“I see it as the sort of opportunity I had with Prometheus,” Spaihts tells the outlet. “To go back to a franchise’s roots in dark, scary source material, and simultaneously open it up to an epic scale we haven’t seen before.”
Universal originally released The Mummy in 1932 and followed it with four sequels between then and 1944, including The Mummy’s Hand, The Mummy’s Tomb, The Mummy’s Ghost and The Mummy’s Curse. In 1955, the studio spoofed the property with Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy and then left the franchise dormant until a big screen reboot in 1999.
Directed by Stephen Sommers, the new The Mummy was followed by The Mummy Returns in 2001 and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor in 2008.
A spin-off series, meanwhile, began on the big screen with 2002’s The Scorpion King and moved to home video for two sequels, the most recent of which, The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption, was released earlier this year.
Clearly, Universal still has an affinity for its classic monsters – especially after 2010’s The Wolfman – if this is rolling forward. That, or Spaihts delivered a knock-out take that got them excited.
