Lee Cronin to direct a new ‘The Mummy’ film
The Mummy franchise is returning with its first new film since 2008. It’s reported that Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin is signed on to create a new film in the action series.
When the first The Mummy film was released in 1999, as a modernised take on an original 1930s and ‘40s series, it was the birth of a new action movie obsession. With Brendan Fraser in the lead role of the American adventurer and treasure hunter Rick O’Connell, the movie grossed $416 million, making a huge profit against a budget of only $80m.
People’s interest in the movie not only led to two other films being made in the franchise, The Mummy Returns in 2001 and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor in 2008, but also saw it be adopted into a wider cultural sphere as The Mummy themed rollercoaster at Universal Studios and a long-running spin-off series called The Scorpion King, which ran from 2008 to 2018.
In 2017, there was an attempt to start a separate franchise with Tom Cruise taking over the lead role and Alex Kurtzman replacing Stephen Sommers as the director. However, the film failed to break even with its huge budget and ended up losing $60–95m as it received generally negative reviews.
But at the tail end of 2024, The Mummy seems to be resurrected as Lee Cronin has signed on to bring it back to life.
As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Cronin will be writing and directing the new film. There is no title yet, but it has been booked for a release date on April 17th, 2026, which means there is still a fair wait until audiences see the movie.
There is also no information yet about casting as it appears no names have been connected to the film yet, leaving fans to wonder if any of the original cast, such as Fraser, Rachel Weisz or Maria Bello might make an appearance.
“This will be unlike any Mummy movie you ever laid eyeballs on before,” Cronin has promised to The Hollywood Reporter as he introduced the project. Already building excitement for the project and what the plot might entail, he added, “I’m digging deep into the earth to raise something very ancient and very frightening.”
With little information known about the upcoming film yet, and over a year to wait for it, there are so many questions as yet unanswered, such as whether this film will be a stand-alone release or may be the start of a new franchise or who might be called in to play the iconic role of Rick O’Connell in this modern take.
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