While story details are scarce, it’s a safe bet there would have been plenty of South American mummies and some form of ancient curse. Antonio Banderas was to play the villain, continuing an eclectic roster of undead opponents following Arnold Vosloo’s Imhotep, Dwayne Johnson’s Scorpion King, and Jet Li’s Dragon Emperor.
Universal was once developing a fourth movie that would have seen the O’Connell clan travel to South America, only for waning interest and their desire for a connected universe to derail the project. Little is known about the proposed fourth entry beyond the premise and working title, The Mummy: Rise of the Aztec, according to Film Stories. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor from 2008 is the last audiences saw of adventurer Rick O’Connell (Fraser) before the franchise was rebooted with Cruise, female mummy Sofia Boutella, and a modern-day setting.
Related: The Mummy Movies Ranked, Worst To Best While inferior to the original, the second installment was still hugely popular, with a third movie eventually arriving seven years later. Released in 1999, the film was an instant box office success, and the 2001 sequel The Mummy Returns was swiftly greenlit. However, Cruise is certainly no Fraser, and the reboot was devoid of the charm and old-school fun that made the movie such a beloved blockbuster.ĭirector Stephen Sommers reinvented Universal’s classic 1932 The Mummy, offering an Indiana Jones-style adventure that effectively paid homage to its monster movie roots while injecting loads of tongue-in-cheek humor. With the Mission: Impossible movies continuing to thrive at the box office, it’s easy to see why Universal brought in Tom Cruise to headline their potential new franchise. But as Brendan Fraser said, it has to be fun.Ĭheck out our 2019 Release Schedule to see what’s headed to theaters this fall and stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest movie news.Universal failed to kickstart the Dark Universe with 2017’s The Mummy reboot, having previously abandoned plans for The Mummy 4 starring Brendan Fraser that promised a more engaging story. Universal has abandoned the Dark Universe and is instead moving forward with individual projects like Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man and Paul Feig’s Dark Army, so perhaps the time is right. And in a marketplace dominated by nostalgic properties, the prospect of a fourth Brendan Fraser Mummy movie is highly appealing, especially as we continue to wait for Indiana Jones 5.
That choice obviously didn’t work out though as Universal’s Dark Universe proved dead on arrival with the 2017 reboot of The Mummy starring Tom Cruise.
This was around the time that the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s success and impact on the industry was becoming abundantly clear so Universal’s decision to reboot The Mummy to pursue the de rigueur film franchise format of the day is understandable. Rather than continue the existing, financially successful franchise with a fourth film, which was rumored online to be titled The Mummy 4: Rise of the Aztec, Universal decided to reboot the property in the hopes of starting a cinematic universe instead. Based on the description The Mummy 4 wouldn’t have broken the mold, but it still sounds like it could have been a fun movie.