Little by little, Syfy Wire has spent the past three weeks unraveling The Mummy, Alex Kurtzman and Universal’s effects-laden reimagining of the iconic movie monster.
We’ve had in-depth previews detailing the origin of Princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella) and entire featurettes dedicated to Tom Cruise and his death-defying stunt work, but today, the pendulum has shifted toward Dr. Jekyll (Russell Crowe), who teeters on the verge of unveiling his true form to Cruise’s unsuspecting military man, Nick Morton.
Housed up deep within the bowels of London’s Natural History Museum, Dr. Jekyll is the driving force behind Prodigium, an organization that specializes in the supernatural. By tapping into the museum’s pool of resources, Crowe’s shady operative is able to further his research on ancient deities and mystical creatures – keep your peepers peeled for a shot of Dracula’s skull – but it isn’t long before Dr. Jekyll transforms into Mr. Hyde. Not only will he become a major adversary for Cruise, Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) and Sgt. Vail (Jake Johnson), but Universal has created Russell Crowe’s character in such a way that he’s able to anchor the studio’s universe. Think of how Nick Fury flits across multiple Marvel movies and you’ll begin to get a sense of that world-building process.
Welcome to a new world of gods and monsters – The Mummy will be summoned into theatres on June 9th. Can it get Universal’s Monsters Universe off on the right foot? King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is living proof that launching an interconnected franchise can be a difficult butterfly to pin, but with tentative plans in place for a handful of other creature features (see: Van Helsing, the Invisible Man, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon), we’re inclined to lend Universal the benefit of the doubt.