“The Mummy” may be coming back from the dead after all. Following 2017’s Tom Cruise reboot, it wasn’t considered likely that Universal Pictures would back track to the version of Brendan Fraser’s trilogy from the 1990’s and 00’s, which was based on “The Mummy” from 1932. According to know industry insider and generally accurate leaker Daniel Richtman, a new sequel to “The Mummy” franchise is being developed with Brendan Fraser. It’s been 17 years since Fraser last played the role of Rick O’Connell in “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon”, which puts the actor on the older side for an Indiana Jones type of adventure. It’s possible this movie may be a passing of the torch kind of movie where Rick is working with the next generation of archaeologist adventurers. ‘Tomb of the Dragon’ established that Rick’s son Alex (Luke Ford) is an archaeologist, so this storyline is one of the most likely.
Back in 2017, Universal wanted to create.a shared universe that included it’s monster franchises, planning for the Tom Cruise ‘Mummy’ movie to be the first film in that ‘Dark Universe’. To hype up the release of the film, Universal released an image on the ‘Dark Universe’ Twitter account featuring Cruise, Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem and Russell Crowe. Depp was supposed to play the invisible man while Bardem would be transformed into Frankenstein’s monster. In the universe, following “The Mummy”, there was supposed to be a remake of “Bride of Frankenstein” starring Angelina Jolie scheduled to be released in 2019, but the failure of “The Mummy” which lost over $60 million got Jolie’s remake cancelled. All of the other projects were never brought up again and Universal officially canceled the ‘Dark Universe’ in 2019.
According to know industry insider and generally accurate leaker Daniel Richtman, a new sequel to “The Mummy” franchise is being developed with Brendan Fraser.”
It’s possibly due to Brendan Fraser’s recent increased popularity that Universal decided to change gears and go with a proven formula that they know works in the box office with over $1.2 billion worldwide made off of the original trilogy in theaters. Could Fraser’s MummyVerse become the new start of the ‘Dark Universe’ 2.0? If the movie manages to pull off a big win at the box office, anything is possible. The first sequel to “The Mummy” spawned “The Scorpion King” franchise, which gave Dwayne Johnson his start in acting and created a five movie franchise… if we’re counting straight-to-video.
A reboot for “The Scorpion King” was announced back in November of 2020, with a modern day story and Johnson signed on as an Executive Producer. It’s possible this next ‘Mummy’ movie has some type of end credits scene or teaser that sets up the ‘Scorpion King’ reboot. There haven’t been any updates about that project in some time, but it is feasible that the two could be connected and Universal would try to get as much bang for their buck as possible. Fraser has become a hot commodity in Hollywood again and has a new film coming out on November 21st through Searchlight Pictures called “Rental Family”. The film centers around a lonely actor who lives in Tokyo and takes a job working at a rental family service to stand-in random roles in the lives of strangers. The film is Directed/Produced/Written by Hikari who has notably worked on “Beef” and “Tokyo Vice”.
It is unclear whether past co-stars from “The Mummy” franchise like Rachel Weisz will be appearing in the upcoming installment in the franchise, but it’s likely any actor that could still appear in the film would at least be approached for a cameo. Although the franchise put out it’s first part in 1999, the movie was being developed since the late 1980’s. Universal had George Romero write a treatment for the movie and the zombie genre godfather was attached to direct.
After that project fell apart, Universal tried again with Clive Barker signed on to direct after the solid success of “Hellraiser”. Barker’s take on the franchise ended p being too dark and sexual for the studios, so the project moved forward with Romero once again signed on to direct and hep write the script in 1994. Romero’s version was too dar and violent for the studio and the Director ended up once again moving on. Universal went through a few other iterations of the project before management was changed in 1998 due to box office failures and the new bigwigs felt pressure to make a big blockbuster.
A lifelong fan of the mummy as a horror figure named Stephen Sommers made his pitch for the 1999 version and Universal greenlit the project and even gave him a bigger budget. The studio’s gamble paid off and Fraser’s mummy franchise was born. Where a possible part 4 could go is anyone’s guess although it will likely be a family affair. Maybe Alex even has some kids by now?
What do you think? Are the leaks about the “Mummy’ sequel real? Will there be any connection to Tom Cruise’s universe killing version? What would ‘The Mummy 4’ be about if Rick got a happy ending already? Could Fraser just play a side character? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!