Perhaps at last giving us the chance to see a Frankenstein as a psychopathic backwoods freak, Rob Zombie will direct a feature adaptation of The Munsters. Since this idea somehow wasn’t already done as a viral parody trailer ten years ago, Zombie will reportedly now give us his actual spin on the short-lived ’60s series about a family of friendly suburban monsters.
On Instagram, Zombie enthused about “exciting details” to come on a project he says he’s been sadly pursuing for 20 years. And that Universal finally gave into his pleas is a good indication that they’ve finally given up on reviving the series with any halfway serious intent.
Back in 2012, the company was still hoping to firmly reinvent the property, hiring Pushing Daisies and Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller to head up a reboot pilot. After seeing said pilot, execs quickly passed and what would be known as Mockingbird Lane, which was instead aired as a one-off Halloween special. Even as recently as 2017, NBC had Seth Meyers and Odd Mom Out creator Jill Kargman on board for a reboot that would have seen the Munsters “struggle to fit in in hipster Brooklyn”—which honestly reeks of an eye-rolling 2011 viral comedy video even worse than “Rob Zombie’s The Munsters.”
Tellingly, this latest attempt is being set up at Universal’s 1440 division, where brands are brought back to life as monstrosities like various Scorpion Kings, Cop and a Half: New Recruit, and the fifth-and-counting DragonHeart. The Munsters as a TV series has officially died, only to aptly be revived as a surely-gross Frankenstein.
