The Invisible Man producers willing to revive the scrapped Dark Universe

Remember when Universal had grand plans to create a series of Dark Universe movies that would do for classic movie monsters — Dracula, the Wolfman, etc — what the Marvel Cinematic Universe did for Marvel superheroes? And then it all got scrapped after the crappy 2017 reboot of The Mummy? I do. Can you tell I’m bitter about it?

I am a horror movie superfan, and when I first heard of plans for the Dark Universe, I was excited, to say the least. I mean, it was going to have Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man, Javier Bardem as Frankenstein’s Monster, Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, and potentially Angelina Jolie as the Bride of Frankenstein.

The plan was great, but the execution…not so much.

Fast forward a few years, and Blumhouse Productions decided to go ahead with their take on The Invisible Man starring Elisabeth Moss. And boy, was it everything we could have wanted.  Instead of some sprawling mess like the 2017 Mummy, it was an intimate, creepy story that didn’t try too hard to set up some grander narrative. Considering it did so well in the box office, it has a lot of us thinking: could Dark Universe make a return? Maybe? Possibly? I mean, do we even want it to?

This is where things get confusing. We’ve got The Invisible Man already, and there are some other monster movies in the making that don’t seem to have any connection to each other at all. There’s Paul Feig’s Dark Army (with old and new Universal monsters), a Frankenstein reboot involving James Wan, Wolf Man starring Ryan Gosling, and Elizabeth Banks’ The Invisible Woman, which is not connected to The Invisible Man.

So might these movies eventually start linking up? Speaking with Fandom, Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions sounds all for it:

"I would absolutely accept the task, but I don’t think that’s going to happen because the studio has been developing a lot of the different ones. They’re down the road with different people and they made this decision to do it that way so the ship has already sailed. But if they change their mind, I’m in!"

So far, the standalone movie thing has been paying off. However, if anyone wants to revive the Dark Universe, I think Blum would be the guy to do it. After all, he’s given us Paranormal Activity, The Purge, Get Out, 2018’s Halloween, and more, so clearly he knows his horror.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels

h/t CBR