The Mummy franchise began in 1999 and introduced moviegoers to Brendan Fraser's Rick O'Connell and Rachel Weisz's Evelyn Carnahan. Following a clash with a resurrected Imhotep, they later returned in 2001's The Mummy Returns, which introduced Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's Scorpion King.
That character was front and centre in his own ill-fated spin-off, before the franchise rose from the dead in 2008 with The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. That also didn't receive the warmest response, even with Jet Li taking on a starring role.
Perhaps most disappointing for longtime fans was Weisz not reprising her role as Evelyn and being replaced by Coyote Ugly star Maria Bello.
The now-confirmed fourth chapter, helmed by Scream filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, a.k.a. Radio Silence, will reunite Fraser and Weisz, raising questions about what that means for Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
Asked by Entertainment Weekly (via SFFGazette.com) if that divisive third movie should be considered canon, Bettinelli-Olpin said, "Well, Rachel is in this one," with Gillett adding, "That should answer the question for you."
Praising Dave Coggeshall's script, the former said this movie "had all of the heart and the character that you could hope for," continuing, "I don't think Brendan and Rachel are getting involved unless they love that script, and what they read, I think they really liked. And it's a good script. It's gonna be fun to make." His fellow director called it "really beautiful and scary and sweeping, and it's awesome."
As for how they came to be involved with what Gillet calls a "dream project," it sounds like much of the credit belongs to William Sherrick, who has produced each of their movies, including Ready or Not, Scream and Scream VI, and Abigail.
"William's always way ahead of us," Gillett shared. "Matt and I, what we're doing next is we're finishing the day, we have eight setups, and William's always talking about the next thing. And he was like, 'Hey, I think I'm gonna get us Mummy.' In our heads, we're going, 'That'd be f---ing crazy. There's no way William's gonna pull it off.'"
"Cut to, we're finishing Abigail, and we're meeting with the writer, and we're designing a pitch," he recalled. "We have been in this line of work long enough to know that nothing is real until it's very, very real. It's all speculative, and it feels great to give energy to really wonderful ideas, but we have learned to keep those opportunities a little bit at arm's distance because it's just easy to have your heart broken."
As noted, David Coggeshall (The Family Plan, Orphan: First Kill) wrote the screenplay for this next instalment of the franchise, with Sean Daniel returning as a producer. William Sherak, James Vanderbilt and Paul Neinstein will produce through Project X Entertainment, and they're frequent collaborators with the movie's directors, Radio Silence.
The Mummy 4 arrives in theaters on May 19, 2028.