Brendan Fraser Is Up For Mummy 4, Comments On Why Tom Cruise's Reboot Didn't Work

One of actor Brendan Fraser's most iconic roles was that of Rick O'Connell in The Mummy franchise. He played the role three times, most recently in 2008's The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. In a new interview with Variety, Fraser said he is open to the possibility of coming back for a fourth film, while he also commented on why the Mummy reboot starring Tom Cruise may have fallen short.

"I don't know how it would work, but I'd be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit," Fraser, 53, said of the possibility of making a fourth Mummy movie.

Universal Pictures rebooted the Mummy series in 2017 with Cruise in the starring role in what was supposed to kickstart the movie studio's Dark Universe. The film made more than $400 million worldwide at the box office, but director Alex Kurtzman said there were "about a million things" he regrets about the film.

Reflecting on this new film, Fraser said the Cruise movie lacked an element of "fun" that Fraser's Mummy films had. "That was what was lacking in that incarnation. It was too much of a straight-ahead horror movie. The Mummy should be a thrill ride, but not terrifying and scary," he said, adding that this is no easy thing to accomplish. "I tried to do it three times," he said.

Fraser's next film is The Whale, from director Darren Aronofsky, which debuts in December and has already begun to generate Oscar buzz for Fraser. In 2023, Fraser will appear in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon with Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Jesse Plemons.