Whenever I rewatch either the 1999 or the 1930s film, I can see that Summers and his production team probably looked quite closely at the original – the rotating model pyramid in the 1930s opening credits became the rotation/centuries passing shot of the statue of Anubis that leads the first scene of the 1999 movie into its opening credits; and I’m positive that Jonathan exists as a character because someone looked at the flippant grad student who accidentally woke Imhotep the first time around and thought “let’s have that fellow survive through the whole movie instead.”