When news surfaced pegging Tom Cruise as the potential star in a reboot of Universal’s The Mummy, the casting didn’t make much sense at first. Then again, not much about Cruise has ever made sense, and there’s already a precedent for him taking on a lead role originally meant for an actor two decades younger than him. In this case, the 53-year-old is taking over from Brendan Fraser in a new Marvel-esque universe of Mummy films. (Fraser was 29 in his first Mummy role.)
Variety reports the film will land June 9, 2017, a few months later than its original March 24 date. In a big win for undead feminists, it will apparently feature a female mummy played by Sofia Boutella as its villain, a casting that bucks the centuries-long trend of mummy dicks stealing the spotlight. Not much is known about the script, other than the fact that Jon Spaihts is writing it and the story will take place in the present day. That means Cruise’s character will have to explain smartphones, the internet, and possibly even Scientology to Boutella’s ancient Egyptian monarch, which should be pretty fun.