Universal has been rethinking their approach to rebooting their classic monsters lately after the whole Dark Universe debacle. Behind-the-scenes troubles plagued the production of The Mummy, which underwhelmed at the box office and didn’t impress critics, either, killing off any attempt to relaunch these characters as part of a closely connected cinematic universe like the MCU.
Now, the studio has changed up its game plan and will be bringing us more standalone efforts, with The Invisible Man set to be the first one out of the gate. Though it originally had Johnny Depp attached to star in the lead role, genre specialists Blumhouse eventually took over producing duties and wiped the slate clean, bringing in Saw co-creator Leigh Whannell behind the camera and Elisabeth Moss and Oliver Jackson-Cohen in front, among others.
After debuting the first photos from the film just yesterday, Universal has now gone one step further, dropping the debut trailer this morning and teasing what looks to be a pretty spooky reboot. Of course, given what a disaster The Mummy was we’re still a bit skeptical here, but from the footage presented above, it certainly appears to be a step in the right direction.
In any case, it’s pretty clear that Blumhouse is taking a very different approach with The Invisible Man than what Universal had previously planned. Rather than putting all the emphasis on the interconnectivity of its monster films, it seems the studio is instead choosing to put more faith in the distinctive visions of its directors. And with Whannell at the helm of this one, the project is certainly in good hands
If nothing else, The Invisible Man has definitely got our attention, and we’ll be looking forward to seeing what it can bring to the table and what kind of fresh spin it can put on the classic tale when it hits theaters on February 28th, 2020.