The director of Wolf Man and Invisible Man Leigh Whannell has revealed why he believes Universal’s ‘Dark Universe’ failed.
Universal announced their plans in 2017 to create a combined universe, à la the MCU, but with their movie monsters.
This was supposed to be kicked off by 2017’s The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise, which also featured Russell Crowe as Dr Henry Jekyll.
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This was eventually supposed to lead to an Invisible Man film starring Johnny Depp, as well as a Bride of Frankenstein movie with Javier Bardem as the monster.
In addition, Universal announced a further slate of films, including a Wolf Man film.
Due to backlash to the announcement and the critical and financial failure of The Mummy, the studio pivoted and cancelled their plans.
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Instead, several of the projects were turned into solo films, with Whannell directing The Invisible Man in 2020 (with Depp being replaced by Oliver Jackson-Cohen), and Wolf Man, which released January 17.
In addition to this, an upcoming Frankenstein film directed by Guillermo Del Toro is set to release this year starring Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, and Oscar Isaac.
In an exclusive interview with LADbible, Whannell revealed that both projects he was involved in took place after ‘The Dark Universe’ was canned.
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When asked why he thinks the project failed, he said: “I mean, it's interesting, because these characters individually, you know, they were never written as a team.
“Obviously, originally you know Dracula and Frankenstein, they're these great works of literature. It's been over the years that they've started to be lumped together.
“I'm sure when Frankenstein was first released as a book, there was no intention of putting it next to Dracula.
“But all of a sudden in pop culture, it seeped in so far that, you know, my kids watch these animated movies like Hotel Transylvania, where all the monsters are all together in the cast. In a weird way, culture is the thing that's grouped them together.
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“What I think about these current movies is, I actually think that each of these characters is so unique and individual that it's, I almost think you're doing a disservice to them to put them all together.”
He went on to add: “I don't want to see Frankenstein team up with Dracula. I want to see a movie about Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s monster, and now that I know Guillermo del Toro is doing that movie, I'm so excited because he's obsessed.”
Whannell revealed that, in a visit to del Toro’s house to paint monster masks, he was shown a room in the directors house that was entirely Frankenstein related, saying he ‘has this amazing office filled with artifacts’.
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“His life is so devoted to the art of these that I definitely don't want to see him kill two or three birds with one stone. I want to see his Frankenstein movie exactly. You want focus.
“Focus is best, because you, once you start putting too many people together, I feel like your focus gets split up.”
Wolf Man is in cinemas now.
Michael Slavin