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:
