How To Watch The Mummy Movies in Order
For almost a century, The Mummy has delighted audiences on the big screen. Audiences have long been drawn to creatures of the undead, such as Dracula or Frankenstein, making a resurrected mummy the perfect subject for a supernatural horror series. First appearing in The Mummy (1932), the eponymous creature is set to return to theaters with Lee Cronin’s The Mummy in 2026. Before then, viewers can use our guide to find out how to catch up on The Mummy franchise and differentiate between the various series.
Universal Pictures’ The Mummy franchise began with the 1932 movie. In the film, archeologist Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron) stumbles upon the tomb of an ancient Egyptian priest who was buried alive. He and his crew unwittingly resurrect Imhotep/The Mummy (Boris Karloff), who escapes and disguises himself as an Egyptian professor while searching for his love, Princess Anck-es-en-Amon.
Encouraged by the modest box-office success of The Mummy and the success of other monster movies like Son of Frankenstein, Universal Pictures decided to revive The Mummy in 1940 with The Mummy’s Hand. Aside from its name and use of footage from The Mummy, the film’s story has no connection to the original. Instead, The Mummy’s Hand follows archeologists Steve Banning (Dick Foran) and Babe Jenson (Wallace Ford), who are lured on an expedition to the tomb of an undead mummy, Kharis (Tom Tyler). The campy horror movie received three direct sequels, The Mummy’s Tomb, The Mummy’s Ghost, and The Mummy’s Curse, with Lon Chaney, Jr. taking on the role of Kharis.
The Mummy went on hiatus for several decades before filmmakers decided a modern reimagining was necessary. The result was director Stephen Sommers’ The Mummy (1999), the most popular and recognizable of the Mummy movies. Sommers moved away from the horror premise and turned The Mummy into an action-adventure film, selecting Brendan Fraser to portray Rick O’Connell, an Indiana Jones-esque figure and treasure hunter. In the film, O’Connell and librarian Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) are swept up in an adventure when they accidentally awaken the mummy Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo).
A successful sequel, The Mummy Returns, followed The Mummy. Fraser and Weisz reprised their roles in the sequel, in which O’Connell faces the dual threat of the resurrected Imhotep and another ancient evil, the Scorpion King (Dwayne Johnson). Unfortunately, reception cooled considerably with the third film, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, leading Universal Pictures to scrap plans for a fourth installment and reboot the franchise instead.
Universal Pictures released The Mummy (2017) with high hopes of rebooting the franchise and kicking off a shared cinematic universe, The Dark Universe, featuring the studio’s most iconic monsters. The film follows U.S. Army Sergeant Nick Morton (Tom Cruise), who unwittingly brings the ancient Princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella) to life. However, critics brutally panned The Mummy for its lack of campy horror or swashbuckling adventure, leading to the cancellation of the shared universe. The Mummy then remained untouched until Cronin announced the 2026 reboot. Here's every movie in The Mummy franchise in order.
