Monsters That Won't Die. Universal's Dark Universe Is Moving Forward
Hello friends!
It looks like even though it's off to a bit of a rough start, Universal's Dark Universe will live on. The Mummy has debuted to a less than stellar box office and it's generated a lot of buzz. Most of it negative. We know this film was to be the launching point for an entire shared universe, but we have to ask what kind of effect will The Mummy's "floppiness" have on the rest of the Dark Universe? That remains to be seen, but you have to consider that the DU isn't going anywhere for the time being. Just look at what the The Mummy producer/director Alex Kurtzman had to say about the DU's innerworkings.
In an interview with Fandom, Kurtzman details how the films of the Dark Universe are connected to each other, which monsters we can expect to see next on screen and he even fancasts a couple of them.
“...There are characters within those films that can grow and expand and maybe even spin off. I think that digging into deep mythologies about monsters around the world is fair game for us, as well and connecting the monsters that we know to some surprising monsters could also be really interesting...
...The Mummy opens up some intriguing possibilities – embedding Russell Crowe’s Dr. Jekyll into the world and his mysterious organization Prodigium as well as leaving us questioning where Tom Cruise’s character Nick Morton may be heading...
...We know we’re going to do Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Invisible Man...
...I’d love to bring Michael Fassbender in, I’d love to bring Jennifer Lawrence in, I’d love to see Charlize Theron in there, Angelina Jolie...”
Is Universal being a bit too ambitious in their grand design? It seems as such. Think of where the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be if Iron Man 1 had tanked. And still, there is hope for the future Dark Universe. There's plenty of time to correct course and fix what's broken. Afterall, look at the DCEU. They might finally be on the right path if they can continue on what they did right in Wonder Woman. Especially, if these "shared universes" borrow from the MCU roadmap to success.
How about you? Have you seen The Mummy? What did you think? Is the DU already DOA?
