Brendan Fraser & Rachel Weisz Are Reportedly Returning For The Mummy 4

When I think of some of the first “grown-up” movies I was allowed to watch as a kid, I immediately picture Rick and Evelyn in The Mummy. When The Mummy Returns made it to DVD, I unashamedly played it over and over on the big screen of our living room until I learned all the fight scene choreo between Rachel Weisz and Patricia Velásquez (Anck-su-namun). So to hear the new rumblings that The Mummy 4 is in the works and both Weisz and Brendan Fraser are in talks to return to the film, well, that’s the light in the darkness I needed right now.

Earlier this week, Deadline reported that Universal Pictures will be reviving their blockbuster Mummy franchise, and inside sources said Fraser and Weisz were in talks to reprise their roles as our onscreen Mom and Dad. (The world needs their chemistry back on our screens ASAP, thanks!)

That said, Universal’s representatives decline to comment on the casting rumors and have kept any plot points tightly under wraps (very mummy-like of them). Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett of Radio Silence will direct the new film and will be working with Sean Daniel, who executive-produced all of the Mummy franchise films.

The only lead we have right now about where in the timeline of the O’Connells’ lives this new film would pick up is this: According to The Hollywood Reporter, one source close to the project said this movie “would disregard the events of the third movie” and pick up where the second left off. If you’re unfamiliar, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) is the third installment in the franchise but is generally disliked by fans who mostly just try to pretend it never happened.

Fans of The Mummy were quick to share their excitement on Reddit, as well as their hopes for the reboot. “I think this is the start of our timeline correcting itself,” one top comment reads. Another echoed that sentiment, saying, “I consider it a crime to moviegoers that they haven't collaborated since. Their chemistry is SO good in these movies.”

Chief among Redditors’ hopes for the reboot is that there is zero tomfoolery when it comes to Rick and Evelyn’s relationship. “Please don't have them split up and reunite. I want them to have been in a loving and long-term marriage all this time. They are still together. Everything's been cool. And then yada yada yada...Mummy's back in town,” said one commenter. “Don’t f*ck around with any tricky family drama between the O’Connells. I say full gas on a simple, cool adventure with lots of lore, treasures, and monsters. Not everything has to be Avengers: Endgame or whatever,” wrote another.

If Fraser does sign on to the project, fans can probably put a little more faith in the film — he has spoken openly about why he thinks Universal’s 2017 reboot of The Mummy starring Tom Cruise was a flop with fans. It’s all about the wholesome fun of the originals. “It is hard to make that movie,” Fraser said in a 2022 interview with Variety. “The ingredient that we had going for our Mummy, which I didn’t see in the new one, was fun. That was what was lacking in that incarnation. It was too much of a straight-ahead horror movie. The Mummy should be a thrill ride, but not terrifying and scary.”

In the same interview, the actor expressed that he would be open to playing Rick O’Connell again should the opportunity ever arise. “I don’t know how it would work,” he said. “But I’d be open to it, if someone came up with the right concept.”

Well, all of us millennials will just be over here hoping this script is enough to bring Rick with the good hair back to the table.