It’s been more than two decades since Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz last fought mummies together, but the duo may soon be back at it. The actors are reportedly in talks to star in another sequel to The Mummy, which would be the fourth movie in the series. They last appeared together in 2001’s The Mummy Returns.
Reawakening The Mummy
The still-unconfirmed Mummy 4 would bring Fraser and Weisz back in their original roles as explorer-slash-treasure hunter Rick O’Connell and librarian Evelyn “Evy” Carnahan. Meanwhile, Radio Silence’s Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett will direct after helping reinvigorate the Scream franchise. David Coggeshall wrote the script, and plot details remain under wraps.
The first movie, released in 1999, sees Rick and Evy meet and fall in love amid a wild adventure: Together, they must kill the power-hungry Egyptian priest she accidentally revived. The sequel then jumps ahead 10 years, when the now-married couple and their 8-year-old son fight the same villain as well as a warrior known as the Scorpion King.
Fraser went on to star in the series’ third movie, 2008’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, but Weisz did not. Instead, Maria Bello took over as Evy, joining the O’Connell family’s adventure in China.
Weisz’s Mummy Franchise History
It’s unclear exactly why Weisz didn’t return for the third Mummy film. In May 2005, she told IGN she was open to making another sequel. When asked about it, she responded, “Sure, get the family back together again. Why not?”
There are conflicting reports as to why her role was later recast. Director Rob Cohen told Heat that Weisz took issue with her character being “too old” and having a 21-year-old child in the third movie, per Digital Spy in May 2008; her representative, however, said that she did not want to be away from her then-2-year-old son for a five-month shoot in China.
Weisz has spoken positively about her Mummy experience, calling it “very, very joyful” in a Newsweek interview commemorating the first film’s 25th anniversary in 2024. Explaining that “a lot of the women’s parts were not very interesting” in the ’90s, Weisz shared her fondness for the “very unusual female character” of Evy.
“She was a librarian, and she was in the middle of this action movie,” she said. “She was funny and kind of mischievous and honest.”
Reviving The Mummy
Universal Pictures last attempted to reboot the franchise with yet another movie called The Mummy in 2017. This one starred neither Weisz nor Fraser and instead centered on Tom Cruise as U.S. Army Sergeant Nick Morton. It ultimately underperformed at the box office, and Fraser reflected on why it lacked the 1999 movie’s magic in a Variety interview in 2022.
“It is hard to make that movie,” he said. “The ingredient that we had going for our Mummy, which I didn’t see in that film, was fun. That was what was lacking in that incarnation. It was too much of a straight-ahead horror movie.”
He also shared that he’d “be open” to making another Mummy film “if someone came up with the right conceit.”
Let’s hope someone did — and that he and Weisz both agree.
