Egyptian mummies.
Chinese mummies.
The Scorpion King.
Ever wonder how all these undead characters fit together?
And what about the adventurers trying to find them?
Keep watching for an explanation of the entire timeline of the “Mummy” franchise.
The story of "The Mummy" franchise begins over 5,000 years before Rick O'Connell battled
the titular Egyptian priest Imhotep in the 1920s.
Around the year 3087 BC, a boy named Mathayus is an Akkadian child who’s destined to become
the man known all over the ancient world as the Scorpion King.
He’s also a 13-year-old with ambitions of becoming a Black Scorpion.
This elite unit served the Kingdom of Akkad and protected its leader from harm, though
it was far from a glamorous life.
When the trainer of the Scorpions, the battle-hardened Sargon, discovered that Mathayus' female friend
Layla had snuck into the training sessions in disguise, he wasn't happy.
He told the girl that there were no female Scorpions and expelled her, which angered
Mathayus.
The youngster lashed out at Sargon, and Ashur was forced to defend his son from him.
King Hammurabi stepped in to stop the scuffle before someone got hurt, but the chastened
Sargon swore revenge on Ashur.
Using his dark magic, Sargon killed Mathayus' dad in a cowardly attack.
Seven years after the murder of his father, a 20-year-old Mathayus finished his training
and became a fully-fledged Black Scorpion.
The ruler of Akkad had been killed and usurped by Sargon, who then used a cursed arrow to
kill Mathayus’ younger brother, Noah.
The now grown-up Layla confirmed to Mathayus that
Sargon was using dark magic and that they would need a special weapon to defeat him.
Leaving Akkad behind, Mathayus journeyed to the Underworld to retrieve the Sword of Damocles.
After burning off his Black Scorpion tattoo with it, he used the legendary weapon to take
revenge on the man that killed his father and brother.
Akkad quickly fell into ruin after the reign of the evil usurper Sargon.
By 3077 BC, there were only three Akkadians left: Mathayus, his half-brother, Jesup, and
their friend, Rama.
They earned a living as mercenaries in the years following the collapse of Akkad, gaining
a fearsome reputation.
“Boo.”
They were not quite as feared as the great swordsman and warlord Memnon, however.
Memnon had cut a bloody path across the known world, using the predictions of a sorcerer
named Cassandra to stay one step ahead of his enemies.
In a last-ditch effort to stop him, King Pheron of the free tribes hired the last Akkadians
to kill the sorcerer.
The Akkadians successfully located Cassandra, but Jesup and Rama were killed by Memnon's
men, who were tipped off by King Pheron's turncoat son.
Mathayus managed to escape with his life and the sorcerer, who, it turned out, was an unwilling
accomplice to Memnon's conquest.
She used her magic to save Mathayus from an arrow dipped in scorpion venom, but it changed
him forever.
"The blood of the scorpion will always run through his veins."
She predicted that he would likely die if he faced Memnon, but Mathayus beat the odds,
defeating the warlord and becoming the new ruler of Gomorrah.
The city's troops dubbed him the Scorpion King.
Mathayus married Cassandra after they took down Memnon, and they enjoyed a period of
peace and prosperity, but it would not last.
"Nothing lasts forever, my king."
When we next caught up with Mathayus in 2012's "The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption,"
we learned that Cassandra was among the many who perished from a deadly plague that brought
his kingdom to its knees.
Mathayus returned to his life as a mercenary and found himself in the employ of another
ruler.
King Horus of Egypt had a job for Mathayus: to stop his upstart younger brother, Talus,
who was planning to usurp him with magic.
Mathayus traveled to the Far East to face Talus and defeated him, despite Talus using
the Black Book to raise warriors from the dead in an attempt to give him the upperhand.
Years after taking out Talus, Mathayus got a new job from a new king.
He was sent to find and acquire an artifact known as the Urn of Kings, which he did, but
not without a fight.
During the scuffle, his apprentice Drazen proved himself to be a traitor who was after
the Urn.
It’s revealed later that inside the urn is the Golden Key of Lord Alcaman, and it
leads to Alcaman's crown, which gives the wearer unimaginable power.
Drazen killed his own father and tried to frame Mathayus, all in an attempt to get the
crown for himself, but it’s all to no avail.
Mathayus found out the location of the crown too and witnesses Drazen meet his own demise.
After seeing its power firsthand, he reported back that it was just a myth and locked it
away again for the good of humanity.
“Turns out it was just a campfire story.”
The l​​ast adventure the Scorpion King would go on before his ill-fated assault on
Thebes was when Mathayus teamed up with a female warrior named Tala in 2018's "Scorpion
King: Book of Souls."
The film pits Mathayus against Tala's brother Nebserek, who has raided the tomb of the ancient
king Memtep to acquire the Fang of Anubis.
Nebserek planned on using it to rule the world, but that wasn't the only thing on his to-do
list: he also wanted the Scorpion King dead.
The only way to neutralize the Fang of Anubis was to use it to stab the Book of Souls, but
that became complicated when Mathayus learned that the book was not actually a book, but
a person.
Memtep's daughter was the living embodiment of the book, and she ultimately sacrificed
herself to break the curse and free the trapped souls.
After years of trying to avoid violence, losing so many friends and loved ones took its toll
on Mathayus.
By the year 3067 BC, he had resumed the title of Scorpion King and assembled a massive army,
intent on taking over the known world and imposing his rule.
As seen in the prologue to "The Mummy Returns," he led an assault on the great city of Thebes
but failed to take the city.
After a brutal, bloody campaign that lasted for seven years, he and his army were defeated
and driven into the sacred desert of Ahm Shere.
Under the blistering sun, his men began dropping like flies until only Mathayus himself remained.
Alone, angry, and desperate, he called on Anubis and made him an offer: grant the power
to defeat his enemies once and for all, and he could have his soul.
Anubis accepted.
An oasis sprang up around Mathayus, saving his life.
Anubis gave him command of his army and he made easy work of those who defied him, taking
Thebes with little effort.
As soon as the city fell, however, Anubis collected the debt.
The Scorpion King was taken to the Underworld, now bound to serve the dark god.
Many years later — in 1290 BC, to be exact — Pharaoh Seti I’s High Priest Imhotep
entered into a secret affair with his lord's concubine, Anck-Su-Namun.
She spent her days painted with an intricate gold pattern, one that easily smudged.
If anyone touched her, Seti would know.
When he noticed that she had been touched and began to grill her about it, Imhotep acted.
He and Anck-Su-Namun stabbed the pharaoh to death as his daughter watched on from an adjacent
balcony.
She alerted her father's guards, and, rather than be captured, Anck-Su-Namun committed
suicide.
Imhotep was spirited away by his followers and made it his mission to resurrect his lover.
He stole the Book of the Dead, but the Medjai stopped him before he could complete the ritual.
He was sentenced to the most brutal punishment of the day: the Hom Dai.
The victim's tongue was cut out and they were mummified alive, with a bunch of flesh-eating
scarab beetles thrown into the sarcophagus for good measure.
In the year 200 BC, Emperor Han of Ancient China set in motion the events that would
play out onscreen in "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor."
Han wanted to live forever, so he sought the help of the powerful sorcerer Zi Yuan.
The sorcerer was sent on a mission to retrieve some magic scrolls that would help her grant
the Emperor's wish, with Han's top general, Ming Guo, watching over her.
They were gone for some time, and, after they opened up to one another, they fell in love.
This didn't sit well with Han, who believed that Yuan belonged to him and him alone.
When their affair was discovered, Guo was put to death in horrific circumstances: Han
had his general ripped apart by horses, torn limb from limb.
Having gotten everything he needed from Yuan, Han then stabbed the sorcerer, which would
be the last thing he did for many years.
What Han didn't realize is that Yuan had taken out an insurance policy against such a thing.
She secretly cursed the Emperor and his army, so that if he ever harmed her, they would
all be turned into statues.
Clay began pouring from Han's eyes after he plunged his blade into the sorcerer, and his
men became the famous Terracotta Army.
The descendants of Pharaoh Seti I's sacred bodyguards spent years watching over Hamunaptra,
the resting place of the treacherous priest Imhotep, making sure that nobody brought the
cursed one back to life.
Hamunaptra had become a legend in that time, with many doubting it even existed.
In 1923 AD, an army of Tuareg warriors mounted an attack on the foreign occupiers and then
fled, leaving Rick O'Connell in charge of the outfit.
He displayed great bravery during the Battle of Hamunaptra, but his men were overwhelmed.
O'Connell was cornered and was on the verge of being killed when his Tuareg pursuers became
spooked and fled.
He set off into the desert alone.
Against the odds, Rick O'Connell managed to make it back to civilization, but his luck
didn't improve much in the years following Hamunaptra.
In 1926, a British librarian and Egyptologist named Evelyn Carnahan sought him out in prison
after her brother, the light-fingered Jonathan, acquired a map to Hamunaptra from him.
Rick was seconds from death, but Evelyn saved his life by promising the hangman a cut of
the treasure.
The pair fell in love as they traveled to the City of the Dead together, and their bond
was tested after they discovered Imhotep's sarcophagus.
After accidentally bringing the cursed priest back to life by reading from the Book of the
Dead, Evelyn became important to Imhotep.
The resurrected villain planned on finally bringing Anck-Su-Namun back from the dead,
and Evie was to be his human sacrifice.
He almost succeeded, but, against the odds, Rick, Jonathan, and Evie defeated the creature.
They used the Book of Amun-Ra to make Imhotep a mortal man and Rick stabbed him in the gut.
Rick and Evie settled in London after the events of Hamunaptra.
Not long after their escape, they had a son, Alex.
He is eight years old when we rejoin the O'Connells in "The Mummy Returns," in which his parents
discover the Bracelet of Anubis, formerly belonging to the Scorpion King.
It's 1933, which is the Year of the Scorpion, 5,000 years since the ancient king was taken
to the Underworld, and when he is prophesied to return.
It turns out the bracelet is a map to the Scorpion King's resting place, but Alex didn't
know this when he put it on.
From that moment, he had seven days to enter the golden pyramid at the center of Am-Shere.
If he didn't make it in time, his life force would be sucked from his body.
“Just like old times, huh?”
Alex was kidnapped by an Egyptian cult that planned on resurrecting Imhotep and helping
him defeat the Scorpion King.
After saving his son, Rick used the Spear of Osiris to defeat the Scorpion King himself.
Both he and Imhotep were about to be dragged to the Underworld, but Evie saved Rick.
The resurrected Anck-Su-Namun, on the other hand, abandoned Imhotep.
Heartbroken, he allowed himself to be taken, forever leaving behind the mortal world.
It's 1946, and Alex O'Connell is all grown up.
He takes after his parents in more ways than one: He's a keen explorer, and he has terrible
luck when it comes to resurrecting ancient evils.
Alex discovered the legendary tomb of the ancient Chinese emperor Han and believed him
to be nothing more than a statue.
He turned out to be unknowingly working with the people who funded the trip, a rogue faction
of the Chinese military that wanted to bring the tyrannical emperor back to life.
Rick and Evie had been working as spies for the British government during World War II,
and they were asked to carry out one last mission: return a priceless artifact called
the Eye of Shangri-La to China.
Unbeknownst to them, the eye was the key to resurrecting the emperor, and, after it was
taken from them, Han was brought back to life.
In Shanghai, they teamed up with Alex and Lin, a local girl who helped them locate Shangri-La
in the Himalayas.
She turned out to be the daughter of Zi Yuan, who is still alive thanks to the waters of
the mystical mountain utopia.
They both sacrificed their immortality to bring back General Ming's army, who battled
Han's forces.
It was good old Rick who ultimately stopped the emperor, however, killing him with a cursed
dagger.
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