A spinoff of the Brendan Fraser-starring Mummy franchise, 2002’s The Scorpion King starred Dwayne Johnson as Mathayus, the titular Scorpion King, spawning its own film franchise that to date includes five installments. Johnson returned for precisely none of them, but he will be on board as producer for a brand new reboot on the way from Universal Pictures.
As we learned last year, Jonathan Herman (Straight Outta Compton) has been hired to write the reboot for Universal and Johnson & Dany Garcia’s company Seven Bucks Productions.
Last we heard, the reboot was set to be a contemporary take on the character set in modern times, but what’s the latest on all that? Screen Rant provides an update this week.
Producer Hiram Garcia tells the site, “Universal had come to us and really wanted to figure out how we can open up that world again. So we’ve been having a lot of fun figuring out how we want to crack that. But that is in the works. We’re looking at bringing a Scorpion King world back to life. And it’s such a special property because for me, it was my first film I ever worked on. It’s when I realized I wanted to be a producer. It was [Dwayne Johnson’s] first starring role.
“So there’s a lot of love for that franchise. And if we can figure out how to bring it back to the fans in a fun way, it would be really rewarding for us.”
“The Scorpion King was my very first role ever on the silver screen and I’m honored and excited to reimagine and deliver this cool mythology to a whole new generation,” Johnson said in a recent statement. “I wouldn’t have had the career I’m lucky enough to have had it not been for The Scorpion King and I’m thrilled that we at Seven Bucks Productions can help create those same opportunities for other hardworking actors today. I believe Jonathan Herman will put in the hard work to deliver a fantastic script for our global audience.”
The Scorpion King first appeared in 2001’s The Mummy Returns.