'The Mummy' Franchise Is Coming Back With Brendan Fraser As The Lead, But More Importantly Rachel Weisz Is Finally Returning As Evie

Frank Trapper. Getty Images.

Yesterday we got some shocking yet very exciting news in the movie world. 'The Mummy' movie franchise is making a return! While that sentence alone will almost certainly be met with groans, the next tidbit changes everything. Brendan Fraser AND Rachel Weisz are both returning! 

This is actually fucking awesome. 

Brendan Fraser, who led the trio of movies made between 1999 and 2008, and Rachel Weisz, who starred in the first two, are in talks to star in a new Mummy sequel.

Radio Silence is set to direct. The filmmaking team of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett broke through with the clever and fun horror movie Ready or Not in 2019 and are known for helping revitalize the Scream franchise with a pair of movies in 2022 and 2023.

I don't know about you, but the first two 'Mummy' films are an absolute delight. They're the definition of TNT or FX movies you scroll by when you don't know what to watch and boom, next thing you know there goes two hours. Oh shucks, a cool treasure hunter and a hot British librarian accidentally wake up an ancient supernatural beast who ruled during the Egyptian times. Twist my arm, I guess I'll watch. These movies rock and they are prime Brendan Fraser. With his comeback in full swing he's winding back the clock and I love it. 

Now here's the important part. They are NOT rebooting the franchise (that'd be fucking ridiculous). They are seemingly continuing after the SECOND movie. 

It is unclear who else could return. One source describes the project as not a reboot, but rather a sequel that would disregard the events of the third movie. David Coggeshall wrote the screenplay.

Why is this so important? Well, because the third movie 'The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor' is beyond horrific and inexplicably replaces the beautiful Rachel Weisz with Maria Bello. It's a slap in the face for those who waited seven years for a third installment. Weisz's departure was her own call, with the timing of the film not working for her as she had just finished filming a movie and was taking care of her newborn. They moved ahead with the movie thinking nothing would change, but the movie flopped bad and people hated the new Evie. I honestly forgot it even happened. The great news here is we're completely ignoring anything that happened in the 3rd movie. Genius. This franchise needs Rachel Weisz back as Evie. 

The plan is simple. Get the gang headed back to Egypt, wake up Ihmotep, cast someone cool as Rick and Evie's son, and let's kill some mummies for 2 hours. Oh and bring back Oded Fehr for his role as Ardeth Bay. This guy ruled. 

P.S. It's still hard to believe how bad Tom Cruise's Mummy movie was.