Universal Announces ‘The Mummy’ Reboot Release Date, Pushes Back ‘Warcraft’
Universal announced Wednesday that Andres Muschietti’s The Mummy reboot will head to theaters on April 22, 2016.
Muschietti took over the reboot in September after Live Free or Die Hard director Len Wiseman dropped out of the project this summer. Universal originally hoped to get The Mummy reboot into theaters by 2014, but Wiseman’s departure and the search for a new director hindered those plans.
The original Mummy franchise began in 1999 and starred Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, and Kevin J. O’Connor. A loose remake of the 1932 Boris Karloff film of the same, The Mummy was originally intended to be part of a low-budget horror movie series.
The film spawned two sequels, The Mummy Returns and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. The third film left the Egyptian setting of the previous installments and replaced Rachel Weisz with Maria Bello. After Tomb of the Dragon Emperor was released, Bello said she had signed on for another film, but Universal canceled the production and began working on the “darker” reboot instead.
The Mummy also spawned a 2002 spinoff, The Scorpion King, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Kelly Hu, Grant Heslov, and Michael Clarke Duncan. A direct-to-video prequel, The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior was released in 2008 and starred Michael Copon as Mathayus (Johnson’s role in the original). A direct-to-video sequel, The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption, was released in 2012 and starred Victor Webster as Mathayus.
Universal also announced that its video game adaptation Warcraft is being pushed back from December 18, 2015 to March 11, 2016. Earlier this month, Disney and LucasFilm announced that Star Wars: Episode VII would be released on December 18, 2015. So far, Warcraft— the first film under Universal’s new partnership with Legendary — has its new date to itself.
Blumhouse’s Jennifer Lopez thriller The Boy Next Door will hit theaters January 23, 2015, and the Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore fantasy Seventh Son will be released February 6, 2015.
