Tom Cruise Confirmed to Star in Mummy Reboot, New Release Date Announced

Tom Cruise has been confirmed as the star in the upcoming reboot of The Mummy. A new release date has also been announced, with it now hitting cinemas in June 2017.

As Variety reports, Cruise will star alongside Sofia Boutella--soon to be seen in Star Trek Beyond--in what producers at Universal intend to be an ongoing franchise that will bring together many of the studio's classic monster properties.

Alex Kurtzman, co-writer of JJ Abrams' two Star Trek movies, is set to direct. Kurtzman was was hired by Universal in 2014 to develop this new franchise, and other key monsters that are expected to be brought back include The Wolfman, The Invisible Man, Van Helsing, Dracula, and Frankenstein. As Variety notes, while Cruise isn't on board as a producer, he is expected to play a major role in the development of these films.

Unlike the Mummy movies from the late-'90s that starred Brendan Fraser, this latest version is expected to be set in the present day. The film was originally scheduled for a release in March next year, but the new date moves it back to June 17, 2017.