Brendan Fraser Blames This One Thing for The Mummy Reboot's Failure
Brendan Fraser didn't need to drag Tom Cruise to make his point — but he did make it, clearly and bluntly: the 2017 Mummy reboot failed because it forgot to be fun.
Speaking at Fan Expo Denver during a reunion panel for The Mummy (1999), Fraser joined co-stars John Hannah, Patricia Velasquez, and Oded Fehr to reflect on the franchise's staying power. The conversation inevitably drifted toward Universal's spectacular flop of a reboot, which was supposed to launch an interconnected Dark Universe and instead buried it before it even got out of the crypt.
When asked whether his version had ever considered crossover plans (à la Hugh Jackman's Van Helsing), Fraser didn't bite. But when it came to why Cruise's Mummy missed the mark, he didn't hesitate:
"I really don't know. I know Tom Cruise tried to make his movie and it ain't easy! We all know how hard this movie is to make…"
And then he added the real kicker:
"With the exception of three [The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor], the thing with all of these films is that, at least it was fun, it was a thrill ride, and you wanted to do it again."
That, in a nutshell, is what Fraser thinks killed Universal's reboot: it was all world-building, no joy. His version had swashbuckling charm, horror and comedy in equal doses, and characters that felt like they were in on the ride with you. Cruise's version? Not so much.
Let's break down how hard the 2017 reboot flopped:
- Budget: estimated at $195 million
- Box office: $410 million worldwide (barely enough after marketing costs)
- Estimated loss: around $95–100 million
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 15%
- Audience reaction: mostly confusion and early exits
Universal tried to turn Cruise's Nick Morton into some kind of undead superhero, set up Russell Crowe's Dr. Jekyll as the franchise puppetmaster, and teased a whole monster-verse future with Johnny Depp (The Invisible Man) and Javier Bardem (Frankenstein's Monster) waiting in the wings. They even released a now-infamous promo photo with the whole "Dark Universe" cast — the cinematic equivalent of putting the cart 10 miles ahead of the horse.
It all collapsed after just one film.
Fraser's verdict? If you don't give people what they actually want, you're doomed. Or as he put it:
"The answer is you've just got to give everybody what they really really want. If you stray from that path…"
Well, The Mummy (2017) is what happens. Universal took a sure thing — monsters, action, mythology — and decided audiences wanted something grim, self-serious, and franchise-obsessed. What they actually wanted was a fun, pulpy adventure. Like the one Fraser gave them in 1999.
So if Universal ever decides to open that sarcophagus again, they might want to remember what made the first one a classic: it didn't take itself so damn seriously.