It seems that ‘X-Men: Apocalypse‘ potentially did some good in the world, even if it ruined Bryan Singer’s perfect ‘X-Men’ track record and brought the franchise to a screeching halt. It seems that when ‘The Mummy‘ reboot director Alex Kurtzman saw the teaser for ‘Apocalypse’ at the end of ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ he immediately realized that the Mummy he had planned for his own film was going to be too similar to the eponymous character from the new ‘X-Men’ movie, so he decided to change the villain of his movie from being a male to a female, and he could not be happier about the decision. He explained it all recently during an interview with Cinema Blend:
“I was going down that road, and then I saw the end of Days of Future Past. And they had the character that Oscar Isaac wound up playing as a boy, and it was, I kid you not, the exact same design. And I was like, ‘Oh, man! That is not good!’ And actually it was the catalyst, it was the moment of, ‘Okay, not only is this not going to be different enough, Bryan Singer just did it, I definitely don’t want to go down that road.’
I had had that voice in my head for some time to make it a woman, and that was the moment where, the minute I saw that post-credits scene, I went, ‘We have to start over.’ I don’t want to mess around even remotely with anything that feels familiar or feels like it’s been done. I have to go in totally new territory.
In a way it was very helpful to me, because it made me take that leap. And once we took that leap, the story presented itself in such a beautiful way, such a different way. A lot of the decisions, you spend a lot of time talking to people and you think it through as much as you can, but ultimately it comes down to what feels right. And the minute I allowed myself to let the Mummy be Ahmanet, it just felt right. And that’s the best way for me to say it.”
Now for the purists who know the other ‘Mummy’ films, they might feel changing the character into a woman is sacrilege, but I say “why not?” The gender was not what made the Mummy terrifying or memorable, and if the switch helped inspire Kurtzman and company to create something better, all the power to them, especially when you consider they are rebooting a decades old franchise that was already rebooted just a few decades ago with Brendan Frasier in the lead and did not fair well past the first movie. So if having a lady mummy helps make the new movie feel fresh and different, maybe that’s a good thing. Especially since Universal is trying to launch their own cinematic horror universe with ‘The Mummy,’ it is probably for the best that they experiment and do some things different otherwise the first entry in their universe might end up feeling a bit dated and old hat.
Of course, feel free to share your own opinion on the matter in the comments below in you agree or disagree with me.
