**The Mummy** director Alex Kurtzman gave an [interview with Fandom where he confirmed Universal’s **Dark Universe** lineup](http://fandom.wikia.com/articles/mummy-producer-says-phantom-hunchback-added-dark-universe).

> “We know we’re going to do **Frankenstein**, **Bride of Frankenstein**, **Dracula**, **Creature from the Black Lagoon**, **Phantom of the Opera**, **Hunchback of Notre Dame**, **Invisible Man**,” he says.

For the record that adds **The Hunchback of Notre Dame** and **The Phantom of the Opera** to the lineup.

This strikes me as ambitious. Universal is basically willing this franchise into being. **The Mummy** hasn’t even opened yet and is only on track to do $35 million when it opens this weekend, these are not “build a franchise” numbers. The whole thing seems kinda backward to me. Everyone wants a piece of that Marvel Universe money but everyone ignores that the first phase of that Universe was a huge gamble and each film only had minimal crossover. Not to mention that if one of them had failed –specifically the _first- one– it might have derailed the whole thing.

Either way some of these ideas are pretty cool. I don’t know how they’re going to turn **The Phantom of the Opera** into a dumb action movie but it’ll be interesting to find out. Assuming that **The Mummy** doesn’t tank and derail this whole thing.