Evil Dead Rise director says he turned down a sequel in order to take a "risk" on a new installment in the Mummy franchise: "It's definitely going to surprise people"

The Mummy director Lee Cronin says he handed over the director reins for the next two Evil Dead movies because he wanted to take a risk.

"The risk was not making a sequel to my last movie, because that was really easy for me to do," Cronin said in the latest issue of SFX. "I said no, ultimately, because I wanted to do something else, and I like to take a risk and gamble. The other risk factor is there's brilliant movies called The Mummy but they've also been there since the '30s. It's not just about Brendan Fraser, 25 years ago, but there's a risk because modern culture probably looks at those movies that way.

"Maybe the Tom Cruise one wasn't necessarily as well received, although I really enjoyed that film, but for me, the risk was breaking the mould in terms of what people will expect. It's going to definitely surprise people, but when you make a movie, you have to take a risk, because it might be your last chance to make something, and repeating a trick is a sin to me."

Cronin's Evil Dead Rise hit theaters in 2023 and effectively re-launched the Evil Dead franchise, earning rave reviews and grossing $147 million against a budget of $14 million. Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland star as estranged sisters whose reunion is disrupted when their kids find a mysterious book (you know the one) and accidentally release a body-snatching demonic entity. Two sequels, Evil Dead Burn and Evil Dead Wrath, were announced almost immediately, directed by Sebastian Vanicek and Francis Gallupi, respectively.

The Mummy isn't entirely unlike Evil Dead Rise as it does focus on a once-happy family and what appears to be their undead, half-mummified daughter. The film follows a journalist (Jack Reynor) and his wife (Lai Costa), whose daughter disappears without a trace in the desert. Eight years later, she mysteriously returns, but it's not the joyful reunion they'd hoped for (mainly because of the whole mummy thing).

Lee Cronin's The Mummy releases on April 17. For more, check out our guide to all the upcoming horror movies heading our way, or look to our picks of the most exciting upcoming movies of the year.