A beloved franchise may soon return — and fans are overjoyed. Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz are reportedly in talks to star in a fourth installment of The Mummy, set to be helmed by Ready or Not and Scream 5 and 6 filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, known as Radio Silence.
The 1999 film The Mummy, an action-adventure remake of the 1932 Universal Pictures monster movie of the same name, was set in 1920s Egypt and starred Fraser as a rogue treasure hunter and Weisz as a bookish librarian who team up to find the lost city of Hamunaptra — inadvertently awakening the titular Mummy, who is hell-bent on revenge. The second film, 2001’s The Mummy Returns, reunites the two for yet another adventure, this time as a married couple with a son named Alex, played by Freddie Boath.
Should the upcoming film happen, it will be the first time Fraser and Weisz appear onscreen together since The Mummy Returns. Weisz did not return for the 2008 third film, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and was replaced by Maria Bello. According to the Hollywood Reporter, David Coggeshall’s screenplay for the new film is a sequel that disregards the events of the third movie. Yahoo reached out to Universal for comment.
Fans are thrilled by the possibility of a new film in The Mummy franchise. Instagram comments on Variety’s post about the news include gushing words like, “OMG!!! I just let out a little scream on the NYC subway. This makes me so so so so happy” and “This is the timeline bounce back we’ve been waiting for everyone.” A third wrote, “Thank god, SOMETHING to look forward to in these dark times.”
Several fans also had a suggestion for the upcoming film. “David Corenswet better pick up that phone call to be their child,” one joked, with several other comments name-checking him as a potential Alex contender.
Elsewhere on the internet, many called The Mummy revival a win for bisexuals — a longstanding meme.
Universal previously rebooted The Mummy in 2017 with Tom Cruise in the lead role. The film was intended to be part of a so-called “Dark Universe” franchise, which planned to include a series of interconnected films such as The Invisible Man starring Johnny Depp and Frankenstein’s Monster with Javier Bardem. However, after Cruise’s The Mummy failed to meet expectations, the franchise plan was scrapped.
