The classic horror monsters have been getting new life on the big screen for a while now, though not all of them succeeded. Some new versions made one too many changes to these monsters that ultimately didn’t work, while others were clever adaptations that won the audience over. As monsters like Frankestein’s creature prepare their return in the coming months, the Mummy is now also preparing its comeback.

At the core of The Mummy franchise is a mummified ancient Egyptian priest who is resurrected and brings a powerful curse with him – of course, this has gone through many changes over the years. The Mummy had its first movie in 1932 and the most recent theatrically released movie was the 2017 reboot starring Tom Cruise (not as the Mummy, though). Now, the Mummy is getting a new movie under Lee Cronin’s direction and with a projected release date of April 2026, and though it just started filming, it’s already confirming that something good came from the failure of the 2017 reboot.

The New Mummy Is A Standalone Movie, Not The Start Of A Shared Universe

The New Mummy Will Exist On Its Own

The new The Mummy movie was first teased in 2024, though very subtly. In June 2024, New Line Cinema added an untitled movie to its slate with Lee Cronin as director, and it wasn’t until December that it was confirmed to be a new take on The Mummy. As mentioned above, this comes during a wave of new versions of classic monsters, and after the failure of the 2017 reboot, it’s not that surprising that the Mummy is getting another chance – and thankfully, this time it’s returning as a standalone movie and not as part of a wider universe.

The Dark Universe was intended to be a modern cinematic universe based on the classic Universal Monsters, following the steps of shared universes like those of Marvel and DC.

Many things went wrong with 2017’s The Mummy, but its biggest mistake was being the start of a new shared universe. Known as the Dark Universe, it was intended to be a modern cinematic universe based on the classic Universal Monsters, following the steps of shared universes like those of Marvel and DC. However, The Mummy focused too much on setting this universe up rather than on bringing a fun, engaging, and exciting story. The Mummy was criticized for its tone, plot, lack of originality, and visual effects, among other things.

2017's The Mummy currently holds a 15% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, along with a 35% popcornmeter.

Due to its poor critical reception and its box office loss, 2017’s The Mummy ended the Dark Universe before it could even start. In 2019, Universal shared its plans to go back to standalone movies rather than continuing with a shared film narrative, ending all hopes for the Dark Universe (via Variety). Now, although the new The Mummy movie isn’t distributed by Universal, it follows the studio’s idea and is a standalone movie, with no connection to any pre-existing universes, nor is it the first installment in an shared universe.

Hollywood Has Learned The Right Lessons From The Dark Universe’s Failure

At Least The Dark Universe’s Failure Taught Some Important Lessons

The rise of shared universes can be attributed to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which led to other studios attempting to create their own. However, what they all ignore is that what works for one won’t work for everyone, and the MCU’s formula has certainly proven to not be one that fits all worlds. The Universal monsters aren’t superheroes, and they all come from very different and specific worlds. As such, they should be treated differently, and even though they once inhabited the same universe, the horror genre has changed a lot since then.

Nowadays, the Universal monsters would benefit more from being standalone movies, so each monster and creature can be treated individually and in their respective worlds. The Invisible Man, Wolf Man, and now The Mummy follow this, showing that a big lesson was learned from the failure of the Dark Universe, which didn’t even properly start before proving it wasn’t a good idea.

Source: Variety.