The Mummy, which stars Tom Cruise and opens this Friday (June 8), is proposed as the beginning to Universal’s new interconnected franchise, Dark Universe, set to be based around classic movie monsters.
According to The Mummy director and producer Alex Kurtzmann, assuming his film is a hit, Universal is planning on instalments of Frankenstein, Dracula, Phantom Of The Opera, Creature From The Black Lagoon, just to name a few.
The key is whether Kurtzmann’s film opens to strong box office numbers this weekend. Considering it stars Cruise, that seems likely. To assure the follow up instalments are safe bets too, Kurtzmann, who alongside Chris Morgan has been the guiding force behind the franchise, is looking to turn to other A-List stars in order to help the universe compete with the interconnected worlds of Marvel and DC.
Speaking to Fandom, Kurtzmann said:
“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…”
The next film, Bill Condon‘s Bride Of Frankenstein, has cast Javier Bardem as the monster but doesn’t have its titular bride, which could easily be a role the studio would love to fill with another bankable box office star.
Reading between the lines, one could argue that perhaps Universal and/or Kurtzmann aren’t as confident in the prospected interlocked franchise as they appear, since they’re attempting to cast the biggest stars in the business in order to guarantee them box office success.
Unlike the MCU, for example, Universal’s proposed world of gods and monsters aren’t quite as marketable on their own. While Frankenstein and Dracula are household names, they don’t hold the same contemporary appeal as, say, Iron Man or Superman.
This weekend will likely give us our first hint at whether the Dark Universe franchise is something audiences are interested in. Coincidentally, it’ll be up against Wonder Woman‘s second weekend at the box office, the exact kind of film/franchise success Universal is attempting to emulate. Time will tell whether they are successful.
#Peace.Love.DarkUniverse
