Modern audiences have figured it out: Don't leave your theater seat until the final credits have rolled. A scene could be waiting for you, a tease for a future story, or a deleted scene that takes on new context. Seeing as how Alex Kurtzman's upcoming The Mummy is the official start of Universal's new Dark Universe, you might be wondering if there will be an end-credits scene that sets up the next monster adventure. Well, Kurtzman's throwing some cold water on those hopes, explaining:
No, no, that's Marvel's domain. So render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. Maybe it'll feel more appropriate down the line, as the universe builds itself. I don't think any of [us] wanted to be accused of ripping off what they did so well.
This reasoning was also recently given by Warner Bros. producer Charles Roven about why Wonder Woman didn't come to theaters with additional material in the end credits. Marvel seems to have cornered the proper market on mid-credit and end-credit sequences -- to the point where Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 had five different scenes, some of which teased new characters we expect to see in future movies. But as Alex Kurtzman says to IGN, The Mummy will not come with any teases of a future Dark Universe movie.
And if I'm being honest, I'm disappointed. In addition to setting up a new mummy (as played by Sofia Boutella), The Mummy will introduce audiences to Prodigium, an organization led by Dr. Henry Jekyll. As Crowe himself suggests in the below video, they are a group that "pinpoints evil and tries to neutralize it." Crowe's character, and the group that he manages, will be the connective tissue that will eventually bind all of these movies, as Prodigium -- we assume -- tracks down creatures like The Wolf Man, Frankenstein, the Invisible Man and the Phantom of the Opera. Watch a clip explaining some of this madness:
Tell me you wouldn't want to see Russell Crowe and Tom Cruise running into Javier Bardem's Frankenstein monster in an end-credits scene after The Mummy. It would set up Bill Condon's The Bride of Frankenstein, the next scheduled movie in the growing Dark Universe. The again, as Alex Kurtzman said, critics might accuse Universal of mimicking Marvel, so better to do something original with your monster movie properties.
The Mummy stars Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Russell Crowe and Annabelle Wallis. It kicks off Universal's Dark Universe on June 9. Head over here for details on the next movies expected to arrive in the Dark Universe in the coming years.
