THE DARK UNIVERSE EXPLAINED | MOVIES

The Dark Universe: Prodigium and how the films link together.

Universal Studios have been building up to its own MCU-style shared Universe for a while – it was to be called The Dark Universe.

The original plans were that the Universe would be linked by Prodigium, a secret society dedicated to hunting supernatural threats, run by none other than Doctor Henry Jekyll from The Mummy (Russell Crowe). Prodigium is a research facility based in the Natural History Museum, set up specifically to identify and destroy "evil". Prodigium would have been a through-line throughout the Dark Universe, with Jekyll acting as something like the equivalent of SHIELD's Nick Fury.

But is there hope for the universe yet? There's news that artist Robert Vargas has met with Universal and said "Monster things are in the works".

So what's next for the 'Dark Universe'?

The initial idea was Bride of Frankenstein, directed by Beauty and The Beast man Bill Condon and starring Javier Bardem as Frankenstein's monster.

Since then the studio has done a U-turn, postponing this production.