Producer Hiram Garcia has given an update on the status of the upcoming Scorpion King reboot. Serving as a prequel to 2001's The Mummy Returns, the original Scorpion King movie helped launch Dwayne Johnson's acting career after giving the pro-wrestler his first leading role in a major motion picture. After first working together almost 20 years ago on the Scorpion King, Garcia and Johnson have become long time collaborators, most recently working together on Disney's adventure movie Jungle Cruise.
The Scorpion King is a sword-and-sandal fantasy set in ancient Egypt, taking place some 5,000 years before the events of The Mummy movies. Starring Johnson as the film's lead Mathayus, one of the last surviving Akkadian's, Johnson's character is hired by King Pheron (Roger Rees) to kill the tyrannical Memnon and his sorceress Cassandra. Despite a lukewarm critical response, the movie spawned four direct-to-video sequels, the latest of which, The Scorpion King: Book of Souls, released in 2018. While the Scorpion King never recreated the success of The Mummy franchise, the reboot is still in full swing, according to movie producer Garcia.
During an interview with Screen Rant, while discussing his many upcoming projects, Garcia confirmed the Scorpion King reboot is very much alive. When asked if it was really happening, Garcia said that "Universal had come to us and really wanted to figure out how we can open up that world again." On the subject of the importance of the original Scorpion King for both him and Johnson, Garcia said that he had "a lot of love for that franchise" given it was his first ever film and made him want to become a producer. Garcia elaborated on the future of the film, stating it would be "rewarding" to see a Scorpion King reboot prove a hit with fans. Read his full comments below:
Screen Rant: There's a Scorpion King reboot that's happening. There's so many things I want to ask you about. So I'm trying to be selective. That's really happening though, right?
Garcia: Yeah, it is. We are, 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 DJ'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.
With Garcia excited to bring The Scorpion King back to life, it seems that the showrunners are keen to avoid making the mistakes of Tom Cruise's 2017 The Mummy reboot. Intended to kickstart a modern Universal Monsters shared movie universe, the reboot failed to capture any of the charisma from the Brendan Fraser-led movies, or imitate the eeriness of the legendary classic horror films. Garcia's comments on the future of the Scorpion King are, however, promising, hinting that the film will tonally be more in line with the adventure and fun of the Fraser films, something that has worked well for Johnson's other recent franchises. The likes of the Jumani reboot and Jungle Cruise, while not taking themselves too seriously, manage to be great family blockbusters, and that's something the Scorpion King reboot could certainly recreate.
Although Johnson has confirmed he won't star in the upcoming Scorpion King, he has signed on to executively produce the reboot, letting a new face take the lead as Mathayus. While the movie seems to be in safe hands, it doesn't sound like the movie is due anytime soon. Garcia recently confirmed that the first draft of the Scorpion King reboot is now complete, hinting that, while the project is being worked on, more information on the reboot is likely some way off from materialising. With Johnson also busy on multiple projects, it looks like The Scorpion King reboot might stay buried for at least a little longer.