Dwayne Johnson is developing a Scorpion King reboot, since he barely has any action franchises

By Sam Barsanti | November 11, 2020 | 1:47am

Aux Features Film

Dwayne Johnson is developing a Scorpion King reboot, since he barely has any action franchises

Dwayne Johnson Photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images for Sony Pictures

Tom Cruise killed The Mummy and the hopes and dreams of Universal, which was counting on the success of the monster movie reboot to launch its Dark Universe series, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still some blood left in the Mummy franchise for the studio to squeeze out. In fact, there’s one pristine corner of the Mummy brand that has been left untouched for nearly 20 years: The Scorpion King, Dwayne Johnson’s very first film role ever. The movie was a spin-off of The Mummy Returns, the sequel to the Brendan Fraser-starring reboot of the olde-timey Universal monster movie, with Johnson playing a fantastical warrior who later transforms into a scorpion creature through the magic of terrible CGI.

Now, Johnson is teaming up with Seven Bucks Productions and Universal to develop a reboot of The Scorpion King. This comes from Deadline, which says Jonathan Herman (of Straight Outta Compton and F9) will be writing the script, and at this point it’s unclear if Johnson will appear. As Deadline points out, he is tremendously busy all the time, but he’s also a big enough star that he can make anything happen if cocks his eyebrow at the right Hollywood executives. Plus, the character probably means a lot to Johnson, and considering that he’s been open about the original movie’s failings, he would probably be very happy if he could personally make The Scorpion King into a legitimately cool action movie.