“Legacy sequels” are all the rage, so it’s no surprise that The Mummy is coming back. That fits a franchise revolving around the undead. The 1999 Mummy was a smash hit, with Brendan Fraser as Rick O’Connell, a 1930s adventurer who joins librarian Evie O’Connell (Rachel Weisz in her breakout role) in a search for a lost Egyptian treasure, only to inadvertently resurrect an evil sorcerer (Arnold Vosloo).
The film had a 2001 sequel, The Mummy Returns, which was slightly less successful. In 2008 came The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, but Weisz elected not to return, so Evie was played by Maria Bello.
The franchise is now returning under the stewardship of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the directing duo known professionally as Radio Silence, who are writing and producing a fourth film with now-Oscar winners Fraser and Weisz both returning. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the pair was asked whether this new film still considers Tomb of the Dragon Emperor canon.
In answer, Bettinelli-Olpin dryly replied, "Well, Rachel is in this one." Gillett added, “That should answer the question for you.”
Tomb of the Dragon Emperor was a departure for the series as it was set in 1946, with Rick and Evie helped by their grown son. While it had some great special effects, it was seen as a disappointment by fans of the franchise, with the titular Dragon Emperor (Jet Li) lacking the same charisma as Vosloo’s Imhotep. The recasting of Bello also weakened Evie’s character.
So it sounds like this means the new film will ignore Tomb of the Dragon emperor, but what else can we expect?
What is coming in The Mummy 4?
The directors emphasized being huge fans of the franchise, with Betinelli-Olpin promising the script by Dave Coggeshall "had all of the heart and the character that you could hope for."
"I don't think Brendan and Rachel are getting involved unless they love that script, and what they read, I think they really liked," he explained. "And it's a good script. It's gonna be fun to make."
Just what the script entails is hard to pin down. It would be fun to set the story in World War II and have Rick and Evie on an adventure there, perhaps involving a new mummy. However, the film would have to address how Fraser and Weisz are much older than when the second film came out. That might mean a tale set in the 1950s or even ‘60s, which runs the risk of tough storytelling (remember Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny?)
However, the franchise still has a huge fanbase, and the filmmakers seem intent on giving them a classic adventure tale. Maybe they’ll throw in how Tomb of the Dragon Emperor was just a novel written by Evie or some other in-world joke. The fun will be seeing Fraser and Weisz reunited on screen, perhaps with Rick and Evie's son Alex becoming a new hero. It just goes to show that, like its main character, The Mummy finds a way to always return.