The Universal Monsters Shared Universe gets a catchier name, a logo, a musical theme, and an announcement of their next movie, and a cast photo. Cool.

There are plenty of reasons why these monsters have endured for so long. Most of them originated before the movies, but all of them were made iconic in the modern world. They’re scary, but they’re also tragic characters, and even relatable. So of course Universal is rebooting them all as a massive action blockbuster franchise. I think it can work because I am choosing to remain optimistic.

I really like this announcement clip, too. Danny Elfman themes rarely disappoint, and Like that it’s big and blustery. Feels good for both the original movies and their upcoming action movie counterparts.

They also released a cast photo of the franchise. In case you’re not up to speed, Russell Crowe is Dr. Jekyll, Javier Bardem is Frankenstein’s Monster, Tom Cruise is, uh, the guy in The Mummy, Johnny Depp is The Invisible Man, and Sofia Boutella is The Mummy herself.

Word is that Dr.Jekyll will basically be the Nick Fury of this universe, which I’m on board with. I don’t exactly know who Tom Cruise is, but I assume he’ll fighting monsters? Or something?

Also also, it’s been announced that Bill Condon has signed on to direct **Bride of Frankenstein** as the next movie in the franchise, shooting for a 2019 release, and that Christopher McQuarrie is getting involved too (but we don’t yet know how).

Oh, and in case you stopped the video early, it looks like new editions of the classic monster movies are coming to Blu-Ray and DVD, which is also great news.

All in all, exciting stuff.