Marvel Studios has done something unprecedented with the MCU. Besides the occasional Alien vs Predator or Freddy vs Jason, something this ambitious had never really been attempted. And it payed off, big time. Marvel Studios’ success has led to other studios utilizing their superhero franchises. Warner Brothers is building a DC Cinematic Universe, Fox is expanding their X-Franchise and rebooting the Fantastic Four, and Sony is (poorly) attempting to create a universe set around Spider-Man’s supporting characters.
Meanwhile, Universal is trying something a little different. Last year, it was announced that Universal will begin building a Monster Cinematic Universal, featuring their classic monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolf Man. This seemed to be a smart move. Virtually everyone recognizes the classic Universal monsters, and they have proved to have box office power in the past.
In October of 2014, the first entry in this universe was released. Dracula Untold starred Luke Evans, and told the story of how Dracula became a vampire. The film received mixed reviews and was not a very big hit. Since it’s release there has been virtually no news on the rumored sequel. The film is intended to be followed by a Mummy reboot and a Wolf Man remake. While the Wolf Man remake is being written by the Prisoners screen writer, The Mummy is rumored to tell the story of a group of Navy SEALS battling mummies, to be directed by Alex Kurtzman. Recognize his name? That’s right, along with Roberto Orci, Kurtzman was responsible for the horrible Amazing Spider-Man 2. Needless to say, my hopes are not too high for this Mummy reboot.
Recently, it was said that the Monster Universe would be more action oriented, and would stray from the horror roots that these characters were born in. Fans, including myself, were not too happy with this news. Why would you take characters that were born in the horror genre, and put them into a genre were they don’t belong? The reason the Marvel Cinematic Universe works so well is because, even though they try new things with the characters, they always stay true to the comics and to the characters themselves.
So is there any hope for Universal’s Monster Universe? Well, the good news is, it’s still early enough in the game to change the entire direction of the series. There’s still time to change the tone of the Mummy reboot, and there’s certainly more than enough time to perfect the Wolf Man script.
From a business standpoint, Universal needs to take advantage of Comic Con 2015. Recently, Warner Brothers released their film slate up to the year 2020. Granted, it wasn't at Comic Con, but it was still a smart move and gave doubters more faith in their plans. If Universal wants to get people interested, they need to announce something at Comic Con. Personally, I think they should announce their plans for building the Monster Cinematic Universe. Announce release dates, stars, goals, etc.
One more point. A major, major flaw that I see in this whole franchise is that Universal seems to have no enthusiasm for the idea. They just sort of decided that it was happening, and have made no efforts to drum up any enthusiasm or excitement about it. You can’t just expect the public to get excited for something, you have to make them excited. It would be nice to see Universal make a bigger deal out of this new cinematic universe. It is an exciting idea, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.