The Dark Universe could have a second chance at success by creating a crossover between The Mummy movies and Van Helsing. The Dark Universe was conceived as Universal Pictures' ambitious idea to launch a cinematic universe devoted to classic Universal monsters. It kicked off with 2017's reboot of The Mummy, but that film's negative reception and its lower-than-expected box office performance led to Universal greatly overhauling its plans for the Dark Universe. It has come to be remembered as the shortest-lived cinematic universe in history.
Universal would find success with 2020's The Invisible Man as a standalone movie, and there are other upcoming Universal monster movie reboots. However, the Dark Universe has several existing movies on which it can base its potential revival, namely Stephen Sommers's Mummy films and his 2004 monster movie, Van Helsing. Although all four films are over a decade removed from their original theatrical releases, The Mummy trilogy and Van Helsing not only complement each other but also share the building blocks for creating a satisfyingly realized Dark Universe.
The Mummy Franchise & Van Helsing Fit With Each Other
The Mummy movies and Van Helsing might focus on different monsters and be set in different eras, but they share the same light-hearted tone. They are not so much horrifying nightmare fuel as fun adventure movies with horror seasoning, which is a significant factor in why they would work well together. Both also take place in worlds where monsters are surprisingly easy to stumble across when on a scientific inquiry or an expedition for lost relics. With Van Helsing and The Mummy franchise having extended backstories and timelines, there are a lot of different stories to tell, and many characters and monsters to build arcs around.
Sommers being a fan of Universal's monster movies is written all over The Mummy films and Van Helsing. Structurally, they aren't linear remakes of the Universal monster movies they revere, but are instead campy send-ups of them. Neither The Mummy nor Van Helsing would need the slightest tonal adjustment to work with the other. Moreover, elements like Evelyn’s reincarnation from Ancient Egypt and Van Helsing being the archangel Gabriel in human form make a potential crossover focusing on their unexplored pasts quite easy to pull off.
Why The Mummy Trilogy & Van Helsing Could Revive The Dark Universe
A new take on the Dark Universe would essentially be a reboot of the concept. It would therefore need a makeover for a theoretical relaunch. One potential idea is that the Dark Universe copies The Mummy movies' tonal template. Sommers's trilogy has proven successful as a series of light-hearted adventure films. Both The Mummy and Van Helsing also banked on nostalgia for the original Universal monster movies when they were first released. In that way, a Mummy/Van Helsing crossover spearheading the return of the Dark Universe could also appeal to moviegoers with their own affection for the original Universal monsters.
While 2017’s The Mummy is hamstrung by too much world-building at the expense of storytelling, The Mummy trilogy and Van Helsing, by default, would not face that problem. Both have already done the heavy lifting of establishing their protagonist’s backstories and the monsters they traditionally do battle with. Van Helsing's anime prequel also helps build out its world. Resetting the Dark Universe with Sommers's Mummy films and Van Helsing amounts to picking up where each left off. However, of the two properties, The Mummy would be the strongest foundation on which to relaunch the concept.
Brendan Fraser Could Lead The Dark Universe's Return
Brendan Fraser’s career resurgence has brought him back into the spotlight, with Fraser's performance in The Whale, in particular, earning him widespread praise. The wise-cracking adventurer Rick O’Connell has long been Fraser's signature role, with O'Connell playing an especially sardonic Indiana Jones. It is a character well-suited to lead an adventure movie series, or, for that matter, an adventure movie cinematic universe. Fraser has addressed a potential The Mummy 4 return, and such a hypothetical sequel would generate immediate hype for a Dark Universe 2.0.
It is not hard to imagine Rick O’Connell hunting other Universal monsters and joining forces with Hugh Jackman's Van Helsing in a kind of action-horror buddy movie. The time gap between the two franchises would not be hard to get around either. Van Helsing could either be re-incarnated or simply have a highly extended lifespan, which would allow him to join Rick in the early 20th century. With so many possibilities, The Mummy trilogy is ripe to be unearthed from its tomb, and crossing over with Van Helsing could resurrect the Dark Universe with next to no effort at all.