Universal's Dark Universe is just about to get underway with The Mummy, however, the true test of the larger franchise may be the next movie it tackles, The Bride of Frankenstein. The character herself is nearly as iconic as Frankenstein's monster itself. This is more than a little strange, considering the title character only appears in the last few minutes of her own movie, and never says a word. When this new version of The Bride of Frankenstein hits the screens that certainly won't be the case. The Mummy director Alex Kurtzman says that the lack of development of the classic character is going to give them a lot of room to do new things with this one. According to Kurtzman...
It's not like she has long monologues, it's not like you get to know her character, it's not like she goes out into the world. There's almost no screen time with her. And yet everybody remembers the iconic look, the hair, who she was. Articles have been written, there's Halloween costumes. It's an enduring character because there's something mysterious about her and that look, and the idea that she was created to serve another man. Which is gonna be an interesting thing to tackle in this day and age. It might be something we subvert in our film. It will be really interesting to see where we go because I actually think that Bride is maybe a lot more accessible as a character than you may think. Mostly because she's not really a character yet based on the original Bride Of Frankenstein.
If you've never actually seen the original 1935 movie the fact is that you may not even realize how small a part the Bride of Frankenstein has in her own film. The movie acts much more as a sequel to the original Frankenstein then it is a movie about a new character. Clearly, since Universal's Dark Universe is skipping Frankenstein entirely and going straight to Bride of Frankenstein, they have a very different idea about where the film will be focusing.
As Alex Kurtzman tells Den of Geek, because the original Bride doesn't actually do much, this gives the new filmmakers a lot of room to play as the sort of person the bride is, is never really explored. The idea that they're playing with the fact the character was created specifically to serve a man is very intriguing. Clearly, if the movie is named after her, the Bride should be a character in charge of her own destiny, regardless of why she was created.
We're glad that, the second time around, a movie called Bride of Frankenstein will actually be about the character in the title. The film is set to be the second entry in the Dark Universe. The first film, The Mummy is in theaters on Friday.
