LOS ANGELES — Universal Pictures put a title and a 365-day countdown on its next Mummy film Thursday, and the date attached to it is a little over seven months earlier than the one the studio set in February.
The film is now The Mummy: Book of the Dead, and the franchise’s account on X posted that it opens in theaters October 15, 2027. Brendan Fraser returns as Rick O’Connell and Rachel Weisz as Evie O’Connell, with the Radio Silence directing duo of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett behind the camera, The Hollywood Reporter said.
When Universal closed deals with Fraser and Weisz in February, it announced a May 19, 2028 wide opening. Neither Thursday’s post nor THR’s report on it says why the film moved.
The move was visible before the title was. By late July, The Hollywood Reporter noted an Oct. 15, 2027 release date in its item on Obsession star Michael Johnston, then in early talks to join the cast; Universal had no comment on the talks. Johnston, from the $750,000 indie that Focus acquired out of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival and that THR says grossed more than $458 million globally, is on the cast list THR published Thursday.
The franchise math explains the appetite. THR reported that the five theatrical features that began with the 1999 original have surpassed $1.8 billion worldwide, without a film-by-film breakdown. Its own figure for the original has moved: $409 million in a 2024 interview piece, over $422.5 million in February, and the two reports do not reconcile them. The new film is a direct sequel to the 1999 original and 2001’s The Mummy Returns, and one source told THR in November 2025 that it would disregard the events of the third movie, 2008’s Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
Universal arrives at the announcement in a strong year. It said Sept. 25 that it had become the first studio to hit $5 billion at the 2026 box office, and THR put its tally at $1.788 billion domestic and $3.218 billion international.
Stephen Sommers, who directed the first two films, told The Hollywood Reporter in 2024 that “it’s so funny how it just never went away,” adding that “it’s always on TV somewhere” and that “the residual checks are great.”
A year out, Universal has a title, a date and two returning leads. It has not said whether cameras are rolling: THR’s sources said in March that shooting would begin in the fall in London and Morocco, and neither Thursday’s post nor THR’s report says whether it has.
