The world of indie horror cinema took some bonkers turns in 2023 thanks in large part to literary copyright expirations, which allowed for the arrival of the critically not-as-bad-as-you’d-think slasher Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey and its already produced sequel coming later in 2024. Now, as we’re waiting and whistling for the upcoming horror movie featuring “Steamboat Willie”-era Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh’s reign of terror is expanding in a massive way, with the reveal of a connected multi-film franchise being dubbed the Pooh-niverse. THE POOH-NIVERSE HAS ARRIVED PEOPLE! OR AT LEAST NEWS OF IT HAS!
Just check out this first-look poster, which is an obvious spoof of another slightly famous fictional multiverse, specifically the promo for Avengers: Infinity War, down to the font used for the “P.” Check it out below!
Okay, so Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble is actually the title of Jagged Edge Productions and ITN Studios’ multiverse-embracing film meant to serve as the culmination of these nostalgia-perverting escapades. The title of the actual multiverse itself is The Twisted Childhood Universe, which is certainly applicable with all the familiar-esque characters populating the poster. Speaking of, let’s go through a rundown of all the characters we can expect to see when the crossover film arrives in 2025. (Hopefully with some surprises in the bunch as well.)
- Pooh
- Piglet
- Rabbit
- Tigger
- Owl
- Pinocchio
- Sleeping Beauty
- Bambi
- The Mad Hatter
- Tinkerbell
- Peter Pan
That's one hell of a wild line-up for a horror movie, since it sounds far more likely to be the lineup of autographs from someone's most recent trip to Disneyland. My biggest hope so far? That the Mad Hatter sounds exactly like Ed Wynn's oft-imitated performance from Disney's Alice in Wonderland. If the creative team can still make the tension and horror visceral with that voice, they can do anything.
To that end, Jagged Edge exec Scott Chambers namechecked the Avengers when describing the new film, saying all of the characters will tream up to "wreak havoc," and says the budget for the multiversal film will be on a larger scale than the standalone films leading up to it. Here's what horror fans can expect to see in the interim.
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (which is available to stream with a Peacock subscription) and its sequel will be followed by a trio of other Twisted Childhood Universe projects, including Bambi: The Reckoning, Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare, and Pinocchio Unstrung. They all sound like Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights haunted houses, and I kind of can't wait to see each of them, though more Bambi than anything else, since we've seen more than enough Peter Pan and Pinocchio adaptations over the years.
Poohniverse director Rhys Frake-Waterfield shared his thoughts on where things are going, and adds another key cinematic reference that will surely get fans pumped about this multiverse. As he put it:
It will be complete carnage. We are heavily influenced by Freddy Vs Jason and The Avengers. We would love to see a horror movie where the villains group together and are going after their survivors. We have some incredible set pieces in mind and some sequences I think will truly shock people.
It'll presumably be another 40-50 years before Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger enter the public domain sphere, but who's to say they won't legally join the Twisted Childrens Universe before then? Well, okay, the lawyers, but still, we can hope!
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 is set to arrive in theaters, with Fathom Events putting on a blood-soaked three-day affair on March 27, 28 and 29 in theaters all across the country.
