All 5 Scorpion King Movies, Ranked From Worst to Best

The Scorpion King The Rated Films begin with the 2002 Dwayne Johnson vehicle of the same name before spawning a five-film series of fantasy fun. Long before joining The quick saga Like Hobbs, The Rock – as he was still credited at the time – was first seen as the Scorpion King in 2001 The mummy returns. Introduced as a conquering warlord at the beginning of the film and a human-scorpion hybrid creature at its end, the Scorpion King’s backstory would be explored a year later in the spin-off, The Scorpion King.

In The Scorpion Kinghe is reintroduced as the Akkadian murderer Mathayus, but in The Scorpion Kingthe direct-to-video sequels would later pass the role to Michael CoponVictor Webster and Zach McGowan, respectively. Each portrays Mathayus at different points in his life in different adventures involving magic, monsters and swordsmanship. The Scorpion King The films aspire not to be high art, but simply silly sword-and-sorcery fun, with over-the-top performances and larger-than-life characters, each a chapter in the timeline of The mummy franchise.

The Scorpion King 4: The Quest for Power (2015)

Victor Webster stars as Mathayus

Mathayus returns for another adventure of magic and ancient artifacts in The Scorpion King 4: In Search of Power. In The quest for power, Mathayus (Victor Webster) teams up with Valina (Ellen Hollman) against his old friend Drazen (Will Kemp) on his quest to recover Lord Alcaman’s ancient crown to conquer the world. The film featured big stars such as The Incredible HulkLou Ferrigno, MMA legend Royce Gracie and kickboxing great Don “The Dragon” Wilson, who appears only briefly in the film’s opening action scene.

This turned out to be Webster’s last appearance as Mathayus. In this last appearance, he and the supporting cast did their best to add energy to the film, even though it received mostly poor reviews. There were few major reviews, and audiences seemed irritated with the franchise, with Popcornmeter at just 21% rotten. A reviewer he wrote, “Another average TV movie sequel that’s just as interesting as the third movie…again not a bad movie, but not worth remembering either.”

The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption (2012)

Victor Webster stars as Mathayus

The first real sequel to The Scorpion King after he separated from The mummy film franchise, 2012 The Scorpion King: Battle for Redemption begins with Mathayus (Victor Webster) as a former wandering king after the fall of his kingdom, Gomorrah. Mathayus is soon called upon to be a warrior once again to stop the conquest of Talus (Billy Zane), who hopes to use the Book of the Dead to usurp the Egyptian kingdom from his brother Horus (Ron Perlman).

Victor Webster reinterprets Mathayus as a slightly more taciturn warrior with a strong heart and brings a new dynamic to the hero’s action scenes. It is to the credit of The Scorpion King franchise that Mathayus’ fighting style evolves from film to film, from Michael Copon’s nimble kicks to Dwayne Johnson and Webster’s professional wrestling style brawl mixing both with Johnson’s build that he carries.

Battle for Redemption has a genuinely star-studded cast, with The Scorpion King movie sequel with Dave Bautista, the late MMA fighter Kimbo Slice, Perlman and Zane, and it’s Zane who really makes the movie even more fun. He knows what kind of movie he’s in and is gloriously arrogant as the scheming Talus. Battle for Redemption knows what its audience is looking for, but it received mostly negative reviews, and even the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is low, 15%.

The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior (2008)

Michael Copon stars as Mathayus

The Scorpion King: Rise of a Warrior travels back in time to the origins of Mathayus before The Rock begins The Scorpion King franchise, with Michael Copon taking on the role. Determined to avenge his father’s murder, Mathayus teams up with a group of allies to take down Akkad’s villainous ruler, Sargon (Randy Couture). Directed by HighlanderRussell Mulcahy, Rise of a Warrior does a decent job of following up its much higher-budget predecessor with plenty of swordplay, martial arts, and sorcery.

Michael Copon’s portrayal of Mathayus is a less self-confident version during his youth and early life as an adventurer. Copon exudes an innate likability in the role, as does Johnson. Like most films in the franchise, the audience score was low, sitting at 18% on the Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter. One fan wrote: “The lackluster sandals action movie doesn’t have much going for it other than some production value, but it’s highly predictable – and forgettable.“

The Scorpion King: Book of Souls (2018)

Zach McGowan stars as Mathayus

After Search for power, The Scorpion King franchise had a small recovery with 2018 The Scorpion King: Book of Souls. Mathayus (Zach McGowan) became a blacksmith and retired 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 men pursue the only relic that can destroy him, the Book of Souls.

Zach McGowan, the latest successor to The Scorpion King In the film’s lead role, he’s a serviceable protagonist as an older Mathayus, doing what he does best again and remembering the legend he’s built for himself. Peter Mensah maintains the over-the-top tradition Scorpio King villains alive and well with his portrayal of Nebserek. This film was a huge comeback for fans, who awarded it a high score of 81% on Popcornmeter, with a person writing“It’s bad, but it’s the kind of bad thing that’s just amazing.“

The Scorpion King (2002)

Dwayne Johnson stars as Mathayus

Dwayne Johnson’s first time as a protagonist in The Scorpion King It’s as cheesy and silly an action hero debut as there’s ever been, but it’s as gripping as a sword and sorcery epic. In The Scorpion Kingakkadian 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). However, Johnson’s Mathayus breaks any real connective tissue with his villainous role in The mummy franchise.

While Johnson was still finding his feet in Hollywood, his talent as a leading man with a flair for action and comedy shined well in The Scorpion King. The Scorpion King is a fun, enthusiastically entertaining popcorn throwback to old-school sword and sorcery films. It’s also the only installment in the franchise to receive much critical attention, with a 40% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while the audience score is less than 37%. Mick LaSalle’s Chronicle of San Francisco he wrote:

“Like any other action movie, it’s designed for the mindset of a 14-year-old boy, but it’s fun enough to turn most people into 14-year-old boys.”

The best viewing order to watch the Scorpion King movies

There is more than one order in which to watch The Scorpion King films, and it all depends on the viewer determining which order to watch them in. This means it starts with the character Mathayus appearing in the second The mummy film and then moves on to the first film in the series, the prequel, and then all the sequels, including the 2018 reboot.

Another way to view the franchise is to watch them in chronological order:

The difference here is that the first film is The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warriora prequel to the real Scorpio King franchise. This is mostly followed in order by the rest of the spinoff franchise before the character’s first appearance. THE The mummy returns is the last film in the character’s chronological series. Although this allows the viewer to see the Scorpio King character in the order of their life events, it removes many of the Easter egg moments, so it’s all about what the viewer wants to get out of the viewing.