For fans of the original Mummy films, the news arrived wrapped in a pleasingly neat piece of diplomatic understatement. Asked directly by Entertainment Weekly whether they considered 2008's The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor to be part of their film's canon, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett offered a two-sentence answer that said everything. "Well, Rachel is in this one," Bettinelli-Olpin said. Gillett's response: "That should answer the question for you."
It does. Weisz did not appear in the 2008 threequel, so her return to the franchise is particularly thrilling for fans who felt the series lost its footing when she departed. Maria Bello replaced Rachel Weisz, who had played Evelyn in the first two films, and the result drew a lukewarm critical reception. With middling CG effects and a distinct lack of fun, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor found the series past its prime, according to the critical consensus at the time.
The film was a commercial success, grossing $405.8 million worldwide, though it was the lowest-grossing entry in the trilogy and received generally negative reviews from critics. The franchise abruptly ended after Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, budgeted at $175 million, barely made a profit. Subsequent attempts to revive the property — including a 2017 Tom Cruise-led reboot intended to anchor Universal's ill-fated Dark Universe — failed to generate comparable enthusiasm.
Universal Pictures has dated the new movie, directed by Radio Silence's Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, for a wide theatrical release on May 19, 2028. Fraser and Weisz have closed deals to reprise their roles as adventurer Rick O'Connell and Egyptologist Evelyn O'Connell, with plot details being kept under wraps.
The screenplay was written by David Coggeshall, whose credits include The Family Plan and Orphan: First Kill. The directing duo's confidence in the material is notable. Bettinelli-Olpin told Entertainment Weekly: "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."
Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett are best known for helping revive the Scream franchise with its fifth and sixth instalments, and the Ready or Not series. The new Mummy brings Radio Silence back in business with Universal after the duo directed the 2024 vampire film Abigail. Their track record with legacy sequels — films that honour original continuity while reaching new audiences — makes them a credible choice for a franchise that needs to rebuild goodwill after more than a decade of misfires.
The 1999 film and its 2001 sequel The Mummy Returns were major box office hits, reviving the classic monster movie IP and establishing Fraser as a bankable action star. Producer Sean Daniel, who has been involved in every instalment of the $1.8 billion-grossing franchise since 1999, also returns for the new film. Fraser will also serve as an executive producer alongside Hivemind's Jason F. Brown and Denis Stewart.
The decision to step over Tomb of the Dragon Emperor rather than directly address it in the narrative is, frankly, the sensible commercial call. Franchise revivals that burden new audiences with apologies for old instalments rarely succeed. The approach also reflects a broader shift in how studios handle continuity: audiences have grown sophisticated enough to accept that a franchise can selectively acknowledge its own history without elaborate in-universe explanation. The Scream films that Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett revived operated on precisely the same logic.
Whether The Mummy 4 ultimately justifies the nearly 27-year wait between the original and this new chapter will depend entirely on the script and the chemistry that made the first two films work. The directors' insistence that both Fraser and Weisz signed on because they genuinely liked what they read is, at minimum, a promising sign. The film is set to hit theatres on May 19, 2028, almost 30 years after the original graced screens in 1999. That is a long time to keep a franchise on ice, and audiences will be watching closely to see whether the thaw is worth it.