The Dark Universe, Universal’s would-be monster movie franchise, may have only fallen apart a scant four years ago with 2017’s The Mummy, but the mindset behind its conception now (amidst the post-pandemic, theater-averse dominance of streaming,) feels like a notion from a completely different age. That logic, of course, implied that interminably lucrative, Marvel Cinematic Universe-like film franchises could be quickly conjured from just about any intellectual property. Interestingly, one of the writers involved, Eric Heisserer, believes the Dark Universe imploded behind the scenes well before it did at the box office.