Universal’s had quite a good year at the box office, but the one area where it’s really struggled is with the launch of its planned Dark Universe cinematic universe. This is the umbrella for its remakes of classic monster movies, that started – and potentially ended – with last summer’s The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise.
Whilst The Mummy eventually scrambled together just over $400m in takings, its poor reviews and less than expected box office sent out warning signals. Then, writer/director Bill Condon distanced the next Dark Universe project, Bride Of Frankenstein, from the overall universe. And then Universal halted pre-production of his movie anyway, with Bride Of Frankenstein now going back for script work.
Now, though, a bigger problem. The creative heads of the Dark Universe project – Alex Kurtzmann (director of The Mummy) and Chris Morgan – have left the Dark Universe altogether. This leaves Universal with no creative stewardship of the films, no films on the roster, and the question as to whether to pursue the Dark Universe project at all.
The earliest we’ll see another film is 2019, but even that is up in the air. We’ll bring you more news as we hear it. Assuming there is some…
We’ll keep you posted as we hear more. The suspicion is that this cinematic universe is over before it’s really got started…