The Scorpion King franchise kicked off with the eponymous 2002 Dwayne Johnson vehicle, spawning a five movie series of sometimes goofy fantasy fun. Long before joining The Fast Saga as Hobbs, The Rock - as he was still credited at the time - was first seen as the Scorpion King in 2001's The Mummy Returns. Introduced as a conquering warlord in the film's beginning and a human-scorpion hybrid creature in its finale, the Scorpion King's backstory would be explored a year later in the spin-off, The Scorpion King.
In The Scorpion King, he is re-introduced as Akkadian assassin Mathayus, who battles the villainous Memnon (Steven Brand) in his efforts to conquer the world. The Scorpion King's straight-to-video sequels would later pass the role on to Michael Copon, Victor Webster, and Zach McGowan respectively. Each portrays Mathayus at different points in his life on different adventures involving magic, monsters, and swordplay.
The Scorpion King movies aspire not to be grand art, but simply to be silly sword-and-sorcery fun with campy performances and larger-than-life characters, each one also a chapter in the timeline of The Mummy franchise. 2002's The Scorpion King pulled that off well as a Conan the Barbarian-style vehicle anchored by The Rock (and which none other than Saturday Night Live's Bill Hader worked on as a production assistant). Meanwhile, The Scorpion King sequels keep the tone of the original for more fantasy-based action and adventure. Here are all five Scorpion King movies, ranked from worst to best.
The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power (2015)
Mathayus returns for another adventure of magic and ancient artifacts in The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power, but power is something the movie is unfortunately lacking in. In The Quest for Power, Mathayus (Victor Webster) teams up with Valina (Ellen Hollman) against his old friend Drazen (Will Kemp) on his mission to retrieve the ancient crown of Lord Alcaman to conquer the world. Despite their lower budgets compared to The Scorpion King and continuing without The Rock in the franchise, the other straight-to-video Scorpion King sequels managed to maintain a sense of high adventure that is sorely absent in Quest for Power. With more of a made-for-TV feel, Quest for Power's wobbly script and sets barely passable for ancient times keep the film from riding high on the same giddiness as its predecessors.
Also hurting Quest for Power are its choppily-edited fight scenes, lacking in any real power or adrenaline. The movie also completely wastes big stars like The Incredible Hulk's Lou Ferrigno, MMA legend Royce Gracie, and kickboxing great Don "The Dragon" Wilson, who only appear briefly in the film's flatly assembled opening action scene. With plenty of lackluster CGI to boot, including a dragon that would have looked phony in the mid-90s, Quest for Power is a letdown as both a Scorpion King sequel and off-shoot of The Mummy franchise. Though Victor Webster is still game as Mathayus with he and the supporting cast doing their best to add some energy to the film, The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power is a sadly failed quest.
The Scorpion King: Book of Souls (2018)
After the disappointment of Quest for Power, The Scorpion King franchise had a minor rebound with 2018's The Scorpion King: Book of Souls. Mathayus (Zach McGowan) has become a blacksmith and retreated from his life as an Akkadian adventurer. Despite his retirement, Mathayus is recruited by Khensa (Mayling Ng) to stop the evil warlord Nebserek (Peter Mensah) in his plot to conquer the world with a sword known as the Fang of Anubis, the two pursuing the only relic that can destroy it, the Book of Souls. Zach McGowan, the latest successor to The Scorpion King movie lead role, is a serviceable lead as a more weathered Mathayus doing what he does best again and reminded of the legend he built for himself. Peter Mensah also keeps the tradition of over-the-top Scorpion King villains alive and well with his scene-chewing portrayal of Nebserek.
After the dismal action sequences of Quest for Power, Book of Souls is a return to form with far more clear editing and some 300-inspired speed-ramping. The fight scenes Book of Souls are not groundbreaking, but get the job done. Book of Souls is still scaled back from the ambitions of its sorcery-based plot of the heroes saving the world with the resources it has, and does not emerge as a true re-invigoration of The Scorpion King franchise. Still, on its own merits, The Scorpion King: Book of Souls is a moderately entertaining adventure flick.
The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption (2012)
The first actual sequel to The Scorpion King after it spun-off from The Mummy movie franchise, 2012's The Scorpion King: Battle for Redemption opens with Mathayus (Victor Webster) a wandering former king after the fall of his kingdom, Gomorrah. Mathayus is soon called upon to be a warrior once more in order to stop the conquest of Talus (Billy Zane), who hopes to use the Book of the Dead to usurp the Egyptian kingdom of his brother Horus (Ron Perlman). Victor Webster reinterprets Mathayus into a somewhat more sullen warrior with still strong heart, and brings a new dynamic to the hero's action scenes. It is to the credit of The Scorpion King franchise that the fighting style of Mathayus evolves from movie to movie, from Michael Copon's agile kicks, Dwayne Johnson's pro-wrestling style brawling, and Webster blending both with the Johnson-like build he carries.
Battle for Redemption has a genuinely star-studded cast, with The Scorpion King sequel movie featuring Dave Bautista, the late MMA fighter Kimbo Slice, Perlman, and Zane, and it is the Titanic star who truly makes the film an even more fun time. Zane clearly knows what kind of movie he's in and is gloriously hammy as the scheming Talus. Battle for Redemption is an all-around ham-fest, and one that similarly knows what its audience is after. At 105 minutes of Mathayus and company trading spinning kicks and sword strikes with sorcerers, ninjas, and ancient armies, The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption keeps the fun and fantasy of the series strong for another entertaining adventure.
The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior (2008)
The Scorpion King: Rise of a Warrior travels back in time to the origins of Mathayus before The Rock started The Scorpion King franchise, with Michael Copon taking on the role. Determined to avenge the murder of his father, Mathayus teams up with a crew of allies to bring down the villainous ruler of Akkad, Sargon (Randy Couture). Directed by Highlander's Russell Mulcahy, Rise of a Warrior does a decent job of following up its much higher budgeted predecessor with plenty of swordplay, martial arts, and sorcery wrapped in its predecessor's unabashed cheesiness.
Michael Copon's portrayal of Mathayus is a less self-confident version in the youth of his beginnings of his life as an adventurer, and Copon exudes an innate likability in the role much the same as Johnson did. The effects are of a much lower caliber than those of The Scorpion King, though nothing as disastrous as The Rock's final CGI Scorpion King form in The Mummy Returns. Still, the feeling of adventurous fun first seen in The Scorpion King is very much alive in Rise of a Warrior. With plenty of exciting action, creatures, and deities like the sinister goddess Astarte (Natalie Becker), The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior entertains admirably while teasing the destiny of Mathayus in more ways than one.
The Scorpion King (2002)
Dwayne Johnson's first time as leading man in The Scorpion King is as cheesy and goofy an action hero debut as there has ever been, and the lack of effort it makes to apologize for that makes it all the more engaging as a sword-and-sorcery epic. In The Scorpion King, Akkadian assassin Mathayus is determined to avenge the murder of his brother Jesup (Branscombe Richmond) by the tyrannical Memnon, while stopping his growing conquest with the help of Memnon's clairvoyant seer Cassandra (Kelly Hu). Compared to The Rock's character consistency in The Fast Saga, Johnson's Mathayus all but severs any real connective tissue with his villainous role in The Mummy franchise, being far too stalwart a hero to transform into the conqueror his first appearance introduced him as. Nonetheless, while Johnson was still finding his footing in Hollywood, his chops as a leading man with a talent for both action and comedy shine through well in The Scorpion King.
Steven Brand's Memnon is just the right kind of self-aggrandizing evil conqueror The Scorpion King needs in its villain, with Grant Heslov injecting sidekick levity as Mathayus's thief ally Arpid and Hu the only one in the cast to largely play her role straight as the pure-hearted Cassandra. As an action movie, The Scorpion King also makes strong use of The Rock's WWE talents, with a sweeping scope and genuinely intense fights scenes (the late Michael Clarke Duncan even being accidentally knocked out in his brawl with Johnson.) All told, The Scorpion King is a fun and enthusiastically entertaining popcorn throwback to old school sword-and-sorcery movies, and even put Godsmack on the map with its use of their single "I Stand Alone". In embracing its silliness and launching The Rock's career, the starting point of The Scorpion King series takes the throne as the best installment of the franchise.