Everyone thinks they know Jules Verne. They think of the 1864 novel, the grainy black-and-white stills of James Mason, or maybe that 2008 movie with Brendan Fraser screaming in a cave. But the Journey to the Center of the Earth series is a weird, fragmented beast that doesn't actually exist as a single, cohesive cinematic universe. It’s more of a scattered collection of attempts to capture lightning in a bottle—or, more accurately, prehistoric monsters in a lava tube.
Honestly, the "series" is a bit of a mess. When people talk about it now, they usually mean the New Line Cinema and Walden Media franchise that started in 2008. It was the first live-action film to be shot in "fusion" digital 3D. A big deal at the time. You probably remember the 3D glasses. But then things got complicated. Brendan Fraser, the face of the first movie, didn't come back for the sequel because the original director, Eric Brevig, was tied up with another project and Fraser didn't want to work with anyone else.
Enter Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
Suddenly, the series shifted from a nerdy geology adventure to a massive action spectacle. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island actually combined Verne’s The Mysterious Island with Journey to the Center of the Earth and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. It was a box office hit. It made over $335 million. So, where did the rest go?
The Journey to the Center of the Earth series that never happened
We were supposed to get Journey 3: From the Earth to the Moon. It was announced. It was hyped. Fans of the Rock were ready. But by 2018, Johnson himself confirmed on Twitter (now X) that the project was dead. He basically said they couldn't get the script right. It's a bummer, really.
The industry shifted. Johnson became the busiest man in Hollywood. The momentum died.
👉 See also: Kate Moss Family Guy: What Most People Get Wrong About That Cutaway
But if we look back at the history of these adaptations, this isn't the first time the Journey to the Center of the Earth series hit a wall. In the late 90s, there was a flurry of TV movies and miniseries. You had the 1999 Hallmark version with Bryan Brown, which was surprisingly moody. Then there was the 1993 TV pilot that felt more like a low-budget Star Trek clone than a Verne adaptation.
Why Verne is so hard to get right
Verne wrote "Voyages extraordinaires." These weren't just adventure stories; they were meant to be educationally grounded in the science of the 19th century. Of course, we now know that the Earth isn't hollow. Plate tectonics and the molten outer core ruined the fun for the realists.
When modern filmmakers approach the Journey to the Center of the Earth series, they face a choice. Do you lean into the Victorian "Steampunk" aesthetic, or do you try to make it a high-tech modern adventure? The 2008 film tried a "meta" approach. The characters weren't living the book; they were using the book as a literal map, believing Verne was a "Vernian" visionary who hid the truth in fiction.
It’s a clever trick.
But it also distances the audience from the source material. We aren't watching Axel and Lidenbrock; we’re watching Brendan Fraser and a kid named Sean. It changes the stakes.
✨ Don't miss: Blink-182 Mark Hoppus: What Most People Get Wrong About His 2026 Comeback
The 1959 Classic vs. The Modern Franchise
If you want the "real" experience, most purists point to the 1959 film starring James Mason and Pat Boone. This is arguably the most successful entry in the unofficial Journey to the Center of the Earth series.
- Production value: They used real locations like the Carlsbad Caverns.
- The "Dimetrodons": They were actually iguanas with fins glued to their backs. It sounds silly now, but it looked terrifying to audiences in the 50s.
- The Music: Bernard Herrmann did the score. The same guy who did Psycho. It’s heavy, booming, and underground.
The modern films trade that atmosphere for CGI. In Journey 2, they have giant bees and tiny elephants. It’s fun, sure. But it feels more like a theme park ride than a journey into the unknown. The 2008 film was actually turned into a 4D ride in several theme parks, which tells you everything you need to know about where the priorities were.
What happened to Journey 3 and 4?
For a while, New Line was planning to film two sequels back-to-back. Journey 3 was going to take the crew to the moon, following Verne's 1865 novel. There were even rumors about Brad Peyton returning to direct.
The problem was the cast.
Josh Hutcherson got busy with The Hunger Games. Dwayne Johnson moved on to Fast & Furious and Jumanji. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle basically became the spiritual successor to the Journey to the Center of the Earth series. It had the same vibe: jungle adventure, family humor, and Dwayne Johnson punching things. Once Jumanji became a billion-dollar franchise, the incentive to go back to the Verne universe vanished.
🔗 Read more: Why Grand Funk’s Bad Time is Secretly the Best Pop Song of the 1970s
Finding the series today
If you’re looking to binge the Journey to the Center of the Earth series today, you have to be comfortable with a lot of "stand-alone" experiences.
- The 1959 Movie: The gold standard for classic Hollywood adventure.
- The 1970s Animated Series: A weirdly psychedelic Saturday morning cartoon.
- The 2008 Movie: Good for a nostalgic 3D fix.
- The 2012 Sequel: Great if you want to see The Rock bounce berries off his chest.
- The 2023 Disney+ Series: Viaje al centro de la Tierra. It's a Spanish-language production that actually captures the spirit of the book better than some of the big Hollywood blockbusters.
The Disney+ series is an interesting case. It’s a Mexican production. It focuses on a group of kids at a summer camp who find a portal. It’s very "Stranger Things" meets Verne. It proves that the brand still has legs, even if the "main" movie franchise is currently on ice in a cavern somewhere.
The truth is that the Journey to the Center of the Earth series thrives because the concept is primal. We want to know what's under our feet. We want to believe there’s a world inside the world.
Verne wasn't just writing about rocks. He was writing about the "Unkonwn."
Every time a director tries to reboot this, they find out that the budget required to make a truly "alien" subterranean world is massive. It's much cheaper to film a movie in a jungle (like Journey 2) than it is to build an entire underground ocean with a prehistoric ecosystem.
If you’re planning on diving into this rabbit hole, start with the 1959 film. Then watch the 2008 Brendan Fraser version. If you still have an appetite for more, check out the Disney+ 2023 series. It’s the most modern take we have, and it handles the legacy with a surprising amount of respect. Just don't wait up for Journey 3. That ship—or rocket—has likely sailed.
Actionable insights for fans of the series
- Read the original text: The 1864 novel is surprisingly readable. Look for the Frederick Paul Walter translation if you can find it; it's much more accurate to Verne’s scientific descriptions than the older public domain versions.
- Check out the "Vernian" community: There is a dedicated group of fans (often called Vernians) who track every adaptation. The North American Jules Verne Society is a great place to start if you want to nerd out on the differences between the films and the source material.
- Look for spiritual successors: Since the official Journey to the Center of the Earth series is stalled, movies like Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla vs. Kong actually explore the "Hollow Earth" theory with a much bigger budget. It's essentially the same world, just with more radioactive lizards.
The series might be fragmented, but the core idea—that we are just one thin crust away from a world of monsters—never really gets old.