The Invisible Man (film series)

The Invisible Man
Original workThe Invisible Man
by H. G. Wells
Films and television
Film(s)

The Invisible Man is a film series by Universal Pictures. The series consists of The Invisible Man, The Invisible Man Returns, The Invisible Woman, Invisible Agent, The Invisible Man's Revenge and Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man. The film series borrows elements from H. G. Wells's novel The Invisible Man, but it focuses primarily on the idea of a serum that causes someone to go invisible and its side-effects.

The series has been described as fragmented, with very few films in the series being connected. This is different from other Universal series of the time, such as Frankenstein and The Mummy. Some films in the Invisible Man series, such as The Invisible Man Returns and Invisible Agent, attempt to connect to the first film through characters who were related to Griffin. Others bear no relation to the original film beyond the inclusion of a plot involving a mad scientist and a person who becomes invisible as a result of their experiments. Retrospective critics and film historians have commented that other films in the series borrow stories from previous films, with The Invisible Man Returns, The Invisible Man's Revenge and Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man having the same stories as Charlie Chan in London, The Walking Dead and The Invisible Man's Revenge respectively.

From retrospective critiques, writers and authors such as Donald F. Glut and William K. Everson found the original 1933 film to be the highlight of the series, while the other films varied in overall quality. The Invisible Man Returns, The Invisible Woman and Invisible Agent all received Academy Award nominations for Best Special Effects. Various television series and films would follow featuring Invisible Man-styled characters, with the series establishing that the Invisible Man would often be driven to insanity due to his invisibility, a new trait in the series that would be applied to later films such as The Invisible Man Appears (1949), The Invisible Maniac (1990) and Hollow Man (2000).