It's worth noting first that The Mummy wasn't the first time Universal attempted to launch a shared universe. Originally 2014's Dracula Untold was supposed to be the first chapter of what would be known as the Dark Universe, and the movie's final scene showed the eponymous vampire in the present day. But Dracula Untold was met with numerous negative reviews, so it was decided to keep that as a standalone tale and instead have The Mummy introduce moviegoers to the Dark Universe. Besides being a staple of the old-school Universal monsters lineup, The Mummy had already been turned into a trilogy of films starring Brendan Frasier, so the 2017 reboot had to not only launch a new franchise, but also feel different enough from the previous Mummy movies. Starring Sofia Boutella as the eponymous monster and Tom Cruise as main protagonist Nick Morton, The Mummy certainly wasn't lacking for action, but during the main story, the seeds were also planted for the wider Dark Universe, primarily through Russell Crowe's Henry Jekyll (yes, he did turn into Mr. Hyde) and the secret society known as Prodigium.