Marvel Studios

By Matthew Bilodeau/Oct. 7, 2022 11:30 am EST

Once Marvel blew the doors off of the cinematic universe game, everyone in the industry wanted a piece of the action. Whether you love or hate what Marvel’s success has done to the state of moviegoing as a whole, there’s no denying that Marvel Studios CEO Kevin Feige is one of the industry’s top dogs. Even though a company like Warner Bros. has their own unique superhero spread with the DC Extended Universe, their current CEO is adamant on following the path laid down by Feige.

Part of the reason why the Marvel Cinematic Universe has survived, while countless others have failed, is patience — at least at the start. When you watch “Iron Man,” that post-credits stinger is like a little treat after having digested a full meal of a movie. Even in the lead-up to “The Avengers,” the movies of Phase One were largely singular stories that featured outward connective tissues, and hardly to the detriment of what’s right in front of you.

After “The Avengers” showed what could be possible with connective storytelling, Marvel Studios methodically mapped out what their future could look like. It can be pretty exhausting to keep up with the MCU now, but the fact of the matter is that its foundation was built upon restraint.

Why yes, I would like to talk about the epic fall of Universal’s Dark Universe.

The Dark Universe chose IP over everything else

Universal Pictures

In 2017, Universal Pictures tried to revamp the classic Universal Monsters for a new generation with the emergence of the Dark Universe. It’s not a bad idea, especially since the Universal Monsters can be considered the first cinematic universe. Their films throughout the 1930s and 1940s would cross over with one another every now and then. Technically, they held the crown before Marvel could ever conceive of putting their heroes on the big screen.

The issue was immediately clear with their debut feature. “The Mummy” was half-baked at best, and it was evident that this idea was doomed to fail from the start. Here was an abysmal film that focused more on replicating the Marvel model than delivering a good movie. At a point, the introduction of Prodigium, a blatant SHIELD rip-off, wants to keep reminding you that your favorite monsters exist in this world, rather than focusing on, well, the Mummy. But why look at what you came for when you could have Tom Cruise fighting Russell Crowe as the nefarious Mr. Hyde instead?

“The Mummy” was a truly monumental failure that wrote checks that would never be cashed. Leigh Whannell’s “The Invisible Man” ultimately survived against all odds after the shakeup because of one very important factor: it was a horror movie.

A Special Presentation

The opening tells you that this takes place during the same time the Avengers are doing their business around the world, but the Bloodstone compound is treated as a place out of time. With master monster hunter Ulysses Bloodstone dead, the time has come for someone else to take up the mantle of guild leader. Among them are Elsa (Laura Donnelly), Ulysses’ estranged daughter, and a mysterious man named Jack (Gael García Bernal), who has a hairy secret of his own. Within the Bloodstone compound is a monster that Elsa, Jack, and the other hunters have been tasked with taking out, with the champion becoming the new leader.

What’s the lesson within all of this?

We all know “Blade” is only going to introduce more monsters to the MCU, but at the very least, Marvel Studios can claim they didn’t blow their load too early by putting Gael García Bernal, Mahersalaha Ali, and whoever else they have lined up to play monsters in a hastily photoshopped image that looks really embarrassing when things don’t go according to plan.

“Werewolf by Night” is currently streaming on Disney+.