8 Cinematic Universes That Existed Before Marvel's

8. Universal Monsters

One of the most "really?" of all of the MCU imitators that have risen up in recent years is Universal's attempt to create a massive shared universe for their classic monsters; Dracula Untold, the insipid Luke Evans dredge, had last minute changes made that placed the revisionist Vlad origin within a world full of bigger prophecies and convoluted mumbo jumbo intended to springboard into planned reboots of The Mummy and The Invisible Man. The thing is, it's not exactly fair to say Universal are simply stealing Marvel's idea. After all, it was these monsters who were the original big shared universe. You see, this new Universal Monsters, if it ever takes, will be a reboot of sorts. Back in the thirties and forties, Universal produced a buttload of classic horror films - Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man, The Mummy - and eventually had them cross over in several movies of mixed quality that mostly skirted on their then-novel gimmick. Due to various films sharing actors (Boris Karloff was Frankenstein's Monster, The Mummy and real life scientists Gustav Niemann; Bela Lugosi was Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster) and the sheer number of movies for each monster produced, the continuity is a mess, but in 1943, when Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man was released, nobody was really keeping score. House Of Frankenstein, House Of Dracula and Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein all followed.