When the history books are written about this era of Hollywood filmmaking, the entry about cinematic universes will be headlined by the MCU, and then, somewhere further down, there will be a discussion of the biggest crossover failure, Universal’s Dark Universe. Originally meant to compete with Marvel, the studio’s attempt to reboot the various Universal Monsters in one cohesive continuity bombed before it really took off thanks to “The Mummy” reboot starring Tom Cruise. Since then, the monsters have taken a backseat. And it doesn’t look like a cinematic universe is returning anytime soon.
Speaking to Den of Geek, Jason Blum discussed the rumor that Blumhouse was going to relaunch the Dark Universe after the breakout success of this year’s “The Invisible Man.” This comes after recent news that other Universal Monsters, such as the Wolfman and Dracula were getting new iterations. But according to Blum, that’s not in the cards. At least, not that he’s aware of.
“We have no plans to do that,” said Blum. “The way Universal is handling them is they’re just kind of looking at each one individually as one-offs. But I personally love them and we had a great experience on ‘The Invisible Man,’ and I’d love to do more for sure.”
As for the other Universal Monsters projects in development, Blum is a bit cagey with the details. Regarding the new “Wolfman” film that is rumored to be in development, with Ryan Gosling to star, Blum said he “doesn’t know anything about that.” However, he is willing to talk about Karyn Kusama’s “Dracula.”
“We only have Karyn Kusama, and I don’t have a script there,” said Blum. “So I’m sure there’ll be another one that goes first, but there’s a very good chance it won’t be one of ours.”
So, for those fans hoping that “The Invisible Man” would launch the new Dark Universe overseen by Jason Blum and Blumhouse, you’re out of luck. Now, that doesn’t mean there won’t be connections down the line. If Universal scores more hits the size of “The Invisible Man,” the studio would be awfully tempted to find a way to bring them together, as cinematic universes are still desirable. But at least, right now, it appears that there’s no overt plan for that to happen.