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It was 2017 and the Tom Cruise-led reboot of The Mummy was set to hit theaters. Confident in the film’s success, Universal Pictures announced the creation of its shared Dark Universe franchise, which would also include Johnny Depp as The Invisible Man and Javier Bardem as Frankenstein’s monster, among other Hollywood heavyweights.
The studio went so far as to release a press photo of all these mega stars gathered together in one room, although it was later revealed that they weren’t, in fact, gathered in one room but that the picture was actually a composite image. Perhaps we should have taken that as a sign of things to come.
When The Mummy opened to mostly abysmal reviews and a lukewarm box-office reception at best, the response was swift. The previously announced Bride of Frankenstein, set to star Angelina Jolie in addition to Bardem, was placed on hold and the entire cinematic universe would soon suffer the same fate.
Now, the studio has essentially handed the keys to the franchise to horror master Jason Blum and his Blumhouse Productions, the team behind The Invisible Man. However, while Blum said in an interview with Collider last year that he’s open to using scripts originally intended for the Dark Universe, there has been no indication that Blumhouse actually plans on connecting the various characters and films ala the MCU.
And yet, Universal’s initial idea of launching a cinematic universe compiled of its own classic monsters to compete with the troves of comic book heroes seemed so promising. After all, not every studio has a stockpile of immediately recognizable characters at their disposal, characters that truly lend themselves to an interconnected universe in their shared tone and style and who each brings its own built-in audience to the table. So, what went wrong?
According to The Mummy producer Chris Morgan, much like that composite press photo of all the franchise’s intended stars, the entire concept was simply thrown together too quickly, as the producer indicated in an interview with io9 last year. The Mummy director Alex Kurtzman seemed to concur in his 2019 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, calling his brief experience with the franchise “painful.”
Morgan told io9 that he believes Universal is on the right track now, though, by focusing primarily on making solid standalone films rather than creating an entire cinematic universe.
“I think Universal’s going about the monster films the right way,” Morgan said. “Which is to really focus on taking a good script, good story, put it out there, if you’re going to build a universe build it from something strong like that.”
So far, so good, as The Invisible Man, which hit theaters in February before being released digitally just three weeks later due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has proven to be a success. Next up is Bride of Frankenstein minus Bardem, Jolie, and Oscar-winner Bill Condon, who was set to direct before The Mummy flopped. Now, according to Variety, seasoned producer Amy Pascal is working to get the project back off the ground and has already approached Sam Raimi and John Krasinkski about potentially directing.
Among the other Universal monster projects currently in development are director Dexter Fletcher’s film about R.M. Renfield of Bram Stoker’s Dracula as well as Paul Feig’s Dark Army movie.
Couple all that news with the recent announcement that Ryan Gosling is set to star as The Wolfman, and there may be some light at the end of the tunnel for the Dark Universe after all.
