Explaining ‘The Mummy’ Universe – Where the Latest Brendan Fraser & Rachel Weisz Entry Falls in It
What To Know
- Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz are in talks to return for a fourth installment of Stephen Sommers’ The Mummy franchise.
- This new project is separate from both the original Universal Monster Mummy films and the failed 2017 Dark Universe.
- In addition to this continuation, New Line Cinema is developing its own unrelated Mummy reboot set for release in April 2026.
Universal’s Brendan Fraser-led The Mummy franchise is about to get a resurrection.
Fraser, who played Rick O’Connell in the first three Stephen Sommers-universe Mummy films, and Rachel Weisz, who portrayed love interest Evelyn in the first two entries, are in talks to star in a potential fourth installment.
Filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett of Radio Silence are set to direct the project. Best known for their darkly comedic horror hits Ready or Not and the recent Scream installments, the duo is expected to inject both scares and sharp humor into the franchise.
Universal/courtesy Everett Collection
The Mummy has appeared in nearly a century’s worth of horror, action, and even comedy films, which makes it a little tricky to pinpoint where this new take fits within the long-running legacy.
In an effort to understand where this fourth take stands, let’s unwrap each Mummy franchise.
The Classic Universal Monster series
Directed by Karl Freund in 1932, the classic Universal picture The Mummy starred Boris Karloff as Imhotep a.k.a. Ardath Bey in this tale of an ancient Egyptian priest named Imhotep who is accidentally resurrected after archaeologists read a forbidden scroll. He disguises himself as a modern Egyptian nobleman while searching for the reincarnation of his lost love.
Courtesy of Everett Collection
Considered a film of massive historical importance, it’s often regarded as a landmark of early horror cinema. Its success spawned a full franchise of sequels: The Mummy’s Hand (1940), The Mummy’s Tomb (1942), The Mummy’s Ghost (1944), The Mummy’s Curse (1944), and the well-regarded comedy crossover Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955), all of which remain canon within the original Universal Monster universe.
This reboot is not connected to the classic Universal Monster series.
The Hammer Films
The 1959 film The Mummy is part of the larger Mummy movie tradition, but it does not directly sit in the continuity of the original Universal series. In the film, British archaeologists disturb a tomb in Egypt, and a resurrected mummy (played by Christopher Lee) is sent to England to avenge the desecration.
Courtesy of Everett Collection
The Hammer film series includes The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964), The Mummy’s Shroud (1967), and Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (1971).
This possible new installment is not connected to the Hammer films.
The Stephen Sommers Movies
Director Stephen Sommers directed (and created the tone for) the 1999–2008 action-adventure reboot era of The Mummy franchise. This leaned more into an Indiana Jones-type feel rather than horror, rebooting the Mummy for a new generation.
Courtesy of Everett Collection
The first film of the franchise was 1999’s The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, and Arnold Vosloo. It followed a treasure hunter and a plucky librarian who unleashed holy hell when they accidentally resurrected a cursed ancient priest, Imhotep, and must stop him before he unleashes a deadly plague and restores his full power.
It was a fun reimagining of the original story that introduced the classic character to a new generation of moviegoers. The film’s success led to 2001’s The Mummy Returns, which reunited Rick and Evelyn, now joined by their young son, as they battled a resurrected Imhotep and a new supernatural threat: the Scorpion King (Dwayne Johnson).
The follow-up, 2008’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, shifted the action from Egypt to China and notoriously replaced Weisz with Maria Bello. It also featured Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li, meaning that, at the 2023 Oscars, half the cast of Mummy 3 walked away with Academy Awards.
The possible fourth installment will be a continuation of this series.
The Dark Universe Movies
In the 2010s, the “Dark Universe” was Universal’s attempt to reboot its classic monster characters into a larger connected cinematic universe. 2017’s The Mummy was the launch film. It starred Tom Cruise and followed U.S. Army Sergeant Nick Morton as he accidentally unleashed an ancient Egyptian princess-mummy named Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), who sought to resurrect the god Set and wreak havoc in the modern world.
Courtesy of Everett Collection
Despite a large budget and a big star, it underperformed domestically, and critics were harsh. As a result, Universal abandoned the Dark Universe, which had included Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man.
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema’s version of The Mummy is a fresh reboot of the classic monster franchise, written and directed by Lee Cronin. It stars Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, Verónica Falcón, and May Calamawy, and is slated for release on April 17, 2026.
But wait? Where does The Scorpion King fall into all this?
Buckle up, buttercup. We’ll try to make this as painless as possible, but early ’00s CGI doesn’t help the matter.
The character The Scorpion King (real name Mathayus) was first introduced in the film The Mummy Returns (2001). The character Mathayus, a.k.a. The Scorpion King, was portrayed by Dwayne Johnson in his first leading role in a feature.
Universal. Courtesy Everett Collection.
The first film did well, though it was not well-received by critics, and it launched a fairly dubious franchise built around mediocre CGI, to put it kindly. This included The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior (2008), The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption (2012), The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power (2015), and The Scorpion King: Book of Souls (2018), all of which were direct‐to‐video releases.
Where does that leave this new Mummy?
Fingers crossed, this will continue the adventures of Rick and Evelyn, now 30 years later, so possibly with their son and/or grandchildren. At the end of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, it was hinted that the mummies in Peru were about to rise, thus setting up a sequel that was never made.
However, in The Mummy Returns, Evelyn discovered she was the reincarnation of Princess Nefertiri, daughter of Pharaoh Seti I, so the film might decide to build on that legacy instead. Time will tell.
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