Lee Cronin chose The Mummy over an Evil Dead Rise sequel

In June of 2024, 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 that 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 – and in a new interview with SFX magazine, Cronin revealed that he turned down the chance to make a sure-thing sequel to Evil Dead Rise so he could take a risk with The Mummy.

Cast

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy stars Jack Reynor (Midsommar), Laia Costa (Victoria), May Calamawy (Moon Knight), Veronica Falcón (Queen of the South), Hayat Kamille (Vikings: Valhalla), and May Elghety (Clash).

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 2024 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). It was recently confirmed that Fraser and Rachel Weisz are coming back for The Mummy 4, which has Radio Silence attached to direct from a script by David Coggeshall.

Synopsis

Here’s the synopsis: synopsis: The young daughter of a journalist disappears into the desert without a trace—eight years later, the broken family is shocked when she is returned to them, as what should be a joyful reunion turns into a living nightmare.

Atomic Monster and Blumhouse are co-financing Lee Cronin’s 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.

Evil Dead Declined

Cronin told SFX, “The risk was not making a sequel to my last movie, because that was really easy for me to do. I said no, ultimately, because I wanted to do something else, and I like to take a risk and gamble. The other risk factor is there’s brilliant movies called The Mummy but they’ve also been there since the ’30s. It’s not just about Brendan Fraser, 25 years ago, but there’s a risk because modern culture probably looks at those movies that way. Maybe the Tom Cruise one wasn’t necessarily as well received, although I really enjoyed that film, but for me, the risk was breaking the mould in terms of what people will expect. It’s going to definitely surprise people, but when you make a movie, you have to take a risk, because it might be your last chance to make something, and repeating a trick is a sin to me.“

While Cronin focuses on The Mummy, the Evil Dead franchise marches on without him. In the build-up to the release of Evil Dead Rise in 2023, Evil Dead franchise rights holders Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert let it be known that they were already looking forward to producing more entries in the series, with Campbell revealing they were hoping to make a new sequel / spin-off every two or three years.

They quickly proved their commitment to this idea by hiring Vermin, a.k.a. Infested, director Sébastien Vaniček to make an Evil Dead movie that will be called Evil Dead Burn and is set to reach theatres on July 24, 2026. Two months later, the rights holders also hired Francis Galluppi, who just made his feature directorial debut with the crime thriller The Last Stop in Yuma County, to write and direct Evil Dead Wrath, which is now in production.

Do you think Lee Cronin should have made a sequel to Evil Dead Rise, or are you glad to see him moving on with The Mummy while Sébastien Vaniček and Francis Galluppi work on Evil Dead Burn and Evil Dead Wrath? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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