Over the past few weeks, it has been impossible to avoid the incongruous pairing of the words "Tom Cruise" and "The Mummy." There he is, Hollywood's golden boy, fighting the titular Egyptian evil all over town: on the sides of buses, inside subway stations, on billboards – a marketing blitz worthy of Tutankhamun himself. Wait, what happened to Brendan Fraser? Well, he's still alive (presumably), but Universal is banking hard on a Cruise-ified Mummy reboot, which it hopes will kick-start the studio's Dark Universe, a franchise that will one day house new, profitable iterations of its classic-monster intellectual property.
Already, before a single frame of The Mummy 2.0 has been screened for the public, Universal has committed to new versions of Bride of Frankenstein (with Javier Bardem as the Frankenstein bridegroom – or should that be Frankenstein's monster bridegroom?), as well as Johnny Depp's Invisible Man, a fresh Wolf Man, Van Helsing, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Phantom of the Opera, Creature from the Black Lagoon and Dracula. This, despite the fact the studio already tried – and failed – to reboot Vlad the Impaler in 2014, with the now-hot Luke Evans in Dracula Untold. But such are the perils of building a cinematic universe these days: Wait too long and you miss your opportunity; push too hard and you risk alienating audiences already overwhelmed with Marvel adventures and Autobot shenanigans.
Still, imitation is Hollywood's sincerest form of flattery and because this nostalgia-fuelled model is immensely profitable – Marvel's 15 movies have grossed $11.7-billion (U.S.) worldwide – the tidal wave of "shared cinematic universes" – not just straightforward sequels but neverending franchises encompassing spinoffs, crossovers and all manner of ancillary product – shows no sign of drying up. And we're not just talking about well-known brands such as Marvel, DC, Star Wars, X-Men (part of Marvel, but also not really) and now the Dark Universe. No, over the next few years, the franchises pouring out of Hollywood's production pipeline are going to get decidedly obscure and bewildering. Herewith, a warning guide.
After 2014’s dark Godzilla reboot and this past spring’s Vietnam-era Kong: Skull Island, expect more giant-monster movies in the works.
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
MonsterVerse
Not to be confused with Universal's Cruise-led monsters bonanza, this plan – hatched between Warner Bros. and Chinese-owned Legendary Entertainment – revolves around two of the (literally) biggest players in the franchise game: Godzilla and King Kong. First, there was 2014's dark Godzilla reboot and then this past spring's Vietnam-era Kong: Skull Island. Each could have stood on its own, but studios cannot leave well enough alone, so expect a Godzilla sequel in 2019 from director Michael Dougherty, and Godzilla vs. Kong in 2020 from Adam Wingard. More giant monster movies are surely in the works, too, as Skull Island alluded to in its postcredits stinger, the favoured connective tissue of these new business endeavours.
Hasbroverse
The border between the big screen and the toy aisle has never been more porous than in Paramount's effort to unite Hasbro's G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Visionaries, M.A.S.K. and Rom brands under the same cinematic roof. Last summer, the studio hired a writers' room rich in talent (Michael Chabon, Brian Vaughan, Nicole Perlman) to plague your child's Christmas wish lists for years to come. Those two G.I. Joe movies you already suffered through, as recently as 2013? Yeah, it's a good bet they're going to mean nothing now, with Hasbro Studios' Simon Waters telling The Los Angeles Times this year: "The world has changed and I think you're going to see G.I. Joe changing with it. There's going to be a much more contemporary approach to the whole franchise." Go, Joe?
Audiences’ appetite for eerie dolls lives on this summer as Talitha Bateman, right, stars in Annabelle: Creation.
Justin Lubin
The Conjuringverse
As Don Mancini's Child's Play series has proven (seven films so far, including this year's Cult of Chucky), audiences have an insatiable appetite for super-creepy dolls. With that in mind, get ready for this summer's Annabelle: Creation, which focuses on the haunted plaything central to the Warner Bros. Conjuringverse. To make things interesting – ie., confusing – Annabelle: Creation is a prequel to 2014's Annabelle, which is a prequel to 2013's The Conjuring, which spawned a sequel of its own in 2016, as well as next year's spinoff, The Nun. Crucial to the series' success is the low cost of the films, which has allowed the horror genre to boom in just about every modern movie-going era (see the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Friday the 13th and, yes, Chucky). But this time, the studios are giving the products hard pushes in multiplexes, instead of being vaguely embarrassed by them and shunting them off into the darkness of direct-to-video.
Spider-Manverse, Minus Spider-Man
What a tangled web the Spider-Man brand weaves. Over the course of just 15 years, we've had three big-screen Peter Parkers (Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and now Tom Holland), each operating under a different brand of continuity. After years of watching the Avengers have fun in the playground that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spidey is now rightfully part of that canon, meaning he can interact with Tony Stark, Captain America and Ant-Man whenever he chooses. But because of legal reasons too boring to dissect here, Sony still retains ancillary Spidey characters, so it's going to exploit them for all they're worth – even if Spider-Man himself can't join the fun. Which is why Sony is prepping a Venom movie starring Tom Hardy for 2018, as well as an undated film focusing on Peter Parker BFFs Black Cat and Silver Sable.
Legoverse
Everything is awesome? Well, that's the hope at Warner Bros., which is investing heavily in its Lego brand. First there was 2014's critically acclaimed and financially unstoppable The Lego Movie, then this spring's slightly lesser-loved The Lego Batman Movie. Coming this fall is The Lego Ninjago Movie, while a sequel to The Lego Movie is due in 2019, and on and on until no man, woman or child is able to walk this Earth without stepping on one of those damned bricks.
Scoobyverse
Ruh-roh – someone stop those meddling kids at Warner Bros. before they engineer a Hanna-Barberaverse focused on Scooby-Doo, the Flintstones, Yogi Bear, the Jetsons and Jonny Quest! Ah, it's too late: A new animated Scooby film (once called S.C.O.O.B. until someone wisely gave that a second thought) is slated for a 2020 release.
The Matrixverse
Whoa! Warner, at it again, is mucking about with its Matrix trilogy, which is easily one-third the best sci-fi trilogy ever conceived. Writer Zak Penn is currently entrusted with renewing the property – not, it should be noted, original masterminds Lana and Lilly Wachowski – though details are sketchy. "All I can say at this point is no one could or should reboot The Matrix," Penn wrote on Twitter. "Do I want to see more stories set in the universe of The Matrix? Yes. Because it's a brilliant idea that generates great stories." And billions of dollars, too. We're likely one red pill away from a Young Morpheus movie. Choose wisely.
Instead of trying to work with Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro and star Ron Perlman, pictured, producers of the series’ third instalment decided to start from scratch.
Egon Endrenyi
Hellboyverse
For years, a third instalment to Hellboy II: The Golden Army was stuck in, appropriately enough, development hell. But instead of trying to work with director Guillermo del Toro and star Ron Perlman, the producers decided to start from scratch, hiring director Neil Marshall to reboot the franchise in an R-rated fashion with David Harbour. It's surely just a short leap from there until they look at expanding the Hellboyverse to include other characters from Mike Mignola's comic-book series, whose central Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense sags under the weight of its yet-to-be-exploited elements.