Evil Winnie the Pooh will Team Up with Other Twisted Fairy Tales in Poohniverse
If you’re tired of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, bored with Legendary’s Monsterverse, and already rolling your eyes at the upcoming DC Universe (not to be confused with the DC Extended Universe), you may have an alternative in the newly announced Poohniverse. No, really, I’m stone sober; that’s an actual thing. Variety exclusively reports that Jagged Edge Productions, the studio behind Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, are planning a cinematic universe centered on demented horror versions of classic children’s characters who’ve entered the public domain, culminating in an Avengers-like team-up film called Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble. The film will team Winnie the Pooh and his sidekicks with characters like Sleeping Beauty, the Mad Hatter, Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Pinocchio, Bambi, and more. Poohniverse is set for a 2025 release, but the various characters will get solo films leading up to their big finale, where they face the survivors of their individual movies; Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, Pinocchio Unstrung (which is kind of clever), and Bambi: The Reckoning (which has to be about Bambi avenging his mother, right?) are mentioned, and Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 will have a theatrical release on March 26, 2024. Just like the MCU, the films will feature Easter eggs connecting them in what Jagged Edge is calling the Twisted Childhood Universe. Rhys Jake-Waterfield, who helmed both Blood and Honey movies, will direct Poohniverse. You can see the poster for Poohniverse below, also courtesy of Variety:
I think the worst part of this is that the Twisted Childhood Universe is being planned and established better than anything that tried to copy the MCU before it. The DCEU put its foot on the gas way too hard and never established its individual heroes in their own films before Justice League; Batman v. Superman introduced Batman and Wonder Woman, with quick glimpses of the other members of the League. The Mummy forced in a scene with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that stopped the narrative in its tracks. The Monsterverse was probably the best one in terms of establishing a universe, but even there, they got rid of Ghidora and Rodan in the second Godzilla movie when Ghidora should have been the overarching villain. (I know how ridiculous this sounds.) And James Gunn is stuffing his upcoming Superman with so many DC superheroes it might as well have “Crisis” in the title. But the Twisted Childhood Universe is leading to Poohniverse properly, laying the groundwork for the eventual team-up. It probably helps that they’re cheap-o B-horror flicks than can be filmed in about a week and released not long after that; not having a big studio like Warner Bros. breathing down their neck is likely a plus, too.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying any of these movies will be good, or probably even mediocre. But it’s funny to think about the Jagged Edge guys taking this more seriously than the Hollywood mega-studios that lost tons of money on much more lucrative ideas. They’re also going about this the way the Dark Universe should have – and the original Universal Monsters Universe did almost a century ago – and not trying to make the monsters into superheroes. There was an idea at one point for the Dark Universe to lead to the Universal Monsters saving the world from an alien invasion. That’s for little kids playing with action figures, not tent pole summer movies. But Poohniverse will have the evil fairy tale creatures hunting down the innocent again, although producer Scott Chambers promises they’ll battle each other at some point, too. I think I may be warming to this idea; if Winnie the Pooh can’t fight Pinocchio to the death while Peter Pan watches, is this even America anymore?
