Last week, Universal Pictures revealed that it will create its own monster reboot universe aptly titled the Dark Universe. This universe will reboot their classic movie monsters with the upcoming The Mummy serving as a starting point for the franchise.
Sofia Boutella’s mummy character and Tom Cruise’s adventurer Nick Morton will be joined by Russell Crowe playing Dr. Henry Jekyll, Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man and Javier Bardem as Frankenstein’s Monster. The remaining question is who will be The Wolf Man.
Well, according to rumors going as far back as last June, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is being eyed to star as the hairy beast. No one from the studio has confirmed this yet but rumors have been known to come to fruition. If The Rock can find some time between his current shooting schedule with Rampage for New Line Cinema out in theaters next April, Skyscraper, San Andreas 2, Doc Savage, Shazam! and a Big Trouble in Little China reboot, we think it’ll be possible for him to star as The Wolf Man.
The Wolf Man project has no director attached and the studio has yet to announce a production start. According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, no story details have been given at this time, and it remains to be seen what changes will be made to this iconic character. The franchise was first launched in 1941 with Universal’s The Wolf Man, starring Lon Cheney Jr. as Larry Talbot, a.k.a. The Wolf Man, with Claude Rains playing his father, Sir John Talbot. That movie leads to Cheney Jr. reprising his role in a number of other Universal movies, such as Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula (1945) and Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). Universal tried to reboot the character in 2010 with The Wolfman, starring Benicio del Toro as Larry Talbot and Anthony Hopkins as Sir John Talbot, but it was a box office dud.
The next installment after The Mummy will be Bride of Frankenstein, directed by Bill Condon (Beauty and the Beast) with Bardem as the lead and will release on February 14, 2019. His leading lady has yet to be cast.
