Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was a flop with critics (it sits at 3% on Rotten Tomatoes), but the 2022 movie was an undeniable box office success after grossing $5.2 million on a budget of less than $500,000.
A profit like that has given the creatives behind the horror franchise plenty of options and this month's Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 looks a lot less rough around the edges, as a result (even Pooh has a new look). Now, though, it's time for A. A. Milne's beloved creations to team up with a host of other famous literary characters who recently entered the public domain after spending decades under Disney's control.
The Avengers-inspired Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble will bring together Winnie the Pooh, Bambi, Tinkerbell, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Tigger, Piglet, The Mad Hatter, and Sleeping Beauty for a blood-splattered crossover event heading to theaters in 2025.
And yes, Pooh really is riding Bambi while wielding a bear trap on the poster below.
"As horror fans, we would love an Avengers that is all villains," Jagged Edge's Scott Chambers tells Variety (via FearHQ.com). "It’d have Freddy Krueger, Jason, 'Halloween,' 'Scream,' all of those. Obviously that will never happen, but we can make it happen in our own little way, and that’s where this film has been born."
"Similar to The Avengers we will follow Pooh, Tigger, Rabbit, Owl, Piglet, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Bambi, The Mad Hatter, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell joining forces to wreak havoc," he adds in a press release. "We are working with a larger scale budget on this one and are excited for what the future will hold. When you see the standalone movies you will see the easter eggs hinting toward the crossover."
"Some of the villains also will not see eye to eye which will allow for some carnage within the group in some epic sequence of monster vs monster."
Among the standalone projects on the way are Bambi: The Reckoning, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, and Pinocchio Unstrung (a full slate reveal can be seen below). All of these are part of "The Twisted Childhood Universe."
"We’ve got access to all these concepts so it’s like a self-contained bubble and we can do what we want with them," Blood and Honey franchise director Rhys Jake-Waterfield said today, confirming he'll also helm Poohniverse. "So yeah, it’s really exciting."
"It will be complete carnage. We are heavily influenced by Freddy Vs Jason and The Avengers," he adds. "We would love to see a horror movie where the villains group together and are going after their survivors. We have some incredible set pieces in mind and some sequences I think will truly shock people. The movies we are working on now as stand alones are all building towards."
Casting is to include Scott Chambers returning as Christopher Robin, Megan Plactio as Wendy Darling, Roxanne Mckee as Xana, Lewis Santer as Tigger.
Take a look at the first Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble teasers below.