Decades before there was a Marvel Cinematic Universe or a DC Extended Universe, there was the
Universal Monsters franchise, a cohesive cinematic universe of horror films that ran from 1923 to 1960, composed of such classics as
Dracula (1931),
The Mummy (1932),
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and
The Wolf Man (1941). A while back, it was announced that Universal Studios is developing a reboot of the classic cinematic universe, which will begin with a reboot of
The Mummy in 2017, but with a twist: the monsters will now be super-heroic characters and the films will now be "epic action-adventures." For obvious reasons, this caused immediate backlash from fans of the original franchise and of horror in general. But could this report have been a simple misunderstanding? That seems to be what Universal wants us to think.
In a
recent interview with
Collider,
The Mummy reboot scribe Alex Kurtzman clarified that the reports of the films straying from their horror roots have been exaggerated. According to Kurtman,
"I think there was some lost in translation quality to the way [the announcement] was received, because I promise you there will be horror in these movies. It is our life goal to make a horror movie. The tricky part is actually how you combine horror with either adventure or suspense or action and be true to all the genres together. In some way, The Mummy, dating all the way back to the [actor Boris] Karloff movie, was the first to do that. It was the first to combine horror with — I wouldn’t say action, but certainly a lot of suspense. So it’s more about how you blend the different elements and stay true to each one, but there will definitely be horror in the monster movies."
If Alex Kurtzman is to be believed, then this may certainly be a relief to fans of the original franchise. It was previously announced that the interconnected reboot of the original shared universe will be handled by a team of writers, not unlike that of a television series. Starting with 2017's
The Mummy, we can expect to see a number of reboots including
Dracula,
Frankenstein,
The Invisible Man,
Bride of Frankenstein, and
Van Helsing. Lets hope that the reboots will stay true to the core and tones of the characters and films that they are resurrecting in this modern era.