5 more 90s movie series that need to make a comeback

November 2025 came with some wonderful news: Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz are in talks to star in a new Mummy movie, over 25 years after the first action-adventure film came out in 1999. Normally, whenever Hollywood tries to revive a long-dormant franchise, I’m torn between rolling my eyes at the shameless nostalgia-baiting and excitement for all the people who still fondly remember the original. However, the new Scream movies have been pretty good and packed folks into theaters, so why not The Mummy?

Actually, that’s a pretty huge reason I’m actually excited for The Mummy reboot. The production company behind the new Scream films, Radio Silence, is also behind this new Mummy movie, so apparently, they have a specialty. But all of this got me thinking about what lapsed franchises from that era could come back, and the movie series reboots I’d absolutely love to see.

Blade

This is one of the more likely revivals

There are people already working on this. Disney has been trying to get a new Blade movie off the ground for years now, with Oscar winner Mahershala Ali tapped to play the day-walking vampire hunter. Blade is a Marvel hero; it’s ridiculous that he hasn’t appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet.

And yet the delays continue. At least the original trilogy, starring Wesley Snipes, provides bloody, high-octane thrills to this day. Still, I understand Disney’s desire to bring a new Blade movie to market, since he could liven up the current Marvel lineup. Disney superhero movies tend to be a little tame, but Blade is grim and bloody by nature, so maybe he could bring some edge to the MCU.

Unlike some of the other entries on this list, Blade as a character doesn’t feel that dated because superheroes never went out of style; he’ll fit right in among some of the other hardcore superhero movies out there. I think we’ll see a new movie sooner or later, hopefully sooner.

Austin Powers

From the ’60s to the ’90s to the…

On the other hand, Austin Powers definitely feels dated, but wasn’t that always the point of the character? He’s a British super-spy who got cryogenically frozen in the 1960s only to be thawed out in the ’90s, where he dealt with new gender norms, tamped down fashions, and technological marvels like big blocky cell phones. Well, it’s been almost as long since the ’90s as it was since the ’60s when the original movies came out, so here’s my pitch: Austin is frozen again in the early 2000s and woken up in the 2020s, where he has to get his head around TikTok, incels, and ChatGPT. A lot of people can’t stand the deluge of AI features in every other product these days; maybe seeing Austin’s reaction would put it in perspective.

The more I think about this, the more I think it might work; it’s the same joke, just updated a bit. There have been some rumblings about a fourth movie, but nothing super-solid. Someone get Mike Myers on the phone.

Release Date

May 2, 1997

Runtime

89 minutes

Director

Jay Roach

Writers

Mike Myers

Producers

Demi Moore, Jennifer Todd

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  Mike Myers

  Austin Powers / Dr. Evil

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  Elizabeth Hurley

  Vanessa Kensington

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  Michael York

  Basil Exposition

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  Mimi Rogers

  Mrs. Kensington

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Rush Hour

The ultimate buddy cop franchise returns

This is another long-dormant franchise that actually might come back, or at least, that’s what Jackie Chan hinted to ScreenRant earlier this year. The Rush Hour movies paired up martial arts master Chan with fast-talking Chris Talker for a buddy cop odd couple action movie series for the ages. The Rush Hour movies were fun, especially the first one, and maybe enough time has passed for someone to come up with a good reason why the twosome should reunite. Is Chan still down to defy death with stunts so dangerous they make you drop your Milk Duds? Does Tucker still speak 400 words per minute? Find out in Rush Hour 4!

Release Date

September 18, 1998

Runtime

97 minutes

Director

Brett Ratner

Writers

Jim Kouf, Ross LaManna

Producers

Arthur M. Sarkissian, Jonathan Glickman

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  Philip Baker Hall

  Captain Diel

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3 Ninjas

Even 3 Ninjas fans barely remember 3 Ninjas

This is definitely the most “only ’90s kids will know” kind of entry on this list. 3 Ninjas is an action comedy about a trio of lily-white brothers who spend the summer learning how to be ninjas from their Japanese grandfather. When they’re kidnapped by a criminal at odds with their FBI agent father, they use their ninja skills to break out and save the day. This irony-free cheese-fest spawned three sequels, each less successful than the last.

This is the most dated of these franchises, and while it’s unlikely to be revived, I’d respect anyone who tried since it’s such a left-field pick.

Release Date

August 7, 1992

Runtime

86 Minutes

Director

Jon Turteltaub

Writers

Edward Emanuel, Kenny Kim

Producers

Susan Stremple, Martha W. Chang, Shunji Hirano, James Kang

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  Victor Wong

  Grandpa Mori Tanaka

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  Michael Treanor

  Samuel ‘Rocky’ Douglas Jr.

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  Max Elliott Slade

  Jeffrey ‘Colt’ Douglas

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  Chad Power

  Michael ‘Tum Tum’ Douglas

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Before

I’m ready for next installation in this decade-spanning love story

Let’s class up the joint a bit. The Before trilogy—Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight—traces the relationship between two characters played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy over the course of decades; in the first movie, they’re starry-eyed kids in their early 20s; in the second, they’re harried 30-somethings; and in the third, they’re 40-something marrieds. I wouldn’t say no to finding out what they’re up to in their 50s. Before 3:00 a.m., maybe?

This series is a lot more subdued than the other entries on this list. Each film has come out about 10 years after the last, so we get to see the actors age in real time as the relationship between their characters changes. It’s a pretty unique series. Unsurprisingly, there actually was an attempt to make a fourth one, but Julie Delpy turned it down. Maybe director Richard Linklater can get her back on the phone and see if she’s changed her mind.

Release Date

January 27, 1995

Runtime

101 minutes

Director

Richard Linklater

Writers

Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan

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Never stopping is the new reviving

Can you think of more old franchises from the ’90s that need to be revived? The truth is, I thought there would be more when I started looking into this, but I soon realized that a lot of them simply never stopped getting new entries. I already mentioned the new Scream movies. The Jurassic World movies are some of the biggest films on the planet, a new Mission: Impossible movie came out earlier this year, a Mighty Ducks TV series wrapped up its second and final season in 2022, we got a new Matrix movie in 2021 and a new Men in Black movie in 2019, and there’s a fifth Toy Story movie on the way. And who can keep track of how many Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles things there are?

And it’s not just the ’90s; movies from every era get rebooted. It seems that nothing stays dormant in Hollywood, except maybe 3 Ninjas. Whether that’s reason to celebrate or evidence of Hollywood’s inability to do anything new is up for debate.

As for the new Mummy movie, we could be welcoming it back from the dead in a couple of years’ time.