Every ‘The Mummy’ Movie, Ranked & How to Watch in Order

The Mummy franchise has been terrifying and captivating audiences for nearly a century. Based on the Universal Pictures films, this series of horror/adventure films kicked off with a mummified Egyptian priest who is mistakenly resurrected and sets about unleashing powerful curses, forcing a group of archaeologists to stop him from destroying humanity.

Originally created by Nina Wilcox Putnam and Richard Schayer, the franchise has produced more than a dozen films. The latest entry from Lee Cronin hit theaters on April 17, 2026. Here’s a look at all of The Mummy movies, plus our ranking of which to watch and which to maybe avoid and how to watch them all in the right order if you’re looking to catch up on the series.

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‘The Mummy’ Franchise, Ranked

Here is our ranking of The Mummy movies, from best to worst.

• The Mummy (1999) – 7.1
• The Mummy (1932) – 6.9
• The Mummy (1959) – 6.6
• The Mummy Returns (2001) – 6.4
• Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955) – 6.2
• Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (1971) – 5.6
• The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964) – 5.6
• The Scorpion King (2002) – 5.5
• The Mummy’s Tomb (1942) – 5.5
• The Mummy’s Ghost (1944) – 5.5
• The Mummy’s Shroud (1967) – 5.5
• The Mummy’s Curse (1944) – 5.4
• The Mummy (2017) – 5.4
• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) – 5.2
• The Mummy’s Hand (1940) – 6.0

‘The Mummy’ Franchise in Order

The Mummy franchise is nearing 100 years as a Hollywood franchise from the early days of film through major special effects revolutions. Here’s how to watch The Mummy movies in order.

‘The Mummy’ (1932)

Directed by Karl Freund and starring Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, David Manners, Edward Van Sloan and Arthur Byron, the film features Boris Karloff as Imhotep, an Egyptian mummy killed for attempting to resurrect his dead lover. He is accidentally brought to life by a team of archaeologists searching through his ruins and terrorizes them while continuing his search for his love.

‘The Mummy’s Hand’ (1940)

Directed by: Christy Cabanne

Starring: Dick Foran, Peggy Moran, Wallace Ford, Eduardo Ciannelli, George Zucco

The Mummy’s Hand tells a new story of an ancient Egyptian mummy, Kharis, played by Tom Tyler, who is kept alive by a high priest and his successor with sinister plans. When a team of archaeologists comes digging around ancient burial grounds, Kharis is ordered to stop the team by any means necessary.

‘The Mummy’s Tomb’ (1942)

Directed by: Harold Young

Starring: Lon Chaney Jr., Dick Foran, John Hubbard, Elyse Knox, Wallace Ford, Turhan Bey

The Mummy’s Tomb takes place 30 years after the events of The Mummy’s Hand. With a new high priest, Kharis is once again ordered to take out original members of the expedition and their offspring. Lon Chaney Jr. would become the first repeat mummy as he appeared in both The Mummy’s Ghost and The Mummy’s Curse the following year.

‘The Mummy’s Ghost’ (1944)

Directed by: Reginald Le Borg

Starring: Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, Ramsay Ames, Barton MacLane, George Zucco, Robert Lowery

This film continues the story of The Mummy’s Tomb, with Lon Chaney Jr. back as Kharis and the succession plan of the high priest reaching its third generation in Yousef Bey.

‘The Mummy’s Curse’ (1944)

Directed by: Leslie Goodwins

Starring: Lon Chaney Jr., Peter Coe, Virginia Christine

The Mummy’s Curse the fifth entry in the original Mummy franchise, an immediate sequel to The Mummy’s Ghost, which released in the same year. It’s Lon Chaney Jr.’s curtain call as Kharis the Egyptian mummy, and it brings to a conclusion the story of his quest to reunite with his beloved Princess Ananka. This film moves from rural Massachusetts to the swamps of the Louisiana Bayou for a haunting, mystical entry into the franchise.

‘Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy’ (1955)

Directed by: Charles Lamont

Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marie Windsor, Michael Ansara, Peggy King

This film represents a hard pivot in The Mummy franchise, taking a far more comedic twist driven by the comedic stylings of Abbott and Costello. Set in Cairo, Abbott and Costello are stranded in Egypt and find themselves quickly in over their heads as they seek to sell a cursed medallion. This film is the sixth and final entry of the original Mummy franchise.

‘The Mummy’ (1959)

Directed by: Terence Fisher

Starring: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Yvonne Furneaux.

The first British entry into The Mummy franchise takes its cues from both The Mummy’s Hand, The Mummy’s Tomb and The Mummy’s Ghost, but features only minor connections to the original 1932 version.

The story follows the reincarnation of the mummy Kharis as he seeks, once again, to find his beloved Princess Ananka. He had been sentenced to be entombed alive in order to serve as the guardian for her tomb and he is seeking to break his eternal punishment.

‘The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb’ (1964)

Directed by: Michael Carreras

Starring: Terence Morgan, Fred Clark, Ronald Howard, Jeanne Roland,

This is the second of the Hammer Film Mummy movies, featuring a new mummy at the center of the story: Ra-Antef, son of Ramses VIII. Egyptologists and archaeologists set on an expedition to bring artifacts back to London as part of a showcase to help pay back the financing of their trip. But when the mummy comes back to life and begins taking out members of the expedition, their mission turns much graver.

‘The Mummy’s Shroud’ (1967)

Directed by: John Gilling

Starring: André Morell, John Phillips, David Buck, Maggie Kimberley, Elizabeth Sellars

The Mummy’s Shroud follows another new mummy, the boy pharaoh Kah-to-Bey, who torments two expeditioners who ignore a warning by a local about violating the tombs of ancient Egypt and removing the bodies. Peril to follow them at every turn as the price of their wanton disregard. One explorer is bitten by a venomous snake, while the other, an opportunist, has him committed to an insane asylum and claims their discovery for his own.

After the mummy is placed into Cairo Museum, he is revived by the same local that issued the warning and sets off on a murderous rampage.

‘Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb’ (1971)

Directed by: Seth Holt

Starring: Valerie Leon, Andrew Keir, Mark Edwards, James Villiers, Hugh Burden, Aubrey Morris

Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb was director Seth Holt’s final film and pulled loosely from Bram Stoker’s 1903 novel The Jewel of the Seven Stars.

The movie follows an expedition to find the tomb of Tera, an evil Egyptian queen who Professor Fuchs has an adoration for. He finds her body and sarcophagus, takes it back to England and tries to recreate the tomb under his house. His daughter Margaret, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Tera, and begins having nightmares as soon as Tera is buried under the home.

When her father gives her Queen Tera’s ring as a protection token, things get even worse and Queen Tera’s evil power begins to tempt her.

‘The Mummy’ (1999)

Directed by: Stephen Sommers

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Jonathan Hyde and Kevin J. O’Connor

The first in the Stephen Sommers series, The Mummy revitalized the franchise with its first entry in nearly three decades. The film follows adventurer and treasure hunter Rick O’Connell as he travels to the City of the Dead with librarian Evelyn Carnahan and her older brother.

On their journey, they mistakenly awaken Imhotep, the cursed high priest with supernatural powers. The film is a loose remake of the original The Mummy film from 1932. The film featured cutting edge special effects techniques that created more realism to the mummy corpses and conjured the supernatural elements of the plot.

‘The Mummy Returns’ (2001)

Directed by: Stephen Sommers

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velasquez and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

The Mummy Returns is the sequel to The Mummy and finds Rick and Evelyn exploring ancient ruins with their son Alex. The film takes place seven years after the events of the first film and in their journey, they find the bracelet of Anubis.

As their son is playing with the bracelet, it locks onto his wrist and begins to show him visions. When Evelyn is kidnapped by a cult who resurrected Imhotep, Rick must save both his wife and son from ancient curses that seek to destroy them.

‘The Scorpion King’ (2002)

Directed by: Chuck Russell

Starring: The Rock along with Steven Brand, Kelly Hu, Grant Heslov and Michael Clarke Duncan.

A spinoff of The Mummy Returns, The Scorpion King serves as both a sequel to The Mummy Returns and a prequel to The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. The story unveils the origins of Mathayus and his rise to Scorpion King.

‘The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor’ (2008)

Directed by: Rob Cohen

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello, John Hannah, Michelle Yeoh, Russell Wong, Liam Cunningham.

This film deviates from all prior Mummy films by being set in China versus Egypt. Thirteen years after the events of The Scorpion King, Rick and Evelyn’s son Alex finds the dragon emperor’s tomb and brings the sarcophagus to Shanghai.

Simultaneously, the British government enlists Rick and Evelyn to retrieve a gemstone called the Eye of Shangri-La and return it to China. Set amidst the backdrop of World War II and the Chinese Civil War, the O’Connells must work together to find the path to Shangri-La and find the only weapon that can kill the emperor, a cursed dagger.

‘The Mummy’ (2017)

Directed by: Alex Kurtzman

Starring: Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, Russell Crowe.

An entry in the Dark Universe, Tom Cruise stars as U.S. Army Sergeant Nick Morton, who accidentally unearths the ancient tomb of the entrapped Egyptian princess Ahmanet. Once brought back to life, she begins to curse those who discovered her through a handful of supernatural phenomena. The film also brings in other members of the Dark Universe, including Dr. Henry Jekyll.

‘The Mummy’ (2026)

Directed by: Lee Cronin

Starring: Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, Mia Calamway and Verónica Falcón,

Directed by legendary horror director Lee Cronin, the newest entry in the mummy franchise was released on April 17, 2026.

The plot follows the daughter of a journalist who mysteriously disappears in the desert. Eight years later, she reappears but with a much darker demeanor, hinting that something terrible happened in the time that she went missing.

Untitled Mummy Film (2028)

Much is still to be determined about a revitalization of the Sommers series Mummy franchise. But what is confirmed is that Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz will be reprising their roles as Rick and Evelyn O’Connell. Still years away from release, much of the original cast is slated to return.

Watch ‘The Mummy’ Films on DIRECTV

Looking for your fix of both Egyptology and horror? You can watch The Mummy movies right on DIRECTV.

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