There are quite a few cinematic universes in development around Hollywood right now, but Universal’s sharedmonster universemay be the most intriguing and perhaps one of the most logical. It will kick off next year withThe Mummyreboot, but following closely behind will be the newly rebootedVan Helsing. LikeThe Mummy, it has been revealed that this newVan Helsingwill take place in modern day.
Jon Spaihts, who wrote the newMummymovie and co-wrote bothPrometheusandDoctor Strange, was recently interviewed byCollider. He didn’t write the newVan Helsingmovie, but is involved in this Universal monster-verse, so he had some insight about the movie and revealed that it will take place in present day as well as a bit about how he hopes the character will fit into the universe. Here is what he had to say.
“[Van Helsing is] a new creation, so it doesn’t owe much of a debt to prior films. But it is still a very romantic departure from the character as incepted in Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, where [he] was a Dutch doctor who figures out a very surprising answer to an odd medical question. This is a monster hunter with encyclopedic knowledge. It’s set in thepresent dayand it’s just filled with good stuff I’m not allowed to talk about. But I’m very excited about this new incarnation of Van Helsing, and I hope that as the Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe begins to take flight, we’ll see him cropping up in other stories, as well.”
Van Helsingis being written byEric Heisserer, who also wrote the horror hitLights Outas well as the upcoming sci-fi movie, which is a potential Oscar contender,Arrival. He recently confirmed, andJon Spaihtsechoed the same in this recent interview, thatVan Helsingwill indeed be included in the shared monster-verse.Spaihtsalso talked a bit about the tone of these movies and what we can expect. Here is what he had to say.
“Even to go back to the original Universal Monster movies with Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff, they were not really terrifying even then. Maybe sensibilities were different and people were easier to scare at the time. But [those classic films were] slow; they’re parlor stories for the most part - not terrifying in modern terms. [Now] we’ve gotten really good at scaring people in movies. So, the nice thing aboutThe Mummyis that it has the swash-buckling action-adventure character of a modern epic action movie, but it’s legit terrifying. It will scare you.”
Universal is still trying to piece this monster universe together but the constant is that they appear to be going after top-notch talent for every movie. First, they haveTom CruiseleadingThe Mummynext year, which will also feature an appearance by Dr. Jekyll, who is being played byRussell Crowe.Johnny Depphas also been cast to play the lead in the reboot ofThe Invisible Man. There are also rumors that Oscar winnerJavier Bardemis being eyed for the newFrankensteinmovie. That is a pretty impressive stable of talent. There has also been persistent chatter regardingAngelina Joliebeing eyed for theBride of Frankensteinboth to star and direct. It was also recently revealed thatLuke Evansversion of Dracula fromDracula Untoldmay be coming back to reprise his role in these new connected monster movies.
The Mummyis set for release on June 16, 2025, which will officially kick off this newUniversal Monstersuniverse. At the moment, Universal hasn’t announced whenVan Helsingwill come out, but they do have two Untitled Universal Monster Franchise movies set to come out on April 13th, 2018 and February 15th, 2019. IfThe Mummydoes well, expect Universal to make a lot more official announcements regarding this monster-verse.
