What a rollercoaster reading just these ten pages have been.
*sigh*
Here is what we know from Rookie about the IP:
- The IP is popular with the general public and horror-adjacent. That pretty much knocks out “cult classic” and anime. This is something that Universal believes is a big enough IP that can headline despite not being obvious horror.
- It’s not a music artist or musical act.
- The HHN fandom will likely respond to the IP by vocally saying it doesn’t belong in a similar way they reacted to Eilish.
I’m also confident, based on stuff I’ve been told from others, that the IP is a TV show and/or movie. While that doesn’t eliminate all video games, it does eliminate most of them (and the popular enough to occur despite not being “horror” will likely eliminate most other video game options).
Assuming we can take all of these clues at face value, there’s actually not as many options as it would appear at first glance. Of those options, we can likely start taking some off the table to actually narrow things down.
An IP that is popular and has horror adjacent elements, not musically based and would be something that could be divisive.
Ordinarily, I would dismiss it out of hand, but it has gained large success internationally with it's film dominating the box office for some time. While it is anime to an extent--might I propose Demon Slayer to the mix? It would be horror adjacent in the terms of the spirits and creatures involved in the show, and while it's strengths lie more as an action/supernatural, they do not shy away from dark areas.
Not to mention, Universal Studios Japan had massive success with Demon Slayer XR; and the merchandising for food/bevs ontop of generic merchandise appeared to of been gangbusters. It is a Sony IP under A-1Pictures and they have had active and eventful inclusions of Sony's Evil Dead and Ghostbusters.
I am genuinely, hopefully/probably wrong. But I am looking at what has been told, and I think it would be treated even more as an anomaly than Ellish or even Ghostbusters. But it's box office don't lie, and it came out as a very unconventionally successful film release (I live in a small, backbones tourist town: we had Mugen Train for two weeks past it's release window). But I wanted to throw my hand and give a crap guess.
I'm also taking the guess, if it's from executives thinking "hey this is doing gangbusters in NA, let's try something here to capitalize"