It’s no secret that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is arguably the most successful film franchise running today. Each new Marvel movie is greeted with anticipation by fans, by and large receives a favorable critical response, and scores huge at the box office. But when The Avengers first grouped these disparate superheroes together in 2012, this was a somewhat novel idea (though admittedly not to comics fans who’d been reading crossover events for decades). This cinematic universe was something of a risky gamble, as general audiences were instead used to either direct sequels, spinoffs, or reboots—not disparate films with their own tones, characters, and themes taking place in the same universe as each other.
But as we all know that gamble paid off big time, and Hollywood went Cinematic Universe crazy. Studios began vying to launch their own interconnected series of films, but rather than making a slow-and-steady build to a crossover event like Marvel had, many of them tried to rush things to disappointing results. And in trying to do so much, so fast, with so little screentime, these overarching Cinematic Universe plans ended up getting scuttled.
So now seems a good time to jog our memories and look back on what could have been with these planned cinematic universes that never really got off the ground—with the caveat that some of these could still happen with a bit of retooling.
Dark Universe
One of the most high-profile cinematic universes that crashed and burned was the Dark Universe. While Guillermo del Toro was offered and turned down the chance to spearhead the development of Universal monster movies in 2007, it wasn’t until 2013, a year after The Avengers, that Universal Pictures pulled the trigger on creating an interconnected series of films. Later dubbed the Dark Universe, this franchise was initially intended to be overseen by writers and producing partners Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who at the time were best known for their work on the Transformers and Star Trek franchises. A few months later, however, Kurtzman and Orci dissolved their partnership and Orci exited the Dark Universe—the first of many to do so.
Universal officially got the Dark Universe off the ground in July 2014, when it was announced that Chris Morgan—a writer and producer on the lucrative Fast & Furious franchise—would be teaming up with Kurtzman to spearhead this new universe. The two set up a writers room that included Ed Solomon (Men in Black), Aaron Guzikowski (Prisoners), Jon Spaihts (Passengers), and Eric Heisserer (Arrival), and work began on fleshing out what each of these films could be.
The writers were teamed up and assigned specific projects: Solomon set about writing The Invisible Man, Heisserer and Spaihts teamed up on Van Helsing, Guzikowski wrote The Wolfman, and David Koepp (Jurassic Park) set about writing Bride of Frankenstein.
The first priority, however, was The Mummy. This film was intended to kick off the Dark Universe properly, and Kurtzman would be directing the movie himself—only his second feature directorial effort after the character drama People Like Us. As development on the various other Dark Universe films continued, The Mummy moved forward in a big way by landing Tom Cruise as its star. This set off a chain reaction of casting announcements for projects that didn’t even have directors yet, like Johnny Depp as The Invisible Man and Javier Bardem as Frankenstein’s Monster. And as production on The Mummy got underway, Russell Crowe joined the project as the Dark Universe’s own Nick Fury, Dr. Jekyll.
With The Mummy firmly moving forward, Universal announced that the next Dark Universe movie after that would be Bride of Frankenstein. They signed Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters) to direct and courted Angelina Jolie to star, with a feminist-leaning script by Koepp. And then, well, The Mummy was released.
The first film in the Dark Universe suffered scathing reviews and middling box office when it hit theaters in May 2017, scoring just over $30 million opening weekend. The blockbuster managed only $80 million domestic total, and while international box office was better and boosted the worldwide total to $409.2 million, this was far from the phenomenon that Iron Man became and signaled lack of interest in a Dark Universe at all.
Bride of Frankenstein had a February 2019 release date and Condon continued developing the screenplay, but in October 2017 Universal officially pulled the movie off the release schedule citing script issues. Then in November, Kurtzman and Morgan departed their Universal Pictures offices—the ones that had been built specifically for the Dark Universe—and reports swirled that plans for the future films had either been scuttled or were being retooled, potentially offering high-profile filmmakers the chance to come in and make one-off monster movies instead of pieces in a larger puzzle.
And thus the Dark Universe evaporated with only one film under its belt. What makes the Dark Universe stand out on this list is all the work that had been put into the films that never got made. Scripts for Van Helsing and The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein were written, and big name actors like Johnny Depp and Javier Bardem signed contracts. And yet, based on the disappointment of one movie, these plans all seem to have been thrown away. Of course it doesn’t help when that one movie was directed and shepherded by the person supposedly responsible for the entire Dark Universe, so it wasn’t like there was a producer who could step in and right the ship.
On the bright side, Universal seems to have found an alternative route to success as their Blumhouse co-production of The Invisible Man—made for a fraction of the budget of The Mummy—opened to critically acclaim and huge success. Unconcerned with a connected universe, Leigh Whannell's film is a terrifying and relevant tale of domestic abuse, and it appears that Universal is now approaching its monsters on a "we'll greenlight any good idea, no matter how disparate" plan with movies like Dark Army and The Invisible Woman in development.
X-Men Origins
This wasn’t exactly a cinematic universe per se, but at one point in time 20th Century Fox had big plans for the X-Men franchise that involved a series of origin stories. The first one out of the gate was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, hence the weird title—they were trying to establish a brand before the brand existed.
David Benioff (Game of Thrones) was hired to write a Wolverine origin movie in 2004, but the project would go through many, many drafts by many, many writers before cameras began rolling in 2007. Gavin Hood, director of the Oscar-winning South African film Tsotsi, was hired to direct, but the project was plagued by script issues, studio interference, and substandard visual effects. Various executives and producers tried to shoehorn in more X-Men references to disappointing results, from the introduction of Gambit (Taylor Kistch) to the complete fumbling of Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds). Many involved would go on to essentially disown the film, which suffered scathing reviews and mediocre box office.
Meanwhile, Fox was busy readying another prequel movie: X-Men Origins: Magneto. The studio set Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air) to pen the script for this Magneto origin story, and David S. Goyer, who had co-written Batman Begins a few years earlier, was set to direct. There was even talk of digitally de-aging Ian McKellen a la X-Men: The Last Stand so he could reprise his role, but when Wolverine suffered a disastrous production and release, X-Men Origins: Magneto was cancelled.
However, we actually did kind of get to see this movie. Much of what was planned for Magneto was absorbed into X-Men: First Class, which is why that prequel story focuses so much on Magneto’s background—albeit with Michael Fassbender in the role. Turner even received a “Story by” credit on First Class, so while Fox’s series of X-Men prequel movies never came to fruition, the guts of X-Men Origins: Magneto lived on to see the light of day in a different way.
The Amazing Spider-Man
And we come back to Alex Kurtzman. Yes, the man in charge of the cancelled Dark Universe was also somewhat overseeing another interconnected series of films that got scuttled. Sony Pictures had big plans when they made The Amazing Spider-Man. The studio was coming off the critical disappointment of Spider-Man 3 and wanted to reboot their only comics property the right way. The Marc Webb-directed 2012 reboot Amazing Spider-Man did pretty okay. Most sparked to Andrew Garfield’s interpretation of Peter Parker, and even if the film grossed over $100 million less than Spider-Man 3, its worldwide total of $757.9 million was seen as a solid start to the new franchise.
But when it came to crafting The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony got ambitious. Cinematic Universe Fever was in full swing, and they saw this sequel as an opportunity to plant seeds for future films. Felicity Jones shows up in a minor role as a character that was intended to become Black Cat; the Ravencroft Institute is introduced; we even glimpse references to Spider-Man villains in a secret lab.
So as Webb got to work on The Amazing Spider-Man 2, behind the scenes Sony was fleshing out an interconnected universe of films. Kurtzman, who co-wrote the Amazing Spider-Man sequel, was set to co-write and direct a Venom movie, and Westworld co-showrunner Lisa Joy Nolan was hired to write a Black Cat spinoff.
Up first, however, would be Sinister Six. This was to be a villain-centric spinoff potentially starring Tom Hardy as Doc Ock, with Paul Giamatti’s Rhino returning alongside other villains. The Cabin the Woods filmmaker Drew Goddard left Marvel’s Netflix series Daredevil to write and direct Sinister Six, and Sony felt so bullish on the spinoff that they pushed The Amazing Spider-Man 3 back and moved the release of Sinister Six up.
However, the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 changed everything. The film grossed about $50 million less than its precursor, and reviews were unkind to the cartoony approach to the material. Sony ended up scrapping its plans for the whole universe and Kurtzman jumped ship to Universal to craft the Dark Universe. Meanwhile, Sony head Amy Pascal finally struck a deal with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and CEO Ike Perlmutter that saw Marvel coming onboard to produce yet another Spider-Man reboot, but this time one that would tie into an existing cinematic universe: The MCU. And thus the wildly popular Spider-Man: Homecoming was born.
King Arthur
Cinematic Universe fever hasn’t just extended to superheroes and monsters. Back in 2014, Warner Bros. revisited the idea of a King Arthur movie after a previous iteration—which would have starred Kit Harington and Joel Kinnaman as Arthur and Lancelot, respectively—got scuttled due to budget issues. This new version would be directed by Guy Ritchie, and it was based on a pitch by writer Joby Harold that would span six movies. The idea was for each film to focus on a different character from lore, so you’d get a King Arthur movie first, then a Merlin movie, then a Lancelot movie, etc.
Ritchie’s film, then titled Knights of the Roundtable, began moving forward and word sparked that Idris Elba was in line to play Merlin and Astrid Bergès-Frisbey signed on to play Guinevere. Those who saw what was eventually titled King Arthur: Legend of the Sword may be scratching their heads right about now—there is no Merlin character in the film, and Bergès-Frisbey plays a character named the Mage, not Guinevere. So what gives?
King Arthur had its release date pushed back by a full year, and reports swirled that the film evolved during post-production and through reshoots—to the point that star Charlie Hunnam, who plays Arthur, even said it took him a few watches to come to terms with the film Ritchie made as opposed to the one they shot.
While the finished product is an underrated, delightful twist on Arthurian legend, audiences turned their back on the film and it grossed a mere $148.7 million worldwide—short of its $175 million budget. Moreover, the film itself didn’t really have any references at all to a larger Arthurian Cinematic Universe, so perhaps either during development or post-production, the decision was made to scrap the planning and plotting and simply focus on the film at hand. The result was criminally underseen, and as Ritchie swiftly moved on to making Aladdin for Disney, the King Arthur Cinematic Universe died a quick death.
Robin Hood
This one never got far off the ground, but it remains one of the more perplexing “What If’s” in recent memory. In 2014, Sony Pictures—no doubt feeling the heat of The Avengers and realizing it only owned one single comics property—bought a pitch for an Avengers-style shared universe franchise about… Robin Hood. Not only that, they paid $1 million for this potential Merry Men Universe.
The pitch came from Corey Goodman and Jeremy Lott and envisioned a series of films based on Robin Hood and his Merry Men, with a Friar Tuck movie, a Will Scarlett movie, and a Little John movie bandied about as possibilities. This thing never even landed a director, and shortly thereafter Disney announced its own Robin Hood franchise with Nottingham & Hood—a revisionist take on the tale in the vein of Pirates of the Caribbean that the Mouse House hoped to turn into a franchise. That one also never happened.
Lionsgate is actually the one to win the Great Robin Hood Wars, as their gritty spin on the tale hits theaters later this year with Taron Egerton in the titular role.
MiB/Jump Street
Another potentially terrible idea from Sony came in the form of a crossover between the Men in Black and 21 Jump Street franchises. The studio had just had a major hit with 22 Jump Street and had been looking to reboot the Men in Black series for a long while. Their solution was to use a third Jump Street movie as a backdoor pilot for a Men in Black reboot, crossing over the brands to create a shared universe. The idea was for Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum to reprise their Jump Street roles and be thrown into the sci-fi world of Men in Black. The studio even tapped Alice Through the Looking Glass filmmaker James Bobin to direct, with a 2016 start-date potentially eyed, but Hill threw cold water on the idea in subsequent interviews and the start-date came and went with no production confirmation. Thus, MiB 23 died.
Sony instead set about rebooting Men in Black on its own with Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, while a third Jump Street movie doesn’t appear to be actively in the works.
The Initial DCEU
Okay before you get mad, I know, the DC Extended Universe is alive and well. But! Warner Bros. had big, overarching plans for the DCEU that were significantly altered midway through, so we’ve kind of seen the death of the initial DCEU only for Warner Bros. to change course and take a different track.
When the Superman franchise was rebooted with Man of Steel in 2013, Warner Bros. had not yet confirmed the notion of an interconnected universe. However, director Zack Snyder and David S. Goyer had hopes, and they included a pretty hefty Batman Easter Egg in the context of the Superman reboot. Then in July 2013, at Comic-Con, Snyder took the stage to basically announce the formation of the DCEU by revealing that the Man of Steel sequel would be Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
The following year, Warner Bros. was all in. As development on Batman v Superman ramped up, the studio announced a slew of release dates for DC movies that would all be connected. The release dates for Suicide Squad (August 2016), Wonder Woman (June 2017), and Justice League (November 2017) mostly stuck, but beyond that these initial plans look a bit different than the DCEU we know now. Here’s what that original slate looked like:
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice– March 25, 2016
- Suicide Squad– August 5, 2016
- Wonder Woman– June 23, 2017
- Justice League Part One– November 17, 2017
- The Flash – March 23, 2018
- Aquaman – July 27, 2018
- Shazam– April 5, 2019
- Justice League Part Two– June 14, 2019
- Cyborg– April 3, 2020
- Green Lantern– June 19, 2020
When Batman v Superman wrapped, Snyder moved right into developing Justice League Part One, which would go into production a few weeks after Batman v Superman hit theaters. However, as we all know, the reaction to BvS was strong right out of the gate. Many audience members complained about the dark tone and direction, and critics weren’t exactly kind to this Man of Steel follow-up. Basically the general reaction was that Snyder’s vision for the DCEU was maybe not the best, but production was already underway on Justice League so Warner Bros. was forced to try to course correct during filming and, famously, with extensive reshoots that didn’t involve Snyder.
Wonder Woman went pretty smoothly, but Suicide Squad went through significant retooling during post-production, The Flash saw three different directors sign on and then leave over creative differences, and Shazam was reworked to remove Dwayne Johnson’s villainous Black Adam and to focus instead on the titular hero in this first movie. And, of course, the idea of a two-part Justice League was jettisoned—they instead focused on making just one movie.
In many ways the release of Justice League marked the end of that initial DCEU. Snyder is no longer involved, the executives in charge of DC Films have changed, and priorities have shifted to other kinds of DC movies (RIP Cyborg). To put it simply, Warner Bros. was trying to race towards its own Avengers with Batman v Superman, and they put all their chips on a very ambitious but also polarizing approach to the entire cinematic universe. The gamble didn’t pay off, and they were forced to move a speeding train in a different direction.
By most accounts that may pay off. Wonder Woman was a huge hit with audiences and critics alike, and Shazam! and Joker proved to be very different kind of DC movie. It’s a new dawn indeed.
