Universal Pictures has the big screen rights to classic movie monsters like the Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Wolfman and Dracula - something the studio is now taking advantage of, as it revives its shared monster film universe. There had been some question as to whether or not the Luke Evans-headlined Dracula Untold would, in fact, be included as part of that cinematic universe (as was once the plan), but we can now confirm that will not be the case. Instead, 2017's The Mummy is the true launching point for what Universal is referring to as "a new world of gods and monsters."

Written by Jon Spaihts (Doctor Strange) and Christopher McQuarrie (Edge of Tomorrow), The Mummy reboots the Universal supernatural horror/adventure franchise of the same name - which itself has been around since the early 1930s and was rebooted once before back in 1999, by director Stephen Sommers. The 2017 reboot of The Mummy is directed by Alex Kurtzman, the co-writer of the 2009 Star Trek movie reboot and co-architect of Universal's rebooted monster movie universe, along with Chris Morgan (writer/producer of the Fast & Furious franchise).

Kingsman: The Secret Service and Star Trek Beyond costar Sofia Boutella plays the new Mummy and Universal just barely released the teaser for the movie's trailer, offering a small taste of Boutella's supernatural abilities in Kurtzman's film. For an even better look at Boutella, star Tom Cruise and the rest of The Mummy's cast in action, you should check out the newly released full-length trailer for the reboot, above.

The Mummy (2017) Poster

The trailer for The Mummy is very much a teaser, but it effectively establishes the film as being a pulse-racing thrill ride along the lines of one of Cruise's own Mission: Impossible movies - with the plane crash sequence shown here sure to bring up many a comparison to Cruise's famous plane-hanging stunt, from the opening minutes of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. From there, however, things get more intriguing and the trailer shifts into setting up the mythology of not only this iteration of The Mummy (which does indeed pick up in the present-day), but the larger cinematic universe that Kurtzman's movie will serve as the foundation for.

Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll is the big mystery factor here - as the trailer for The Mummy suggest that he's very much a key element of the film's narrative and not just a character who appears here, as setup for his own solo vehicle down the line. Instead, Jekyll appears to be quite knowledgable about Boutella's newly-resurrected ancient princess; not only who she is but also what she's after, having been "sleeping" for thousands of years by the time the film picks up. It's an intriguing tease of what's to come in the actual movie, all things considered.

Said trailer also offers glimpses of The Mummy cast members Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders) and Courtney B. Vance (American Crime Story: The People V. O.J. Simpson), but nothing of costar Jake Johnson (Jurassic World) just yet. Expect that to change in the future of course, seeing as Universal's marketing campaign for The Mummy is only just getting started.

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NEXT: What We Learned from The Mummy's Director

Source: Universal Pictures

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