Dracula Untold started as a project dubbed Dracula: Year Zero, which told the origin story of the monster. Alex Proyas was set to direct while Sam Worthington (Avatar) would play the lead

Dracula Untold was released during a time when studios didn’t seem to have a clear direction on what to do with the most iconic monster characters in cinematic history; The Mummy franchise had spiraled out of control, and Mary Shelley’s masterpiece of horror fiction was adapted into two embarrassing projects, the action movie I, Frankenstein and the off buddy-comedy Victor Frankenstein. While these characters belong to the public domain, and can therefore be used by any filmmaker as long as it’s not adapting a specific version that already exists, Universal Studios had a proud legacy of owning these characters and intertwining their stories; from the 1930s to the 1950s, Universal created the first cinematic universe of sorts with classic horror films like Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, The Creature From The Black Lagoon, and of course, 1931’s Dracula. These characters would later appear in crossover events, cameo in each other’s films, and even face off with Abbott & Costello a few times.

Given the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and every studio’s desire to launch a similarly connected universe, Universal moved forward with a new Dracula adaptation that could feasibly set up the premise for a recurring series. To its credit, the debut director Gary Shore and screenwriters Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless actually had a pretty interesting concept on their hands with Dracula Untold; rather than tell the same “haunted mansion” story that previous iterations had utilized, Dracula Untold examined the mythology of the characters and tried to treat the material as a tragic historical epic in the style of a Ridley Scott film. The film begins as a traditional historical epic before slowly introducing the supernatural element of the Master Vampire (Charles Dance), who is forced to reside in a secretive, bone-encrusted cave in the enigmatic Broken Tooth Mountain.

Set in the 15th century, Dracula Untold introduces Evans as Vlad Drăculea, the Prince of Wallachia and Transylvania, and former ward of the Sultan and soldier in the Ottoman Empire. Vlad is capable of monstrous things during wartime, but he’s frightened by his own abilities and fears what unleashing his true rage would look like. He wants to support his kingdom, his wife Mirena (Sarah Gadon), his children, and the future of Europe, but learns that an Ottoman battalion intends to attack their kingdom. Their civilization would be on the peak of destruction, and Vlad has no other choice but to ask the Master Vampire (revealed to be an ancient Roman soldier named Caligula that sought the dark powers out of greed) to curse him with the powers of a vampire; he uses his immortality and ability to transform into a cloud of bats to defend his kingdom. While Vlad’s transition into being a full-blooded vampire isn’t complete, he goes all the way down the dark path when a dying Miriena begs him to suck her blood.