What once was novel becomes appropriated fast. We’re in a phase now where the concept of a "shared universe" is a sign of creative bankruptcy in the movie business. It’s the new reboot/re-do, and it’s all down to the Marvel Cinematic Universe having collectively grossed over $7 billion worldwide so far. Forget creativity: every studio wants that figure on their books, so filmmakers should toss out any original ideas and just copy that model and hope for the best. That’s "strategizing" for you. Fox is chasing the same paradigm with "X-Men," Disney is doing the same with "Star Wars" and Universal recently announced intentions to courageously double down with the same strategy with a shared Monsters universe that will include upcoming reboots of the Werewolf, The Mummy, Frankenstein, etc.
But what of "Dracula Untold," Universal’s upcoming prequel that explains how Dracula became the iconic vampire (which no doubt leaves absolutely nothing left to the imagination)? That movie was written and shot well before Alex Kurtzman (“Star Trek,” “The Amazing Spider-Man”) and Chris Morgan (“Fast Five”) were tasked with rebooting, reviving and unifying Universal’s Monsters Universe. But it sounds like the studio was retroactively able to shoehorn this film into the shared universe to come (no doubt we’ll see the all-too original post-credits scene at the end).
Hoping for a sequel, and now connected to Uni’s larger plan, "Dracula Untold" producer Alissa Phillips confirmed to HeyUGuys that "Dracula Untold" will be part of the interconnected monster movie fabric.
"I was really excited to be part of that [world]. When we started out we weren’t [part of the series], but then we found out that they were going to do it,” she said. “Working with Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan, who are very much a part of creating ‘The Mummy’ and the other ones…it’s been fun to be a part of that.”
Revelatory. But the bigger question is whether Luke Evans will stay on board as Dracula when they eventually make film seven, "Dracula V. Booberry: There Ain’t No Justice Here." "Dracula Untold” hits theaters on Oct 10th and early reviews suggest the movie is kinda vlad. Watch some clips and featurettes below and get pumped or whatever.