We already know that Universal is betting big on the “Dark Universe” and now have just learned of three new films which will be joining those that have already been announced thanks to Alex Kurtzman. While no one should be too surprised to see ‘Dracula’ joining their stable of monsters, both ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ and ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ are rather surprising picks and ones that I could see audiences get behind. We’re going to want a bit of creativity in this shared cinematic world of monsters so seeing these underused classics could be the perfect fit.
When talking about what the studio has in the works, Kurtzman shared that:
“We know we’re going to do Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Invisible Man.”
While we’ve known about most of those characters being at one stage or another, this is the first official confirmation of ‘Dracula’ and I believe the first mention at all of both the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ and the ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame.’
The studio just doesn’t have the classics in mind as they move forward:
“There are characters within those films that can grow and expand and maybe even spin off. I think that digging into deep mythologies about monsters around the world is fair game for us, as well and connecting the monsters that we know to some surprising monsters could also be really interesting.”
This does seem like they have quite a few other plans that they aren’t ready to share at this stage of pre-development. I’m sure box office sales for ‘The Mummy’ will factor into what the studio decides to give a green light to going forward.
Which character are you most interested in of these three? Do you think that ‘The Mummy’ will pave the way for the “Dark Universe” to continue for years or will it fail to spawn the new cinematic franchise? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Fandom
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!
