Jagged Edge Productions is ready to kick its childhood icon horror franchise into high gear with its own Avengers. The creators behind Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey and its upcoming sequel later this month have announced a massive crossover film that will bring together the many public slasher villains featured throughout the Twisted Childhood Universe. Titled Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble, the film is due out in 2025, following the release of the previously-announced stand-alone titles Bambi: The Reckoning, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, and Pinocchio Unstrung.
Starting with the original Blood and Honey last year, the Twisted Childhood Universe has rapidly gathered characters that have fallen into the public domain and warped them into grimy, violent killers. Their next feature will include the key figures introduced in that film, like Pooh, Piglet, and Christopher Robin, as well as Tigger and Owl from Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2. Jagged Edge‘s creepy renditions of Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Bambi, and Pinocchio are all expected to be introduced to audiences before the end of 2024, but Poohniverse will also include other future Twisted Childhood characters like The Mad Hatter, Sleeping Beauty, and Blood and Honey‘s Rabbit.
Poohniverse will be directed by Jagged Edge producer and helmer of both Blood and Honey films, Rhys Frake-Waterfield, and will follow the monsters as they join forces to bring chaos to the world. It’s a rare horror team-up, departing from past crossovers like Freddy vs. Jason or Alien vs. Predator by showing what these killers can accomplish by working together rather than fighting. “It will be complete carnage,” Waterfield said in an official statement. “We are heavily influenced by Freddy vs. Jason and The Avengers. We would love to see a horror movie where the villains group together and are going after their survivors. We have some incredible set pieces in mind and some sequences I think will truly shock people. The movies we are working on now as stand-alones are all building towards Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble.”
‘Poohniverse: Monsters United’ Takes Its Cues From the MCU
Blood and Honey 2‘s Scott Chambers will reprise his role as Christopher Robin in Poohniverse, joining Megan Plactio as Wendy Darling, Roxanne Mckee as Xana, and Lewis Santer as Tigger. More casting announcements will come as the film nears its release. Chambers, who is also a producer aboard Jagged Edge, promised that the crossover will feature a substantially bigger budget compared to the standalone films. To take their horror universe to new heights, he says the production is taking a few pages from the MCU with easter eggs hidden throughout each film and more leading up to the chaotic clash:
“Similar to The Avengers, we will follow Pooh, Tigger, Rabbit, Owl, Piglet, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Bambi, The Mad Hatter, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell joining forces to wreak havoc. We are working with a larger scale budget on this one and are excited for what the future will hold. When you see the stand-alone movies you will see the easter eggs hinting toward the crossover. Some of the villains also will not see eye to eye which will allow for some carnage within the group in some epic sequence of monster vs monster.”
Before Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble releases in 2025, Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 will enjoy a limited run in theaters from March 26 through 28 courtesy of Fathom Events.
via Collider