It’s been confirmed today that legendary actor Russell Crowe, star of Les Misérables and Gladiator, will appear alongside Tom Cruise and Sofia Boutella in Universal Studios’ remake of The Mummy. Crowe is set to play the enigmatic and mysterious Dr. Henry Jekyll, who we all know has a (much) darker side in his alter ego, Edward Hyde…

Whilst it’s unclear right now whether we’ll see Hyde in The Mummy, Crowe has gone on record in an interview with Collider to say that next year’s re-imagining of the film franchise – which originally starred Brendon Fraiser and Rachel Weisz – will “seriously scare the shit out of you”, so it’s reassuring to hear that Universal aren’t shying away from the more intense facets of its back-catalogue of monster properties!

Alongside confirmation of Crowe’s casting, Universal have released the first official synopsis of the film:

Thought safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient queen (Sofia Boutella of Kingsman: The Secret Service and Star Trek Beyond) whose destiny was unjustly taken from her, is awakened in our current day, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia and terrors that defy human comprehension.

From the sweeping sands of the Middle East through hidden labyrinths under modern-day London, The Mummy brings a surprising intensity and balance of wonder and thrills in an imaginative new take that ushers in a new world of gods and monsters.

The Mummy is now in production and has a scheduled UK release date of 9 June 2017; Alex Kurtzman directs. It will be the second in a series of remakes of which centre around Universal’s monster properties, after 2014’s Dracula Untold and continuing with The Wolf Man and The Invisible Man in the coming years.