who expect more from the media they consume. Hamilton began a season-long siege on social media upon the release of the long-awaited cast recording, taking over Tumblr and Twitter and ultimately winning a stint as the bestselling rap album in the country.

Fans responded in legion forces, annotating hundreds of thousands of words on the show’s category on the lyrics website Genius, and churning out fanworks and critical analysis in droves. Renewed interest in Alexander Hamilton was so intense that the Treasury is now delaying his removal from the $10 bill. Additionally, Miranda’s social media savvy, his genius #Ham4Ham pre-shows, and his appearances all over pop culture from Colbert to Star Wars, have all made him an instant celebrity. And the fandom just keeps growing. History is still happening in Manhattan—all you have to do is look around, look around at the Hamilton movement to see it.

2) Star Wars