{"id":348079,"date":"2026-03-26T02:23:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/348079\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T02:23:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:23:16","slug":"new-the-mummy-movie-officially-breaks-27-year-franchise-tradition-with-its-rating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/348079\/","title":{"rendered":"New The Mummy Movie Officially Breaks 27-Year Franchise Tradition With Its Rating"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lee Cronin and Blumhouse are ready to deliver the horror movie goods with their new entry in the long-running Mummy franchise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Officially titled Lee Cronin\u2019s The Mummy<\/a>, Universal\u2019s latest monster movie revisit is promising to be darker and more terrifying than previous films that carried the Mummy name, as the film’s intense trailers have already teased.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s now been made official that Cronin\u2019s take on The Mummy will skew heavily toward horror, as it\u2019s confirmed that the film will carry an R rating, a first for the franchise (via Film Ratings<\/a>). The R was given for \u201cstrong disturbing violent content, gore, language and brief drug use.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brendan Fraser\u2019s trio of Mummy films all carried a PG-13 rating, as did Tom Cruise\u2019s doomed Dark Universe version from 2017<\/a>. The very first Mummy movie was released way back in 1932, long before the MPAA began handing out content-based ratings.<\/p>\n

The original Mummy was a typical 1930s chiller that depended more on atmosphere than effects, while Fraser’s Mummy films were Indiana Jones-style adventures with a supernatural element influenced by the works of Ray Harryhausen. Cruise’s Mummy seemed to have very confused intentions and ultimately landed in a disappointing space somewhere between horror and action.<\/p>\n

Fans not thrilled by The Mummy taking a turn into full-on Blumhouse-style scares can still look forward to a new Fraser-led series entry, as The Mummy 4 is still going forward<\/a>, and is expected to be rated PG-13 according to directors Radio Silence, with the caveat that they intend on pushing the boundaries of that rating as far as possible.<\/p>\n

2026\u2019s horror-leaning Mummy will offer a unique take on the franchise, according to director Cronin, who recently spoke about the works that influenced the film (via IGN<\/a>). \u201cIt’s an insane mashup to suggest, but [this film is] almost one part Poltergeist and one part Seven, but put through my lens and the way that I like to entertain people,\u201d said the filmmaker behind 2023\u2019s gory Evil Dead Rise.<\/p>\n

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’s body horror and supernatural influences are teased in its synopsis, which reads: \u201cThe young daughter of a journalist disappears into the desert without a trace. Eight years later, the broken family is shocked when she is returned to them, as what should be a joyful reunion turns into a living nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Complicated family dynamics and body horror also played a big part in 2025’s Wolf Man, the last Blumhouse-produced Universal Monster Movie update, which sadly flopped at the box office by grossing only $35 million on a budget of $25 million. The studio hopes Cronin’s touch brings The Mummy back from the dead in a much more successful fashion than their ill-fated sad-dad werewolf movie did The Wolf Man.<\/p>\n

\"lee-cronin-s-the-mummy-poster.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Release Date<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tApril 17, 2026<\/p>\n

Director<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLee Cronin<\/p>\n

Writers<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLee Cronin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lee Cronin and Blumhouse are ready to deliver the horror movie goods with their new entry in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-348079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}