Unwrapped Again: Can Blumhouse Resurrect 'The Mummy' From Reboot Fatigue?

January 13, 2026

Unwrapped Again: Can Blumhouse Resurrect 'The Mummy' From Reboot Fatigue?

If you feel a sense of déjà vu creeping in alongside the desert sands, you aren't alone. In the last two decades, Hollywood has attempted to resurrect The Mummy more times than a cursed high priest, with varying degrees of success—and one very notable "Dark Universe" disaster.

But despite the groans of "not again," New Line Cinema and Blumhouse are betting that there is still life in those old bandages. Today, the first official poster and trailer for Lee Cronin’s The Mummy have finally been "unwrapped," promising a version of the story that ditches the swashbuckling adventure for something far more sinister.

A History of Reincarnations

To understand the skepticism, one only needs to look at the franchise's dizzying timeline. Since 1999, we’ve cycled through roughly five distinct iterations of this specific lore:

The Brendan Fraser Era (1999–2001): The gold standard of action-adventure that everyone still loves.
The Spin-Off Surge (The Scorpion King): A five-film saga that drifted further and further from the source material.
The Recast Sequel (2008): Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which traded Rachel Weisz for Maria Bello and lost much of the original magic.
The Tom Cruise Reboot (2017): The infamous "Dark Universe" starter that stalled before the credits even rolled.
The 2026 Standalone: The current psychological horror reimagining.

'Poltergeist' Meets 'Seven'

Director Lee Cronin, fresh off the gory success of Evil Dead Rise, isn’t interested in replicating the Indiana Jones vibes of the '90s. In a first-look interview with IGN this morning, Cronin described his vision as an insane mashup: "One part Poltergeist and one part Seven."

The plot centers on a modern-day family tragedy. When a journalist's daughter returns eight years after disappearing in the desert, she isn't alone. She has become a vessel for an ancient entity, forcing her father (played by Midsommar’s Jack Reynor) into a dark ritual to save his remaining children. It’s a claustrophobic, R-rated pivot that feels lightyears away from Brendan Fraser’s wisecracks.

The Blumhouse Touch

This is the first Mummy film not produced by Universal, as New Line Cinema has taken the reins under the new Blumhouse-Atomic Monster merger. With James Wan and Jason Blum producing, the focus is clearly on high-tension, low-budget efficiency—a sharp contrast to the bloated $125 million budget of the 2017 flop.

The ensemble cast—featuring Laia Costa, May Calamawy (Moon Knight), and Verónica Falcón—suggests a grounded, character-driven horror rather than a CGI-heavy spectacle.