This past week saw Universal Pictures releasing the first trailer for The Mummy, the first of what is planned to be a shared Monsters universe, which will eventually see Sofia Boutella’s Mummy and Russell Crowe’s Dr. Henry Jekyll joined by the likes of The Invisible Man (Johnny Depp), Frankenstein’s Monster (Javier Bardem) and other iconic characters from the Universal Monsters vault.
Speaking to Heat Vision, The Mummy director Alex Kurtzman – who is set to produce the subsequent Monsters films alongside Chris Morgan – has been discussing the creation of the universe, stating that planting seeds for the future was secondary to delivering “a great Mummy movie”.
“It’s not so much building a universe,” said Kurtzman. “It’s ‘Make a great Mummy movie.’ Now, if in the context of making a great Mummy movie, you can plant the seeds for something else, fantastic. But the only way you can get there, is if those seeds can be planted organically and if can be part of The Mummy story, first and foremost.”
Kurtzman also went on to discuss how the Monsters could possibly cross over in future films: “There has to be some kind of unifying reason if you’re going to do something like that. By the way, maybe they don’t come together in one movie. We aren’t necessarily going to do The Avengers. There might be reasons for this character and that character to come together because of storytelling, because that’s what the story wants. The story is what drives the choices. If down the line there’s a big reason to bring them together, great. But I promise you, we are not starting there. You will come to understand is the Mummy exists in a continuum of monsters and have been around for potentially longer than we have. Part of why we wanted to start with The Mummy was she was one of oldest ones. She’s 5,000 years old.”
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As for the inclusion of Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll, it seems his character will tie in the various movies together, a la Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: “We wanted to understand the context of the Mummy in the larger world and we wanted to know that monsters had existed for millennium, and we knew as the story evolved, we wanted there to be an organization who had been cataloging them and been following them. We said, ‘Well, we could make up a character who is going to be the voice or we could look to monster mythology and say, ‘Is there a character who could organically fit into the story, that wouldn’t detract from the Mummy story, but would in fact enhance it?'”
Kurtzman also went on to discuss the designs for the various monsters in the universe, suggesting that they will remain faithful to the iconic designs of old: Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Hunchback, Phantom of the Opera, Dr. Jekyll, The Mummy. I can go on and on. Wolfman. Universal owns the rights to [Frankenstein]’s bolts-in-the-neck, flat-top head, green face. So now you take all that away, and I’d say, ‘But it’s still Frankenstein’, you’re going to go, ‘No, it’s not.’ And if you ask a four-year old child to draw Frankenstein for you, they’re going to draw bolts in the neck, flat-top head and green face. It is culturally embedded. That is the world we live in, it’s not going away.”
From the sweeping sands of the Middle East through hidden labyrinths under modern-day London, The Mummy brings a surprising intensity and balance of wonder and thrills in an imaginative new take that ushers in a new world of gods and monsters.
The Mummy is set for release on June 9th, 2017, with Alex Kurtzman directing a cast that includes Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation), Annabelle Wallis (Annabelle), Jake Johnson (New Girl), Courtney B. Vance (American Crime Story: The People v O.J. Simpson), Sofia Boutella (Kingsman: The Secret Service) and Russell Crowe (The Nice Guys).
Originally published December 11, 2016. Updated November 30, 2022.
