Scorpion King reboot still in the works, producer confirms

A year has already gone by since it was announced that Universal had tapped The Scorpion King (watch it HERE) star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his producing partner Hiram Garcia to reboot the Scorpion King franchise – and we haven’t heard anything further about the reboot since that announcement was made. So while talking to Garcia about his upcoming projects, the folks at Screen Rant made sure to ask him about The Scorpion King – and he confirmed that the reboot is still in the works.

Garcia said,

Universal had come to us and really wanted to figure out how we can open up that world again. So we’ve been having a lot of fun figuring out how we want to crack that. But that is in the works. We’re looking at bringing a Scorpion King world back to life. And it’s such a special property because for me, it was my first film I ever worked on. It’s when I realized I wanted to be a producer. It was DJ’s first starring role. So there’s a lot of love for that franchise. And if we can figure out how to bring it back to the fans in a fun way, it would be really rewarding for us.”

Although Jonathan Herman (Straight Outta Compton) was already working on the script when the project was announced last year, it sounds like it’s still going to be a while before this one is ready to go into production.

Released in 2002, The Scorpion King was a sword and sandal fantasy set in ancient Egypt. Johnson played

Mathayus, one of the last surviving Akkadians, who is hired by King Pheron to kill the tyrannical Memnon and his sorceress Cassandra.

The film was a prequel to The Mummy Returns, which introduced the Scorpion King character as a supernatural villain brought to the screen through some bad visual effects. There were four direct-to-video follow-ups: The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior, The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption, The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power, and The Scorpion King: Book of Souls. In those films, which take place about 5000 years before the events of The Mummy Returns, the role of Mathayus was passed on to Michael Copon, Victor Webster, and Zach McGowan. If you’re a fan of the cheap sword and sandal movies of the VHS era, there’s actually some fun to be found in those Scorpion King movies as well.

When the reboot was first announced, it was said this would be a “contemporary take set in modern times”. Johnson has said he will not be reprising the role of the Scorpion King in this film.