by: S. Scott Stanikmas – Senior Staff Writer

After scoring Tom Cruise, Jake Johnson, Annabelle Wallis and Sofia Boutella for their first of many monster movies The Mummy, Universal may have cast a huge star with far reaching implications for their shared horror universe.

Variety reports that Russell Crowe is currently in talks to join the kick-off film in Universal’s attempt at a shared cinematic universe for their icons of horror films.

Crowe would be playing a Dr Jekyll-type role, with plans to spin him off into a film of his own down the line. This could also see the actor popping up in various other films to help stir up trouble or just be the connective tissue that keeps the films grounded in the same universe – much like Agent Coulson did in Phase One for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Crowe would be awesome as a Jekyll / Hyde character as he can play both the understated and nebbish everyman and also the unhinged monster with equal aplomb. I could even see him being the Big Bad that connects all the monsters in their Avengers-style mashup film.

It was rumored that actors like Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Eddie Redmayne were all up for this role but deals fell through for one reason or another.

The Mummy set to shamble into theaters June 9, 2017, hopefully setting up a slate of films to get classic horror fans excited about going to the movies again.