Seeing as the upcoming reboot of the 1932 classic, The Mummy, will be the first film in the franchise to be set in the Twenty-First Century and is tasked with starting an entire cinematic universe of modernised versions of classic monsters, the film should have no difficulty with separating itself from what has come before. However, it seems that the film could be making at least one more change to the mythology.
The Hollywood Reporter has learned that director Alex Kurtzman and writer Jon Spaihtz are considering the possibility of having a female version of the Mummy star in the upcoming reboot. The gender of the monster could be determined by the actor that they decide to cast, as two different story options are being considered. One of which involves a male mummy and the other involves a female mummy with a unique backstory. Although the franchise sometimes features a different mummy in each film, each of the mummies are typically portrayed as a male character. To date, the Mummy has been played by such actors as Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, Jr., Christopher Lee, Arnold Vosloo, and Jet Li.
The Mummy is set to be released 24 March 2017, and will be the first film in the Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe that will feature rebooted versions of Dracula, Frankenstein, Van Helsing, the Wolf-Man, and many others.