10 Movie Remakes Nobody Expected Or Wanted

Universal’s monster movies have a long and storied tradition in Hollywood, so it’s not hugely surprising that, eventually, somebody somewhere decided the studio should have another crack at them. What was surprising was their decision to forgo any sense of fun or adventure, and instead try and use it as a vehicle to jump-start their already failing Dark Universe.

The Dark Universe was Universal’s attempt at copying the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and, much like the DC Extended Universe (another MCU copycat from the mid-2010s) it tried to jump the gun and get straight to the team-ups without laying any of the groundwork. This is why we ended up with a Mummy film where the secondary antagonist was Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde, as well as one which spent half its plot setting up Prodigium (a monstery Avengers Initiative) instead of having fun adventures.

The most frustrating thing about The Mummy is that not only had previous remakes been successful, but also that many people did want a continuation of the franchise. There had been talks of a Mummy 4 ever since Tomb of the Dragon Emperor's release, and a reboot that kept up the spirit of the nineties films would have been cause for at least cautious optimism. Even a modern update to the old 1930s horror films could have had potential (as was later demonstrated by the success of Leigh Wannell’s The Invisible Man remake).

What almost nobody was looking for, though, was generic Tom Cruise action film #387.