Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) is a WWE legend and the biggest name in Hollywood today. Of course, it wasn’t always this way. As he began his transition from the squared circle to the silver screen, Johnson got his first major role as the villain, The Scorpion King, in the Brendan Fraser led The Mummy Returns in 2001.This led to his first starring role as the same character in his origin story, The Scorpion King. From there, Johnson began his meteoric rise in cinema as the franchise kicked off without him, creating many Straight-To-DVD sequels, prequels, and spin-offs until 2018. Now, it looks like Johnson is ready to revive the franchise with his Seven Bucks Productions for a whole new generation!
Thanks to Deadline, it looks like Johnson and ex-wife/business partner, Dany Garcia, have purchased the rights to the franchise for their production company. While it is highly unlikely that Dwayne Johnson will star in the reboot, considering he is literally the busiest man in Hollywood, he is excited to bring the character to a whole new generation of fans.
“The Scorpion King was my very first role ever on the silver screen and I’m honored and excited to reimagine and deliver this cool mythology to a whole new generation. I wouldn’t have had the career I’m lucky enough to have had it not been for The Scorpion King and I’m thrilled that we at Seven Bucks Productions can help create those same opportunities for other hard working actors today. I believe Jonathan Herman will put in the hard work to deliver a fantastic script for our global audience.”
The new installment will be written by the highly coveted Jonathan Herman, who wrote the acclaimed Straight Outta Compton script. It is unclear whether the revival of this character and franchise will tie into Universal’s Dark Universe or not. While the Tom Cruise led Mummy reboot was meant to kick off this shared Monster Universe, it failed miserably, and killed it before it began. However, there have been talks of Universal still being interested in attempting this connected film-verse, so maybe this Scorpion King reboot might be involved.
Having Johnson overseeing this project should give fans hope that the character will be treating with respect and dignity. After all, The Rock loves this character arguably more than anyone, and he certainly wouldn’t let it become tainted in any way when under his cinematic umbrella.
Are you excited for a The Scorpion King revival? Let us know in the comments below!