The Mummy: Universal want Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, and Angelina Jolie in the Dark Universe

The studio have got some pretty wildly ambitious plans for the future, with seven future films pitched to follow The Mummy

Ever since Marvel's Avengers introduced Hollywood to the gold mine that is cinematic universes, people have been getting a little bit overexcited by the concept.

Namely, by announcing a quadrillion different films in the franchise before the first one has even hit cinemas, which appears to be the gargantuan gamble Universal is currently taking with its proposed Dark Universe.

One that's set to revive its catalogue of classic monsters for the new age of blockbusters, starting with the Tom Cruise-starring The Mummy, and with Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man and Javier Bardem as Frankenstein's Monster already set in stone, alongside Russell Crowe's Dr. Jekyll playing the essential Nick Fury-esque role.

However, Universal don't yet seem satisfied with those plans, with The Mummy's director and producer Alex Kurtzman already listing off a mammoth slate of planned projects for the studio.

"We know we’re going to do Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Invisible Man,” he told Fandom, adding: "There are characters within those films that can grow and expand and maybe even spin off."

"I think that digging into deep mythologies about monsters around the world is fair game for us, as well and connecting the monsters that we know to some surprising monsters could also be really interesting." Ambitious, but also pretty exhausting at this stage, especially when you start considering the kind of talent Kurtzman is keen to recruit.

"I’d love to bring Michael Fassbender in, I’d love to bring Jennifer Lawrence in, I’d love to see Charlize Theron in there, Angelina Jolie... " he listed off, sounding suspiciously like the list you'd be given if you were simply asked to name four famous people. You've already got Tom Cruise, Universal, what more do you want?

The Mummy hits UK cinemas 9 June.