Has The ‘Dark Universe’ Been Reborn? The Future Of A Doomed Franchise

As early as 2013, reports came in of a new wave of creature features at Universal. Universal, home of the acclaimed but dormant Universal Monsters brand, had let their monster staples stale since the initial run back in the early 20th century. Remakes of Van Helsing (the monster hunter found in several Dracula stories) and The Mummy were set to be in development, but plans for this Dark Universe did not turn out as envisioned. 

The Dark Universe officially began with Dracula Untold, a retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with the titular character being played by Luke Evans. That film was released to critical panning and was disowned by the unnamed DU at the time, restarting with The Mummy as a proposed entry point. The Mummy turned out to be even more of a joke than Dracula Untold, but before we get to that, we must further explore the cast of creatives and actors attached to this cursed universe.

In a May 2017 press conference, the slate of the Dark Universe was revealed. Starting with The Mummy (2017), starring Tom Cruise as Nick Morton and Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll, the franchise would be followed up by an Invisible Man movie, starring Johnny Depp. A Dr. Jekyll solo film would also follow, with Crowe returning. Also on the slate were a Bride of Frankenstein film and a Frankenstein solo outing, both starring Javier Bardem as Frankenstein’s Monster. Angelina Jolie was, and remains, attached as The Bride.

More ludicrous castings, such as Dwayne Johnson being eyed as The Wolf Man, Scarlett Johansson in Creature of the Black Lagoon, and Channing Tatum as Van Helsing in his own solo outing, were also considered. 

By all means, with an impressive cast and an ambitious slate, the question is why would this never come to fruition?- at least in its proposed form. Due to a combination of behind-the-scenes issues concerning lack of experience from director-writer Alex Kurtzman and story interference from mega-star Tom Cruise, the film failed both financially and critically, leading directly to the absolution of the universe.

While the universe itself was canned, many of the announced projects did and are coming to fruition. The Invisible Man, with a new cast and creatives, was released in 2020, nearly 3 years after the failure of The Mummy, and to rave reviews and financial success, despite a rocky past few years for the franchise. Leigh Whannell, co-creator of the Saw and Insidious franchises, wrote and directed The Invisible Man and modernized it heavily for new audiences while remaining true to the core elements of the story. His story revolved around allegories for abuse, using the titular Invisible Man (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) as the abusive partner to our protagonist (played by Elisabeth Moss) and making use of technology as the source of the Man’s power. The success of that film, which was produced in partnership with Blumhouse Productions, led to the greenlighting of a sequel and another Whannell-produced Universal Monsters film, Wolf Man. 

Wolf Man has suffered in terms of reboots these past fifteen years. From a 2010 reboot starring Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro as respective Wolf Men, Dwayne Johnson being eyed in the Dark Universe starring role, to Gen-Z’s champion Ryan Gosling dropping out of the most recent version, this series has fallen a long way from legendary portrayals in the 1941 film and An American Werewolf in London. Now, this week, a new Wolf Man film has finally hit the big screen. 

Again directed and written by Leigh Whannell for Blumhouse and Universal, the film follows Blake Lovell (Christopher Abbott) and his family (Julia Garner and Matilda Firth) move to his father’s farm following his untimely disappearance, ready to pack it up for storage. Whannell also modernizes this story, breaking new ground by showing the Wolf Man’s perspective and humanizing him. The story takes more of a disease route akin to zombie films rather than a Bigfoot-esque story seen elsewhere. 

I described the latest film in my review, stating “While the film comes across more as a remake of David Cronenberg’s The Fly, it’s wolf-manliness does come through when it matters, and for that I respect Whannell’s unique and contemporary take on the character.”

It’s the latest in a long line of modernized Universal monsters stories, with the company releasing several adaptations of Dracula: Renfield, starring Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, starring Corey Hawkins and David Dastmalchian, and Abigail, starring Alisha Weir, Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud, and Giancarlo Esposito. While these three stories specifically we cannot attribute to the Dark Universe, we here at Feature First believe the Universe is still alive and well, just taking a more individualized form. 

This comes after The Invisible Man actress Elisabeth Moss spilled on the future of the Universe, stating,” I think that’s the idea for Universal in the future if we can… you know Wolf Man goes well and all that — but is to kind of revive that [Dark] universe.

As for this possible future of the Dark Universe, The Invisible Man 2 is currently in the writing stage, while adaptations of The Bride of Frankenstein (penned by David Koepp, starring Angelina Jolie), The Invisible Woman (helmed by Elizabeth Banks), and Creature from the Black Lagoon (from Atomic Monster’s James Wan) are all in the works.

It would be a smart move for Universal, considering the successes of other recent monster stories like Nosferatu, which hailed from Universal’s Focus Features label and starred Bill Skarsgard as Dracula rip-off Count Orlok. That film has been labelled a box office success and is currently considered by pundits to be an Oscar frontrunner. That’s all easier said than done, however, with Nosferatu director Robert Eggers attempting and failing to helm an adaptation of Frankenstein, another character adapted into Universal Monsters fame. At Netflix, an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein novel by Guillermo del Toro is set to be released starring Jacob Elordi as the Monster, with Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth, and Christoph Waltz rounding out the cast. At Warner Bros., Maggie Gyllenhaal has directed a Bride of Frankenstein adaptation starring Christian Bale, Jessie Buckley, and Jake Gyllenhaal. 

Currently, though, with the release of Wolf Man and more in the foreseeable future, what lays ahead of the Dark Universe seems bright, as contradictory as that may be.

Thanks for reading this article on the Dark Universe. For more features, stay tuned here at Feature First.