Universal kicked off the marketing campaign for The Mummy this morning, offering a poster and a “teaser for the trailer” which featured not just Tom Cruise but a glimpse of Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll. This new Mummy trades Brendan Fraser for Tom Cruise, and fun fisticuffs-filled adventure for a grim apocalyptic threat. The Mummy is a lady now and Tom Cruise runs from stuff. That’s cool; movies need more great lady-villains, and Tom Cruise is one of the best runners in cinema. If we’re honest, though, these 15 seconds of footage don’t get us hyped for a full trailer as much as it makes is miss Brendan Fraser.
The teaser, interestingly, also welcomes audiences to a “new world of Gods and monsters”, hinting that there might be more than one Universal monster showing up.
This is a new version of a franchise which has mysteriously come back to life several times over the years, first appearing in 1932 with Boris Karloff as the Mummy. Later versions saw Abbot and Costello encounter the Egyptian undead, and more recently, Brendan Fraser tackled the Pharaohs in the 1999 edition.
This latest take has Star Trek’s Alex Kurtzman in the directors chair, working from a script by Doctor Strange’s Jon Spaihts. Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson, and Courtney B. Vance are also in the cast – as is Russell Crowe, playing Dr Henry Jeykll for a bit of shared universe synergy.
The full trailer for The Mummy arrives on Sunday, and it’s aiming for those big summer blockbuster dollars, currently working towards a 9 June, 2017 release date.
The Mummy Teaser: