The Mummy’s Worst Entry Could Set Up Brendan Fraser’s Next Adventure — Mexico, Peru, or the Aztec Empire

Universal might actually dust off The Mummy again — and not the Tom Cruise one. We are talking the Brendan Fraser/Rachel Weisz era. Seventeen years after Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, the franchise that refused to stay dead looks like it might be getting a proper sequel.

So... what is actually happening?

Per Deadline, Brendan Fraser and his longtime co-star Rachel Weisz are in talks to return to The Mummy for a new movie that is being set up as a continuation of the 2008 film, not a reboot. The idea, reportedly, is to reassemble the folks who made the original trilogy tick — producer Sean Daniel included — instead of starting from scratch like that 2017 Tom Cruise reboot that tanked and then went nowhere.

There are also reports that the directing duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are lined up to helm this new installment. No story details yet. Just to make things extra confusing, a totally separate reboot is said to be in development at Warner Bros, with Lee Cornin directing — a different project entirely from Universal's legacy sequel.

What we know so far

• Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz are in talks to return, according to Deadline.
• Universal is developing it as a direct sequel to 2008's Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, not a reboot.
• Producer Sean Daniel and other key players from the first three movies are expected to be involved.
• Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are reported to be directing.
• Plot is under wraps; no official story details yet.
• Separate from this, Warner Bros has its own unrelated reboot brewing with director Lee Cornin.
• Context: Universal already tried a reboot in 2017 with Tom Cruise, which flopped and fizzled.

Where the last movie left things

Tomb of the Dragon Emperor might be the series low point (Rotten Tomatoes has it at 13% critics, 30% audience), but it did leave a couple doorways open. The film played around with the Pool of Eternal Life, which basically made it very hard to kill Rick O'Connell for good — a handy card to play when you want your hero back a decade and a half later.

Back when the third movie came out, director Rob Cohen talked about looking beyond Egypt for mummy lore. In an MTV interview (via GeekTyrant), he pointed to cultures with their own preserved dead, and even mentioned how design work had pulled from real discoveries. His words:

"They have a lot of mummies. The Aztec culture had a lot of mummies and some of their mummy designs for the Foundation Army were taken from Mexican mummies that they have found. So I think that somehow that might make the basis of a good story."

Translation: if The Mummy 4 wants to move past pyramids and sandstorms, there are plenty of weird and interesting corners of the world to raid for inspiration.

Will a return actually work?

Here is the honest read: nostalgia is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, and that trick has been hit-or-miss lately. Adventure-horror isn’t the box-office sure thing it was in the 2000s, and even with Brendan Fraser’s very deserving comeback, star goodwill does not automatically equal tickets sold.

But it could work if they thread the needle — bring the swashbuckling charm back, give it a fresh hook, and resist doing a greatest-hits remix. If Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett can find that balance, there is a lane.

Quick refresher: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Director: Rob Cohen

Cast: Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello, Jet Li, Luke Ford, Michelle Yeoh

Rotten Tomatoes: 13% critics, 30% audience

Currently streaming on Apple TV (US), if you feel like revisiting yeti-fu and terracotta chaos.

Are you in for The Mummy 4 if Fraser and Weisz suit up again? Or should this one stay buried?