It’s hard to imagine this now, when he’s been a busy movie star for ages, but Dwayne Johnson’s first blockbuster appearance was pretty small. The year was 2001, and he was a big star in wrestling — his film debut was in the 1999 doc Beyond the Mat — but when he tried to cross over into movies, he did so with baby steps, making a cameo as the fearsome Scorpion King in the sequel The Mummy Returns. He returned to the character, now as a hero, in the next year’s spin-off The Scorpion King, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Now, dozens of films later, he’s about to return to his first triumph. Sort of. According to Deadline, he’s looking to reboot the Scorpion King franchise. Thing is, Johnson may not actually returning to the role, having a full schedule through 2022. Instead he’ll at the very least produce it, allowing a new actor to assume the role. Still, Deadline speculates he may at least make an appearance. Oh, and another thing: It won’t be set in the distant past, but in modern times. Which is…a choice.
So in summing up, this new Scorpion King a) will probably not star Dwayne Johnson and b) it won’t be set in the ancient past. Also it’s safe to say c) it will have nothing to do with the Tom Cruise-led The Mummy, which singlehandedly killed a “cinematic universe” right out of the gate. Although, now that Universal is soft-rebooting the aborted “Dark Universe” as modestly budgeted, outside-the-box semi-remakes like this year’s The Invisible Man, maybe they can do a spin-off from this Scorpion King.
(Via Deadline)
