In 2014, Universal Pictures began a new effort to revamp its classic Monsters franchises in the form of the prequel film Dracula Untold. That film concluded with an attempt to catapult Dracula into the present day, but didn't do well enough to spawn a sequel.
In 2017, Universal tried again to launch a Monsters universe, now dubbed "Dark Universe," with the Tom Cruise-starring action-horror vehicle The Mummy. This time, the shared universe concept was played up, with a secret society that investigates monsters tied directly into the plot, and an ambitious announcement of the franchise's future cast. This cast included Johnny Depp, who was set to star as the Invisible Man in a hypothetical future film.
The Mummy was a disappointment, and the Dark Universe was put on hold. In early 2018, writer Ed Solomon (Men In Black) revealed that, while he'd been working on Depp's Invisible Man script, he was no longer involved in the project. "I think Universal has had to come to a kind of reckoning of, 'What are we doing with the Dark Universe?' and, 'What is our real intention with it?', and I think they're reconfiguring it now, which I think is probably good. So I'm not working on it," Solomon said.
In January 2019, Leigh Whannell joined The Invisible Man, and the current incarnation began taking shape.
