Christopher Abbott from Wolf Man and Tom Cruise in The Mummy
Universal attempted to make the Dark Universe happen 8 years ago with Tom Cruise's The Mummy, and Wolf Man confirms it's a good thing the cinematic universe failed. The 2025 horror film from director Leigh Whannell is the latest instance of classic Universal Monsters being reinvented for modern audiences. This direction for some iconic creatures was a heavy emphasis of 2017's The Mummy, which starred Tom Cruise in a big-budget, action-driven feature.
Development on this iteration of Wolf Man did not make it too far by all accounts. No director was ever hired to make the film. There were reports that Universal wanted Dwayne Johnson to play Wolf Man in the new film and join the Dark Universe's A-list ensemble cast. This all came to a halt after The Mummy's release. Universal canceled several Dark Universe movies and reconfigured its approach going forward.
There is no chance this version of Wolf Man would have been made under the Dark Universe banner. That's an assessment I feel confident in even without knowing what the Dark Universe's version of Wolf Man was going to be about. But if Dwayne Johnson was the archetype for the lead role, a big-budget, action-heavy blockbuster would have been the result.
By making all these different standalone movies, Universal is giving fans of the Universal Monsters more films to see. Importantly, this is all being done without audiences or filmmakers worrying about how a film connects to others. These movies work alone and do not need a big team-up crossover like the Dark Universe so desperately wanted. Not every movie is bound to be great, but the Dark Universe wasn't off to a great start.
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