Brendan Fraser Says It’s Time To Give Fans The Mummy 4 They’ve Been Waiting For

So, yes, that rumor about The Mummy 4 wasn’t a mirage. Brendan Fraser is talking about it like a guy who’s had his bags packed for years, and the creative team Universal’s circling suggests this isn’t just nostalgia bait. The question now is whether the studio actually lets him and Rachel Weisz crack open the sarcophagus one more time.

Where things stand right now

A few weeks back, word got out that Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz were in talks to return for a fourth Mummy movie. Now Fraser’s telling the Associated Press he’s beyond ready after 17 years away from the franchise and, frankly, sounds like he’s been waiting for this version the whole time.

'The one I wanted to make was never made... The one I wanted to make is forthcoming. And I’ve been waiting 20 years for this call... Now? It’s time to give the fans what they want.'

Behind the camera, the plan (as of now) is for Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett of Ready or Not to direct from a script by David Coggeshall, who wrote The Family Plan. That’s a fresh, horror-forward duo paired with a writer who can do clean, commercial action-comedy. On paper, that combo makes sense for this series.

Fast recap, because it’s been a minute

• 1999: The Mummy hits, pulpy adventure and all, and becomes a crowd-pleaser.
• 2001: The Mummy Returns doubles down with bigger set pieces and, yes, that CG Scorpion King.
• 2008: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor shifts to China with a new creative team and gets hammered by critics. It also posts the lowest box office of the bunch.
• 2017: Universal reboots with Tom Cruise to launch the Dark Universe. It stalls immediately, and the shared-monster universe idea goes back in the box.

Fraser on what went sideways (and why he’s not done)

Fraser is pretty candid about why the third movie felt different. He points to corporate synergy in 2008: NBC had the Olympics that year, so the studio steered the story to China. He says they had a different crew, did their best, and he’s proud of it as a standalone movie — but it wasn’t the one he was trying to make. That’s the subtext, and honestly, it tracks.

He’s also not taking shots at the Cruise reboot so much as acknowledging how tricky the tone is with these movies. Earlier this year he basically said: making a Mummy movie is hard, and when it works, it’s a fun thrill ride that makes you want another. When it doesn’t, you feel it.

Who else might come back?

Fraser and Weisz are the names in talks. Everyone else is a question mark. If we’re wish-listing, bringing back Oded Fehr as Ardeth Bay would be a layup. He was a stealth MVP, and his dust-ups with Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje in the sequel still rule.

The read on all this

This isn’t a done deal, but Fraser’s tone is not casual. Seventeen years after Dragon Emperor, he’s framing this as the version he wanted to make in the first place. If Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett lean into the swashbuckling-horror balance that made the first two click — and the studio doesn’t over-engineer it — The Mummy 4 could actually feel like a welcome resurrection.