In Hollywood’s hunt for massive franchises with expansive canons, could a Disney Live-Action Universe be a thing? It’s not only an enticing idea that all of the live-action Disney princesses could one day crossover (spring-boarding off the greatest bits in Ralph Breaks The Internet), but it’s also notable that films like Pirates Of The Caribbean, Jungle Cruise and Haunted Mansion are all set in different time periods and don’t do anything to contradict a continuity. As far as we know, this isn’t presently a creative strategy that filmmakers at Disney are pursuing… but for what it’s worth, director Justin Simien is intrigued by possibilities.
I had the chance to interview the Haunted Mansion director last week during the San Diego Comic-Con 2023 festivities, and it was while discussing the new movie’s place in the legacy of Disney attraction adaptations that I asked about his thoughts regarding a possible connection between the projects on the studio’s slate. Simien told me that he things that there may be something to the idea, and identified a pre-existing connection that he had personally only noticed during a recent trip to Disneyland:
It's funny; they really could be. I was riding... it was Peter Pan. We were at Disneyland this past weekend and I was riding Peter Pan and I was like, 'I forget that like the mermaids on whatever the Mermaid island are, look pretty much like the mermaids in Little Mermaid. And there's a repeat of a few things. Like there's crocodiles everywhere and there's pirates everywhere and there's pirates ships everywhere. I think that'd be really fun. That's way above my pay grade... I'll think this out though. It's possible they could all string together. As far as I know, that's not on purpose or intentional, but boy, that'd be really cool.
There’s nothing really stopping audiences from thinking about select films based on rides being set within the same canon. The Pirates of the Caribbean movies are set during the 18th century, Jungle Cruise takes place during the early 20th century, and all of the fantastical elements in Tomorrowland take place in an alternate universe. Nothing interferes Haunted Mansion’s contemporary setting, and it’s notably wouldn’t be considered the canon’s introduction of ghosts (that’s handled in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl).
Connected or not, Justin Simien did do his due diligence in the making of his new movie by doing a full deep dive into the history of Disney attractions adapted as films. He was not only happy to appreciate what the best ones did well, but also took lessons from the mistakes from the lesser titles. Said Simien,
I, like everybody, was kind of blown away by the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie and, you know, just a part of the research you gotta watch everything. Jungle Cruise came out while we were shooting. I watched all that stuff, both for better and for worse. Both to like, 'Oh yeah, let's try that,' and to be like, 'Let's not do that.' It kind of swings both ways.
Fans can enjoy the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and Jungle Cruise any time with a Disney+ subscription, but you’ll need to head out to your local theater this weekend to see Haunted Mansion. Starring LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito and Jared Leto, the new film arrives on the big screen everywhere this Friday, July 28. For more about features coming to cinemas and streaming in the remaining months of the year, head over to our 2023 Movie Release Calendar.
