Universal Monsters
Horror and science fiction franchise made by Universal Studios
Follow Universal Monsters on Notably News to receive short updates to your email — rarely!
| 2025 | The most recent Universal Monsters adaptation, Wolf Man, was released, continuing the franchise's ongoing evolution and reinterpretation. |
| August 2024 | The Creature from the Black Lagoon modern-day adaptation re-entered development, with James Wan hired as producer and in early discussions to direct. |
| June 2024 | Universal reveals plans for Dark Universe, a theme park section in Universal Epic Universe dedicated to Universal Monsters. |
| October 25 2023 | Skybound Entertainment launches Universal Monsters: Dracula comic series, written by James Tynion IV. |
| 2022 | The Munsters franchise concludes after nearly six decades of productions, and the Hotel Transylvania franchise also ends its run. |
| April 2022 | The Mina Harker Dracula film project was cancelled three weeks before principal photography due to creative differences with Kusama. |
| December 2021 | Universal purchased a modern-day Phantom of the Opera screenplay by John Fusco, written during COVID-19 pandemic self-isolation. |
| February 2021 | Chloé Zhao was hired to write and direct an untitled futuristic sci-fi Western Dracula film. |
| June 2020 | Kusama stated the Dracula film would be a 'faithful adaptation' of Bram Stoker's Dracula, set in modern-day Los Angeles, with Jasmine Cephas Jones cast as Mina Harker. |
| March 2020 | Karyn Kusama was hired to direct a Dracula film (Mina Harker) as a joint-venture production with Blumhouse Productions. |
| February 2020 | Paul Feig completed a second draft of the Dark Army script, describing the tone as closer to original films with horror elements. |
| February 2020 | Universal hired Amy Pascal as producer for a standalone Bride of Frankenstein adaptation, and a musical Monster Mash film was revealed to be in development. |
| February 2020 | Chloé Zhao was hired to write and direct an untitled futuristic sci-fi Western Dracula film, and Universal hired Amy Pascal to produce a Bride of Frankenstein adaptation. |
| November 2019 | James Wan signed on as producer for a potential Frankenstein film, with Jason Blum expressing interest in joining the production. |
| November 2019 | James Wan signed on as producer for the Frankenstein project, and Elizabeth Banks was attached to develop The Invisible Woman film. |
| September 2019 | Paul Feig began developing Dark Army, a film featuring monsters from original films and new characters, with a script in progress. |
| 2018 | The site of the former theater became Fast & Furious: Supercharged. |
| January 2018 | Universal began reconfiguring their approach to Universal Monsters after The Mummy's poor performance, abandoning the planned shared cinematic universe in favor of standalone adaptations. |
| January 2018 | Universal began reconfiguring their approach to Universal Monsters, abandoning the shared Dark Universe cinematic universe in favor of standalone character adaptations. |
| 2017 | Universal assembled a writer's room to create stories for monster films, with horror as the primary genre. |
| June 2017 | Alex Kurtzman announced developments for a Dark Universe film and confirmed plans for a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde feature film. |
| June 2017 | Alex Kurtzman announced plans for a Phantom of the Opera feature film. |
| June 2017 | Alex Kurtzman announced plans for a Dracula feature film as part of the Dark Universe franchise. |
| June 2017 | Universal initially announced a Frankenstein project as part of the abandoned shared Dark Universe film slate, with Javier Bardem attached to portray the titular character. |
| May 2017 | Javier Bardem was cast as Frankenstein's Monster, originally intended to debut in Bride of Frankenstein before starring in his own film. |
| May 2017 | Universal officially titled the slate of reimagined monster incarnations, revealing a press conference with logo, website, trailer, and theme music by Danny Elfman. |
| July 2016 | Eric Heisserer and Jon Spaihts were hired to collaborate on a new draft of the Van Helsing script, looking towards the Mad Max franchise for inspiration. |
| February 2016 | The Invisible Man project announced with Ed Solomon writing the script, with Johnny Depp initially cast in the lead role. |
| January 5 2016 | The Universal Monsters Live Rock and Roll Show at Universal Studios Florida was officially closed. |
| November 7 2015 | Universal announced the permanent closure of the show at Universal Studios Florida, originally planned for December 3. |
| 2014 | Additional photography scenes were filmed for Dracula Untold to position the characters in the modern-day context of the planned monster universe. |
| 2014 | Universal Monsters Live Rock and Roll Show launched its Version 4.0 production, which ran in Florida from 2014 to 2016, featuring a rock music-themed live performance centered around classic Universal monster characters. |
| 2014 | Conclusion of Version 3.0 of the Universal Monsters Live Rock and Roll Show in Florida, marking the end of this particular stage production run. |
| 2014 | The show at Universal Studios Florida was revamped and renamed to Beetlejuice's Graveyard Mash-Up. |
| July 2014 | Universal officially announced a project to reboot Universal Monsters with Chris Morgan and Alex Kurtzman hired to oversee the development of modern-day versions of the monsters. |
| 2012 | The Hotel Transylvania franchise begins, featuring comedic variations of Universal Monsters characters in animated films, including Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler), Frankenstein's Monster (Kevin James), and other monster characters. |
| June 2012 | Development began on the Van Helsing project with Alex Kurtzman working on the first draft of the script, taking inspiration from The Dark Knight. |
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Universal Monsters & Universal Monsters Live Rock and Roll Show, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.