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7 CINEMATIC UNIVERSES THAT NEVER GOT OFF THE GROUND

Alex Kurtzman
By  Adam Chitwood
Published Mar 2, 2020

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Alex Kurtzman


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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.

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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

Image via Universal Pictures
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One of the most high-profile cinematic universes that crashed and burned was the
Dark Universe. While Guillermo del Torowas 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.

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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.

Image via Universal Pictures
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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.

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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.

Image via Universal Pictures
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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.

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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

Image via 20th Century Fox
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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.

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Image via 20th Century Fox

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.

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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

Image via Sony Pictures

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.

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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.

Image via Sony Pictures

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.

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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.

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KING ARTHUR

Image via Warner Bros.

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.

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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.

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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

Image via Lionsgate

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.

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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




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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.

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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

Image via Warner Bros.

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.

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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

Image via Warner Bros.
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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.

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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.

Image via Warner Bros.
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