Universal’s Dark Universe is of the most notorious failures of a franchise in the 21st century. The idea was essentially to recreate the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by utilizing the back catalog of monstrous characters that Universal is so well-known for. The franchise was meant to kick off with 2017’s The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise, and other films and stars were lined up to join the franchise shortly thereafter. This would’ve included Johnny Depp’s Invisible Man, Javier Bardem’s Frankenstein and Russell Crowe’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (who was already introduced in The Mummy). After the colossal underperformance and critical panning of The Mummy, the Dark Universe crumbled.
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While the Dark Universe has become the go-to example of a failed cinematic universe, the franchise’s collapse might’ve been the best thing to happen to the Universal Monsters. Before the Dark Universe, this vaguely connected franchise of classic monster movies, most of which are based on pre-existing novels and stories, has consistently been one of Universal’s staple franchises since the 1930s. Had they continued ahead with the Dark Universe, the overall brand could have been tainted, potentially beyond repair. Here’s why canceling the Dark Universe was the best decision Universal could have made for their classic monsters.
The Unreliable Cinematic Universe Model
Universal Pictures
There is no arguing that the success the MCU has had with the cinematic universe model has been monumental. It has become one of the most extensive and financially-successful franchises in the history of filmmaking. It has continued to build for 15 years, and despite a dip in quality in 2022, it is still consistently pulling in some of the biggest box office hauls in Hollywood right now. However, it’s been proven time and time again that it is nearly impossible to recreate that kind of success with other series and franchises. Nearly every attempt from another studio at building a cinematic universe has crashed and burned. Obviously, there’s the Dark Universe, but then there have also been plans for cinematic universes built off films like King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, The Dark Tower, and 2017’s Power Rangers, none of which actually came to fruition.
All of those examples failed to make it passed one film, but an even worse fate for a cinematic universe is to be one that continues to expand with film after film, but never actually manages to make the universe itself work. The biggest example of this is the DC Extended Universe, which began with Man of Steel. There have been a dozen films to come out of the DCEU, and while some of them were undoubtedly successes, the franchise as a whole is viewed as a failure. That’s because the base that it was built on was too unstable, and the franchise collapsed in on itself with the utter box office disappointment of Justice League, which was meant to be their biggest film yet. From there, the DCEU was directionless and, aside from the box office success of Aquaman, never really recovered. Now, with the hiring of James Gunn and Peter Safran to take over the reins of DC, it’s looking like a reboot and reset of the brand is imminent. DC has essentially wasted a decade building the DCEU, as the cinematic universe they were attempting to build never actually materialized in the way it was supposed to.
Despite the failure of DC and so many others, there have been a few franchises aside from Marvel that have managed to find success with the cinematic universe model, namely The Conjuring universe and the MonsterVerse of Godzilla and King Kong. However, those franchises have succeeded by taking very different approaches to the idea of a cinematic universe. The Conjuring films are significantly cheaper to make and the MonsterVerse franchise has built itself very slowly and gradually, almost making the audience forget it’s even a cinematic universe at all. Neither of them is remotely as extensive as the MCU. This is all to say that, while Universal certainly had high aspirations for the Dark Universe, it was always incredibly unlikely their universe of classic monsters would actually work. Even if The Mummy was a success, charging forward with all of these interconnected films would likely have hurt the overall brand of the Universal Monsters more than anything, as they would have wasted time and money developing films that were only aspiring to copy something else.
The Success of Standalone Outings
Without the confines of a cinematic universe, the films produced under the Universal Monsters umbrella are much freer to explore different stories, tones and approaches to the brand. They do not need to be constrained within the boundaries of the Dark Universe. There’s no continuity they need to follow, and as such the hands of the individual creative teams are largely unbound. While this may make it easier for the franchise to lay dormant, as there’s no ongoing universe to keep afloat, it often leads to more unique and quality films.
One of the reasons The Mummy failed was precisely because it was trying so hard to copy Marvel, both in tone and overall approach. The Mummy felt like a generic action/superhero movie with a slight lens of horror overlaid onto it. There was nothing in the film to set itself apart from the competition. Since so much of the Dark Universe was established in that film, the films that would have followed would have had to exist within similar boundaries. On the whole, the Dark Universe likely would have ended up just being a disappointing copy and paste of what had already been done.
With standalone films that do not need to concern themselves with an overall universe, it’s much easier to differentiate the Universal Monsters brand from the rest of the countless modern blockbusters. Since the failure of the Dark Universe in 2017, there have only been two Universal Monsters films that have gotten off the ground. The first was 2020’s The Invisible Man, which was a refreshing and exciting reinvention of the brand. It embraced the same kind of intellectual horror of films like Get Out, and the result was a film that deserves to be considered among the best horror outings of the 2020s so far. The second film, Renfield, is set for release this April. That film is a comedic take on Dracula and his assistant, Renfield, which stars Nicolas Cage as the iconic monster and Nicholas Hoult as the miserable assistant. The casting of Cage, and the involvement of LEGO Batman director Chris McKay, has made Renfield one of the most hotly anticipated films of 2023.
If Universal was still set on expanding its Dark Universe, there’s no way that these two films would have happened. Fans instead would have been treated to a Depp-starring Invisible Man, which likely would have taken a more unserious approach to the material, and Renfield would have never been greenlit at all. The involvement of Blumhouse in The Invisible Man led to outstanding results, which is promising for the upcoming adaptation of The Wolf Man starring Ryan Gosling, which Blumhouse is also involved with. With films like these, Universal has instead started utilizing their monsters in much more interesting ways that allow them to explore new creative directions and embrace different filmmaking voices. If the Dark Universe had continued, it would have always lived in the shadow of the MCU, but by embracing standalone and unconnected stories, Universal is walking its own path instead.
