As Marvel builds their Cinematic Universe of connected superhero stories, they tend to announce every film in a "phase" years ahead of time, and very rarely are changes made to that announced line-up. They have a clear plan and they're sticking to it, for the most part.
Universal is taking a more loose approach to the building of their Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe, which will consist of reboots of their classic monster movies. With the first film in this universe, THE MUMMY, set to be released in less than two months, you'd think the studio would already know which monster reboot will be going into production next. That's not the case, according to producer Chris Morgan, who is overseeing this monstrous endeavor with fellow producer Alex Kurtzman (who also directed THE MUMMY). Morgan may just be playing coy, but according to him the order of the monster movies has not yet been decided. He told Collider:
We kind of designed them all to be kind of standalone sorts of franchises that have kind of similar things between them. And as the scripts came in, then we started putting them in a, 'Well this would be a good order. We reveal this here' so now it really comes down to, again, it's a studio decision on which film is coming out next. Just with all the films we're working on, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, VAN HELSING, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, WOLFMAN, INVISIBLE MAN, and on and on and on, it's a real embarrassment of riches in terms of awesome, fun characters."
It's somewhat surprising to hear that Universal doesn't have an overall plan for the release order, but hopefully things will solidify soon, especially if THE MUMMY is as successful at the box office as I hope it will be.
During his chat with Collider, Morgan also shared his thoughts on how audiences will respond to the monster movies they have in the works, and how this shared universe will provide a different experience than the superhero cinematic universes:
I think why people will love these monster films is the they are an homage to the originals, which means you're gonna get complex characters. And the thing that I think is interesting about monsters is that they are always exaggerations of human attributes or human fears. For example, Frankenstein was a result of the kind of industrial and scientific revolution — are we playing God? Should we be playing God? And with the Wolfman there's that worry of what happens if I lose control? What happens if I hurt the things around me that I love? There's very human questions and worries and fears and darkness and cravings.
… I can't identify with (superheroes) as closely as I want to because I know I'll never be perfect like that. Whereas the monster movies are saying that everybody has darkness in them, everyone has secrets and things they are ashamed of and don't want to say or something that feels monstrous and dangerous about them. We're just kind of embracing that and saying, 'That's ok.' The films are just gonna be interesting, emotional, action-y, largely global sorts of films. I think The Mummy trailer sets up, in a really good way, kind of the tone of these films."
Morgan also notes that the plan is to make these movies contemporary stories that "reflect a modern sensibility and a modern take on the monsters", but he doesn't rule out the possibility of doing a period film at some point in the series. Although THE MUMMY is rated PG-13, he says that R-rated installments in the series could also happen – thanks to the success of DEADPOOL and LOGAN.
THE MUMMY, starring Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, Marwan Kenzari, and Javier Botet, with Sofia Boutella as the Mummy and Russell Crowe as Dr. Henry Jekyll, is scheduled to reach theatres on June 9th.
I'm hoping the next monster movie will get the greenlight on June 12th, or thereabouts.