As A Longtime Night At The Museum Fan, I Think The Franchise Is Making A Mistake With The Next Movie

Nostalgia is alive and well, even in the lineup of 2025 movie releases heading to theaters. As far as family movie franchises go, the Night at the Museum series has always been one that plenty of people, myself included, enjoy. Still standing as one of the best family movie franchises, the Ben Stiller-led trilogy has had plenty of time to endear itself to the world.

That fondness is part of why I’m not so keen on the news that 20th Century Studios will be revisiting this saga with what sounds like a reboot. It's a concept that doesn't exactly spark confidence when there are some really good possibilities already on the table.

Night At The Museum’s Potential Reboot Has A Really Tough Act To Follow

It’s not a given that this new Museum tour will be a reboot, as Deadline’s reporting on this announcement is still pretty vague. What is now known is that writer Tripper Clancy has been hired to craft “a new story set at the museum with all-new characters.” Which, sadly, sounds like a reboot when you really dig into it.

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All four Night at the Museum adventures can be streamed in one convenient location: the Disney+/Hulu Bundle! Ok, so you could sign up for either half on its own, but for $10.99 a month ($19.99 a month, ad-free) you could enjoy both sides of the Disney streaming house with no trouble at all. Which honestly works out to be a deal so good, you'd swear an enchanted tablet was required to land it.

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I’m also willing to bet that “the museum” will still be New York’s American Museum of Natural History, based on the terminology used. On one hand, I can see how a refresh for Night at the Museum would open the series up to a new audience of youngsters. Moving past that caveat, Shawn Levy’s original trilogy truly was a product of its time - right down to Battle for the Smithsonian’s improv showdowns.

What's sadly ironic about this latest news, though, is that the franchise's latest installment left it in a prime position to thrive.

The Animated Disney+ Sequel Already Set Up Two Promising Concepts For Future Sequels

Some fans may not remember 2022’s Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again (which is streamable with a Disney+ subscription), but I certainly do. It's an animated follow-up that ses young Nick Daley taking over his father Larry’s post as the night watchman. To me, that production looked like the potential start of a new avenue for fans to follow the Daley family legacy. Not to mention, it has an ingenious tribute to Robin Williams, and his portrayal of Teddy Roosevelt.

As some younger parents are probably passing those previous entries down to their children, the opportunity for the series to grow along with its audience is something I’ll always value in any particular fandom. Plus, as evidenced by Jurassic World Rebirth’s opening weekend grosses, nostalgia is still a golden goose.

That's why I’m equally puzzled that there isn’t some sort of legacy-quel play being made with Ben Stiller. Kahmunrah Rises Again saw Larry going off to a museum in Japan, and I’m sure plenty of Night at the Museum fans would love to see what happened in that very location. Clearly it was worth bringing the dumb dumb with gum gum out of retirement again in the animated sequel, so why not share it with the class?

Keeping a positive mindset is key whenever a huge shift such as this is announced. The veil of secrecy may even reveal to us all that I was wrong, and this new project is in fact a legacy-quel of sorts that preserves the spirit of this fantastic 2000s family movie. We’ll just have to wait and see, while trying not to get too attached to Alan Silvestri’s beautiful theme tune all over again - just in case this is a reboot.