Brendan Fraser is open to returning for a fourth installment in The Mummy franchise if the right idea comes along.
"I don't know how it would work," Fraser told Variety about a fourth Mummy movie. "But I'd be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit." From 1999 to 2008, Fraser starred as adventurer Rick O'Connell in three Mummy films -- The Mummy, The Mummy Returns and The Mummy: Tomb of the Emperor Dragon. The trilogy contributed to Fraser's movie star status in the 1990s and 2000s, grossing more than $1.4 billion worldwide.
Fraser sustained several major injuries throughout his work on The Mummy trilogy. While shooting the hanging scene from the first film, Fraser was choked out by the noose and had to be resuscitated by emergency medical personnel. According to the actor, by the third film, he was "put together with tape and ice" and "building an exoskeleton for myself daily." He also underwent a partial knee replacement, vocal cord repairs and a laminectomy, a surgery that involves removing a portion of the vertebra, to alleviate existing injuries.
Despite these injuries, Fraser was set to return for a fourth Mummy film following the release of 2008's Tomb of the Emperor Dragon. The actor was to be joined by co-star Maria Bello, who played Evelyn O'Connell in the third film (taking over from Rachel Weisz). Luke Ford, who played Rick and Evelyn O'Connell's son Alex, was also set to return, having signed on for three more entries. The film was reportedly titled The Mummy: Rise of the Aztec and would have featured Antonio Banderas as the villain. After years of development, Universal canceled the project in 2012 in favor of developing a reboot.
Released in 2017, the Tom Cruise-led reboot, also called The Mummy, was greeted by mostly negative reviews from critics and audiences. The film was also a box office disappointment, earning $410 million against a $125–195 million budget. Fraser recently spoke out about the reboot, attributing its failure to a lack of fun.
Returning to the Mummy franchise would add to Fraser's recent career resurgence, which some have called "The Brenaissance." The fan-favorite actor's comeback is due in part to his involvement in films like Steven Soderbergh's No Sudden Move, Darren Aronofsky's The Whale, and Martin Scorsese's upcoming Killers of the Flower Moon. For his performance in The Whale, Fraser has received standing ovations at various screenings in Venice, Toronto and London, and many critics count Fraser among the early frontrunners for Best Actor at next year's Academy Awards.
In addition to The Whale and Killers of the Flower Moon, Fraser can next be seen in Brothers, a comedy film headlined by Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage, whose release date has not yet been set. The actor was also set to star as villain Ted Carson/Firefly in HBO Max's Batgirl before Warner Bros. Discovery suddenly axed the project in August, a decision Fraser called "disappointing."
Source: Variety