Last June, it was announced that Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin had signed on to write and direct a new genre project for Atomic Monster, Blumhouse Productions, and New Line Cinema… and in December, we found out what that mysterious project is, as it was revealed that Cronin has come up with a new take on the concept of The Mummy! Cronin confirmed, “This will be unlike any Mummy movie you ever laid eyeballs on before. I’m digging deep into the earth to raise something very ancient and very frightening.” The film is set to reach theatres on April 17, 2026. Now, Deadline has broken the news that Jack Reynor of Transformers: Age of Extinction and Midsommar is set to star in Lee Cronin’s The Mummy.
Reynor will not be playing the mummy in this film. Production is expected to begin soon, with filming taking place in Ireland and Spain.
It should be noted that, since the project is set up at New Line Cinema, this “new take on the horror trope revolving around the ancient mummified undead” has nothing to do with the classic Universal horror property. We heard back in May that there are three Mummy projects in development at Universal, including a prequel that screenwriter Wes Tooke is working on and a sequel to the Brendan Fraser films (those being The Mummy 1999, The Mummy Returns, and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor).
As The Hollywood Reporter put it, “Plot details are being kept in the sarcophagus but Cronin is hoping to breathe modern life into ageless evil.”
Atomic Monster and Blumhouse are co-financing the film. James Wan is producing alongside Jason Blum and John Keville. Michael Clear, Judson Scott, and Macdara Kelleher serve as executive producers. Alayna Glasthal is the executive overseeing the project for Atomic Monster. Cronin’s Doppelgängers banner is also producing.
This version of The Mummy may be entirely separate from Universal’s Mummy projects, but Cronin’s collaborators at Atomic Monster and Blumhouse Production have been entrusted with making official reboots of some Universal properties. Blumhouse was behind the 2020 version of The Invisible Man and the 2025 Wolf Man reboot (which was directed by The Invisible Man‘s Leigh Whannell). Meanwhile, Atomic Monster is developing “a grounded modernized retelling” of Creature from the Black Lagoon that James Wan is expected to direct from a script by Sean Tretta. That project is said to lean into “visceral horror while paying respect to the original classic.”
What do you think of Jack Reynor signing on to star in Lee Cronin’s The Mummy? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
