In The Scorpion King (2025), Dwayne Johnson returns to the role that launched his cinematic career, but this time with a darker, more mature edge. Set decades after the original timeline, Mathayus—once a fierce warrior-king—is now a weary legend living in exile, haunted by the destruction of his former kingdom and the betrayal of his closest allies.
The film begins with a prophecy resurfacing in the ancient city of Khemet, foretelling the rise of a forgotten evil—the Serpent Queen Akasha, who seeks to awaken Apep, the chaos serpent god, and plunge the world into eternal darkness. The only force capable of stopping her lies in the bloodline of the Scorpion King. Mathayus, believed dead, must be found before Akasha’s army sweeps across the deserts.
A young warrior-scholar named Kael, raised on stories of the Scorpion King, embarks on a quest to find the fallen hero. He tracks Mathayus to a remote mountain monastery, where the once-mighty king has become a recluse. Though reluctant at first, Mathayus is stirred by visions of his late wife Cassandra, urging him to fight once more. Together with Kael and a rogue assassin named Zaria, they gather a resistance against the Serpent Queen’s necromancer army.
As the group battles monstrous creatures, undead soldiers, and sand-dwelling beasts, Mathayus confronts his past sins and slowly reclaims his warrior spirit. In a climactic showdown at the Temple of Set, Akasha succeeds in partially awakening Apep. But in a sacrificial act, Mathayus uses the cursed Scorpion Amulet to bind Apep’s soul within his own, turning himself into a monster to destroy the chaos god from within.
In the final moments, the world is saved—but Mathayus, transformed and dying, vanishes into the desert sands. A new age dawns, and Kael is hailed as the future protector of the realm. The legend of the Scorpion King lives on—this time, as both myth and martyr.
The film ends with a hint that Mathayus may still live, deep beneath the sands… waiting.
