My latest post on The Drum is available now. It’s ostensibly a commentary on the first trailer for the Tom Cruise-starring The Mummy, but it winds up being about how studios are over-planning and over-promising on the “shared universe” front these days.

There’s a startling lack of exposition in this first trailer. We’re not told why Morton and Halsey are on the plane or what their role in finding or otherwise dealing with the sarcophagus might have been. Nor are we given any backstory for Ahmenet, just that her power won’t be denied. Instead the focus of the trailer seems to be on Crowe’s Jekyll. Yes, *that* Jekyll. His explanation to Morton that he’s entered a wider world of unknowns seems to parallel a similar speech from the famous post-credits scene in Iron Man where Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury told Tony Stark – and the audience – that there was a lot more out there to explore. That setup the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and this is trying to do the same thing, promising audiences that there’s a whole universe of monster stories to tell.

Source: The Movie Marketing Blog: Universal begins its own cinematic universe with first trailer for The Mummy | Marketing | The Drum