Director and actor Kenneth Branagh’s latest project, Death on the Nile, releases this week in theaters, over four years after the first film, Murder on the Orient Express, which was a major financial success that was also relatively well received amongst critics.
In recent years, it seems as if Disney, much like the rest of Hollywood, have actively been looking for another big franchise to add to their roster alongside Marvel and Star Wars. Jungle Cruise, Artemis Fowl, and countless other films have seemingly been made with the intent of creating a universe or successful franchise. While many look to other upcoming films as potential universe starters, here’s why Kenneth Branagh’s Agatha Christie adaptations could be another successful Disney franchise.
Branagh’s first Christie adaption, Murder on the Orient Express, brought arguably the author’s most famous story to the big screen. The cast was filled with famous actors, with Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, Daisy Ridley, and more lining up alongside Branagh in the starring role as Detective Hercule Poirot. The film scored a 60% on Rotten Tomatoes, a good enough score, but its financial return is the real hallmark of its success.
The film made over $350 million worldwide, a number that comes close to or eclipses many famous Disney franchise films, including Captain America: The First Avenger and Solo: A Star Wars Story, except with a much lower budget. Overall, it’s clear that Branagh’s film could draw audiences into movie theaters at a time when non-superhero or Star Wars outings are often struggling. Compare that with Knives Out, a film clearly inspired by Agatha Christie’s works, which earned $311 million, still an impressive total. Last year, Netflix fought off other studios in a bidding war to buy the rights to two sequels to Knives Out for a whopping $469 million, highlighting just how much the streaming service and Hollywood overall valued the franchise.
Death on the Nile is a film that hopes to repeat this success, and has done so with a phenomenal cast once again. Gal Gadot joins Branagh, as does Armie Hammer, Letitia Wright, and Annette Benning. Evident from this new cast, all of whom playing new characters as Detective Poirot investigates a new murder, is that these Agatha Christie adaptations can attract A-list actors to join the project. In the modern film industry, this is becoming increasingly important.
The MCU’s success is not solely down to one aspect. However, the fame of some of its core actors over the past decade or so, including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Scarlett Johansson, has almost certainly boosted box office returns and helped push the franchise to new heights. The two Branagh Christie adaptions thus far have already had many MCU or DC actors already, like Gal Gadot and Willem Dafoe. However, these murder mystery films also have the opportunity to reset the majority of their cast with each new entry, providing the opportunity for new actors to come into play without necessarily having to sign a large, multi-movie contract, something some performers have been hesitant to do in recent years due to the sheer time commitment amidst their already busy schedules. This serves as a key asset to a potential Poirot, Agatha Christie franchise.
The MCU is arguably the most successful franchise at the moment, and although many of the stories and plot points are wholly original and made during the development of each film, they also clearly borrow and adapt from their source material, Marvel Comics. Having source material to look back to serve a useful guiding light for future projects for the MCU, and any Christie adaptation franchise would have the same tool at its disposal. Detective Poirot appeared in 33 novels and over 50 short stories written by Christie, highlighting just how much they could adapt into future films.
Of course, being the prolific writer that she is, Agatha Christie wrote stories centered on many characters, not just Poirot. There’s Miss Marple, for example, the elderly amateur sleuth who often finds herself in the midst of a mystery that seemingly only she is smart enough to solve. Just like the MCU, DCEU, or even the Star Wars Disney+ series, if a Christie franchise was to be born from Branagh’s first two entries, there is plenty of room for overlap between stories and, more broadly, have characters appear in each other’s films. This is not an unusual occurrence in Christie’s books, in which characters from Poirot appeared in Miss Marple novels, and vice versa. Despite being written so long ago, Christie’s books show signs of what Hollywood studios are so desperate to have in the modern day: a universe.
This means that Miss Marple could get her own series of films, just as Poirot is currently enjoying his, and these could potentially be in the same universe, just as the books did. They don’t necessarily have to cross over at every possible turn like superhero franchises have been known to do, and one could argue it would be a disservice to Christie’s original works to do this, but existing in the same world and having connections to one another. More broadly, Miss Marple has appeared in 12 novels and 20 short stories written by the author, showing that just like Poirot, there’s plenty of stories to be adapted.
Adaptations aren’t the only way forward for this potential franchise, either. Since Christie’s passing, there have been Poiriot and Miss Marple stories written by different authors but in the same style as the originals. All that’s really needed is a stylish murder mystery to make a Poirot or Marple story, meaning that future screenwriters have room to go a more original route if they want to. This also means that if they were to run out of stories from Christie, they still have places to go.
Many attribute the MCU’s success to having a central figure at the heart of every creative discussion, in the form of Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. Some have even gone as far to say the DCEU’s lack of a Feige-figure as a big reason for some of the franchise’s stumbles in recent years. This is something that Star Wars also has, with Kathleen Kennedy working alongside Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and other creators to provide the consistent creative voice behind each project from a galaxy far, far away. With both Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile being written by Michael Green and directed by Kenneth Branagh, it seems as if these movies also have their own creative consistency that appears to have benefited other franchises so much. Overall, this is a key asset to this potential franchise if it goes forward.
The ability to attract audiences, along with famous actors to star, as well as the benefit of successful source material and the creative voices of Michael Green and Kenneth Branagh are all massive strengths of a potential Agatha Christie adaptation franchise. Much of it will ultimately depend on the financial success of this week’s Death on the Nile, and if this new film does well and makes a profit, this could certainly be yet another big franchise under Disney’s belt.