Is Universal's Dark Universe Rising from the Dead?

Those who had high hopes for Universal’sDark Universemay not be totally out of luck, despite the fact that it seemed like the the studio’s plans for a monster movie cinematic universe were all but dead. Indeed, some newly surfaced evidence online suggests that the Dark Universe may be on a path to resurrection following the disastrous release ofThe Mummylast year. Though, we must admit, this isn’t exactly a lot to go on.

This bit of Dark Universe hope comes from artist Robert Vargas who recently made quite the interesting post to his Instagram account. Apparently, Vargas had a meeting with some of the folks at Universal who are in charge of what’s left of the Dark Universe, whatever that may be. In any case, they may have Vargas do some artwork for them related to “monster things.” Here’s what Vargas had to say in his post.

“Great meeting this morning with the amazing #DarkUniverse team. Thank you #Universal Exec, Holly Goline and Crash for the hospitality. Looking forward to contributing to the Universal Pictures legacy with my work. Monster things in the works ;) Stay tuned!”

So what does this mean exactly? It’s difficult to say, but at the very least it seems like Universal isn’t totally ready toabandon this shared universethey had in mind. Screenwriter Ed Solomon, who was at least at one point going to write theInvisible Manmovie that would star Johnny Depp as the titular character, indicated shortly afterThe Mummycrashed and burned at the box office that the studio wasreconfiguring their plansfor the franchise moving forward. Perhaps they now have done some of the necessary retooling and are ready to get some movies in production.

Twice now, first with 2014’sDracula Untoldand with last year’sThe Mummy, the studio has tried to get this monster universe off the ground. But ahead of the release of the Tom Cruise-led flick last year, they got serious and branded it as Dark Universe, with several movies planned. Russell Crowe’s Dr. Henry Jekyll was meant to provide some connective tissue and it appeared as though they were confident in what they had. Unfortunately, the movie scarcely made $80 million domestically, even though it did manage to cross the $400 million mark worldwide. Most importantly,The Mummywas loathed by critics, earning just a 13 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Not exactly the perfect start to a cinematic universe.

Bill Condon was set to start production on hisBride of Frankensteinremake this year for release in February 2019 before Universalhit the pause button. That project may not be totally dead, but everything in regards to the Dark Universe has been halted while the studio figures out how to handle it moving forward. In the meantime, key producers Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan bailed out. Who knows what has been going on behind closed doors, but it seems like we probably haven’t seen the last of this universe. Just don’t be surprised if they try and distance themselves from the Tom Cruise disaster as much as possible. You can check outRobert Vargas' Instagrampost for yourself below.