Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, Javier Bardem – The Franchise That Never Was!

On May 22, 2017, Universal Studios unveiled their plan to launch a connected universe akin to DC and Marvel, but centered around the classic monsters from their film library. This lineup included The Invisible Man, Dracula, Frankenstein’s creature, The Mummy, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The idea had been in the works since the release of Gary Shore’s Dracula Untold starring Luke Evans.

An Incredible Cast

Behind the scenes, Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan were already crafting a strategy to link multiple films together. Three years later, they managed to rope in Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Russell Crowe, Sofia Boutella, and Tom Cruise for the venture! A promotional video was also released with the announcement.

The schedule was set to kick off with The Mummy, directed by Alex Kurtzman himself, starring Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, and featuring Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll (with a touch of Mr. Hyde). The next release was supposed to be Bride of Frankenstein, directed by Bill Condon (Beauty and the Beast) and rumored to star Angelina Jolie. Plans were also in motion for films about Quasimodo and The Phantom of the Opera, but everything changed with the release of The Mummy.

The Mummy grossed $409 million worldwide on a production budget of $125 million. Despite these numbers, the outcome was a major letdown. With Cruise in the lead, expectations were at least $250 million higher based on his other films from the 2010s. The audience partially rejected the film, and the studio took this as a definitive “no” to their projected “Dark Universe.”

Universal Makes Drastic Cuts

Promptly, all planned films were scrapped, and the actors, writers, and directors were released from their commitments. Only Bride of Frankenstein, which was envisioned as a feminist reinterpretation of the classic tale, remained in development for a few more years but ultimately met the same fate as the others.

In recent years, the smaller studio Blumhouse, which specializes in horror films and has a distribution deal with Universal, has started to revive the monster cycle in its own unique way. It began with The Invisible Man (2020), followed by Wolf Man (2025), which tackles the werewolf theme, and finally The Mummy, which does not yet have a release date but is currently being directed by Lee Cronin (Evil Dead Rise).

The saga of cinema’s monsters is far from over!