Despite The Mummy movies all being produced within a decade of one another, Brendan Fraser's hero Rick O'Connell aged really fast. The Mummy is a blockbuster saga that feels like it could only have happened at a very specific point in time. The film was a remake of the Universal Monster classic but after failed horror-based pitches from filmmakers George A Romero and Clive Barker, Stephen Sommers' idea to make an Indiana Jones-style adventure sold the studio on the project.
The Mummy's use of (for the time) groundbreaking CGI and the considerable star power of Fraser and co-star Rachel Weisz helped it become a surprise success. The film spawned two direct Mummy movie sequels in 2001 and 2008, in addition to a surprisingly robust spin-off series. Dwayne Johnson reprised his titular role for 2002's The Scorpion King, which received four, Johnson-less sequels. The star is also behind a plan to reboot the character - though it's unlikely he will return to the role.
The Mummy also made Fraser a movie star, with the film combining both his comedy chops and action hero bonafides. One of the stranger decisions made with the sequel was the call to add a son for Rick and Weisz's Evie, presumably to give younger viewers an audience surrogate character. Unfortunately, the response to Alex was quite poor, with the character being irritatingly precocious. It also necessitated the need to age up his parents, which is why Brendan Fraser's Rick leapfrogs in age.
O'Connell Ages FAST In The Mummy Trilogy
Audiences first met Rick in The Mummy during a prologue set in Hamunaptra in 1923. Since O'Connell was born in 1902, this would make him 20-21 during this sequence. The story then jumps ahead three years to 1926, making the character 23-24 during the bulk of The Mummy, while Evelyn - born in 1903 - was 22 to 23. The introduction of Alex in The Mummy Returns meant Rick and Evie had to be aged up - despite Fraser and Weisz looking essentially the same. The sequel takes place in 1933, making Rick between 30 to 31, while Evie would be 29 to 30.
The Mummy sequel creates a strange plot hole, with Alex claiming to be eight years old. For that timeline to work, he would have to have been born in 1925 - about a year before his parents even met. The Mummy: The Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor featured an even greater leap in time, being set in 1946 with Rick and Evie - now played by Maria Bello - being retired from adventuring. Rick would be 43 to 44 in the sequel's timeline, while Fraser himself was 40 when the film was released. Evie would be 42 to 43, while Bello was 41 at the time.
How Old Would Brendan Fraser's Rick Be In The Mummy 4?
One of the critiques of The Mummy sequels was despite these time leaps, Brendan Fraser - whose next film is The Whale - himself barely aged. Despite the trilogy charting his early 20s to his early 40s, Fraser's Rick barely obtained any wrinkles along the way. The actor is in his early 50s currently, so if a new sequel was to happen, it would likely have to take place in the 60s. This would put Rick himself in his late 50s, though as Harrison Ford has shown with his later Indy adventures, age is only a state of mind when it comes to more adventures.