The Mummy Movies in Order

Why this order?

The Mummy is less a single saga than several loosely connected pieces under one famous name, so picking the right order matters more than usual. Release order is the only sensible default here, and it doubles as the cleanest watch order. Start with the 1999 Stephen Sommers adventure starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, follow with The Mummy Returns (2001), then close the original continuity with The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008). Those three films form one ongoing story about adventurer Rick O'Connell and the resurrected priest Imhotep, and they reward being watched in that exact sequence.

The Scorpion King (2002) sits between Returns and Tomb on the timeline but is a standalone prequel spin-off. It expands the brief cold-open legend from The Mummy Returns into a full sword-and-sorcery feature and launched Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a leading man. You can watch it anytime after The Mummy Returns; it is fun but optional, and it spawned several direct-to-video sequels that most viewers skip.

The big traps are the two reboots. The 2017 film, also titled simply The Mummy, is a complete reboot with no connection to the Fraser films. It was meant to launch Universal's "Dark Universe" crossover line, but it underperformed and the plan collapsed. Lee Cronin's The Mummy (2026) is yet another fresh start, this time an R-rated horror reboot from New Line and Blumhouse, produced by James Wan and Jason Blum. It shares nothing with the earlier films beyond the title, so treat both reboots as self-contained.

For context, all of these descend from Universal's 1932 Boris Karloff classic, the distant ancestor of the brand. If you enjoy this style of pulpy supernatural adventure, the Indiana Jones series and Universal's later The Invisible Man (2020) and Renfield are natural next stops.