Brendan Fraser opens up about a potential Mummy 4 movie franchise comeback. Before becoming a leading action star, Fraser made a name for himself in smaller comedy productions like Encino Man and Airheads. But thanks to the success of the 1997 cult classic George of the Jungle, starring Fraser, director Stephen Sommers cast the actor as Rick O'Connell in the swashbuckling action-adventure film The Mummy, that would launch Fraser into Hollywood stardom.
Fraser reprised the role in two sequels, 2001's The Mummy Returns and 2008's The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. After that third installment, there was an attempted reboot in 2017 starring Tom Cruise, which was a notorious box office bomb. As the Mummy franchise is dormant, Fraser is enjoying a career renaissance, most notably with his critically acclaimed performance in The Whale. With Fraser on the comeback trail, and legacy sequels one of the more popular Hollywood trends, some are wondering if Fraser would ever return to Rick O'Connell again.
Fraser opens up with Variety about the possibility of a Mummy 4 movie return. The actor wasn't sure how a Mummy reboot could work, but he seemed open to the idea. Check out his comments below:
“I don’t know how it would work. But I’d be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit.”
How The Mummy 4 Could Follow Recent Action Movie Reboot Trends
Unfortunately, Fraser does not expand much on his concerns or what the "right concept" for The Mummy 4 could be. However, he alludes to the difficulties and successful aspects of his entries later in the Variety interview when discussing Universal's 2017 reboot, which could ultimately be what a Mummy 4 needs to attract the actor and audiences. Fraser says that Cruise's Mummy lacked the fun, thrilling action elements that the 2000s Mummy films had in spades. Therefore, a Mummy 4 should probably recapture the exciting and adventurous tones that made Fraser's entries an enjoyable viewing experience for audiences.
While Fraser is open to returning for a Mummy 4, the actor is much different now compared to his last appearance as O'Connell in 2008. He has aged nearly 15 years and undergone many surgeries to address his stunt-related injuries in the early Mummy films, so the actor may not be able to engage in the same kinds of intensive action sequences anymore. However, stars like Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones, Bruce Willis in Die Hard, and Arnold Schwarzenneger in The Terminator demonstrated that older action stars can still successfully pull off modern genre entries. Following those trends, a proper Fraser return to the Mummy franchise would probably involve the actor taking minimal risks with stuntwork and passing the torch to a younger generation. Still, audiences would undoubtedly love to see O'Connell return to the silver screen.
Source: Variety