Elisabeth Moss is driven to the brink in first images from The Invisible Man

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

The thought of Universal Pictures reimagining their classic Universal Monsters for an interconnected universe was certainly intriguing, but the potential franchise quickly crashed and burned with the failure of THE MUMMY. After licking their wounds, the studio is ready for a new approach which will instead focus on bringing in creative directors with distinctive visions for the monsters.

The first of those movies will be THE INVISIBLE MAN, which has been written and directed by Leigh Whannell (UPGRADE), and Entertainment Weekly has released a set of first look photos featuring Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale).

Elisabeth Moss plays Cecilia Kass in THE INVISIBLE MAN, a woman who is trapped in a violent, controlling relationship with a wealthy and brilliant scientist (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). After escaping with the help of her sister (Harriet Dyer), their childhood friend (Aldis Hodge), and his teenage daughter (Storm Reid), Cecilia learns that her ex has killed himself, but she begins to suspect that his death was a hoax when a series of eerie coincidences threatens the lives of those she loves.

"The image of the Invisible Man in the floating trench coat and the floating sunglasses is one that is clearly etched into the public consciousness," Whannell said. "I wanted to kind of get away from that and make something that was really modern, really grounded, or as grounded as you can be when you’re dealing with a film called The Invisible Man. Just something that was really tense and scary in a way The Invisible Man hasn’t been before." As far as any sort of sequel goes, Whannell says that he hasn't put any thought into it yet as he doesn't want to jinx anything. "I’ve been involved with movies that have had a lot of sequels, like the original Saw film obviously spawned a whole franchise, as did Insidious," Whannell explained. "But I can tell you with total honesty that in the case of both of those films, I never thought about a sequel. I would never want to jinx the release of a movie by thinking about what comes next."

The official synopsis for THE INVISIBLE MAN:

What you can’t see can hurt you. Emmy winner Elisabeth Moss (Us, Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale) stars in a terrifying modern tale of obsession inspired by Universal’s classic monster character.

Trapped in a violent, controlling relationship with a wealthy and brilliant scientist, Cecilia Kass (Moss) escapes in the dead of night and disappears into hiding, aided by her sister (Harriet Dyer, NBC’s The InBetween), their childhood friend (Aldis Hodge, Straight Outta Compton) and his teenage daughter (Storm Reid, HBO’s Euphoria).

But when Cecilia’s abusive ex (Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House) commits suicide and leaves her a generous portion of his vast fortune, Cecilia suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of eerie coincidences turns lethal, threatening the lives of those she loves, Cecilia’s sanity begins to unravel as she desperately tries to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see.

THE INVISIBLE MAN is set for a February 28 2020 release.