Javier Bardem Comments on the Collapse of Universal’s “Dark Universe” and His Desire to Play Frankenstein

Remember the “Dark Universe“? It was only a handful of years back that Universal had decided to reboot their iconic monster properties with big budgets and big name actors including Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, and Javier Bardem, but those plans of course came crashing down with the box office underperformance of the new universe’s starter film, The Mummy.

While Universal’s current plans for the Universal Monsters are a whole lot stronger, it’s interesting to wonder what could’ve been had the “Dark Universe” continued on as planned…

For starters, Javier Bardem was attached to play Frankenstein’s Monster, likely set to appear in a planned Bride of Frankenstein movie as well as a new solo Frankenstein movie.

For what it’s worth, it’s a role Bardem is still hoping he’ll someday get to play. Speaking with Sirius XM’s The Jess Cagle Show, Bardem just commented on those aborted plans.

“I haven’t heard anything about it, so I don’t know what’s the state of that,” Bardem explains. “Me personally, I would love to play Frankenstein. Actually, I would like to play both — Dr. Frankenstein and Frankenstein the monster. Because it’s the dichotomy and the contradiction of one, the same being. But I don’t know if that’s going to be the case or not.”

“As far as I know, it’s not happening,” Bardem adds, reiterating what we already know about the planned “Dark Universe” and all of the movies that would have been part of it.

Thanks to Inside Magic for bringing this new interview to our attention.