The Mummy 4 Is Real: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and John Hannah Return for a 2028 Sequel

For the better part of two decades, the sand kept settling. Universal tried a darker Mummy, a shared-universe Mummy, a Mummy without the sunlit swagger that made the franchise a household name — and none of it stuck. Now the studio has done the one thing audiences have asked for since 2001: it has put the original adventurers back on the map. The fourth film in the Brendan Fraser Mummy series is officially happening, it has a date, and the O'Connell family is intact.

Universal has set the untitled fourth Mummy for a wide theatrical release on May 19, 2028, with Fraser and Rachel Weisz confirmed to return as Rick and Evelyn O'Connell. John Hannah has since been confirmed to rejoin them as Evelyn's brother Jonathan Carnahan, restoring the trio whose bickering, bantering chemistry carried the 1999 film and its sequel. Nearly thirty years after a Cairo librarian and a jailbird adventurer stumbled into Hamunaptra, the series is picking the thread back up where fans actually left it.

Everything officially confirmed

• Brendan Fraser returns as Rick O'Connell, the role he originated in 1999.
• Rachel Weisz returns as Evelyn — her first appearance in the franchise since 2001's The Mummy Returns.
• John Hannah returns as Jonathan Carnahan, making him the only other actor besides Fraser to appear in every film in the series.
• Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett — the Radio Silence duo behind Ready or Not, Scream (2022), Scream VI and Abigail — direct.
• David Coggeshall (The Family Plan, Orphan: First Kill) wrote the screenplay.
• Sean Daniel, who has produced every entry in the franchise since 1999, produces alongside Project X Entertainment's William Sherak, James Vanderbilt and Paul Neinstein.
• Universal Pictures releases the film theatrically on May 19, 2028.
• The film is positioned as a continuation of the original adventure series rather than a reboot; plot details have not been released.

That last point matters more than a release date. This is a legacy sequel in the truest sense: the same characters, the same tonal lineage, the same producer who shepherded the series from the beginning. What Universal has not announced is a title, a story, a villain, or a production start date. Everything beyond the list above is, for now, speculation.

Brendan Fraser as Rick O'Connell

Rick O'Connell was never a brooding hero. He was a Foreign Legion survivor with a grin, a shotgun and an unshakable belief that the situation could still be salvaged — a matinee lead built out of Errol Flynn parts and delivered with a wink. Fraser's performance is the reason the 1999 film reads as adventure rather than horror: he plays fear honestly and then immediately makes a joke about it. After the critical resurgence of the past few years, watching him return to the role that made him a movie star carries a weight the original films never had to bear.

Rachel Weisz as Evelyn

Evelyn Carnahan is the franchise's engine. She is the one who reads the hieroglyphs, the one who insists on the expedition, the one whose curiosity opens the Book of the Dead in the first place. Weisz played her as clumsy and formidable at once — a scholar who is right about everything and slightly embarrassed about it. Her absence from the 2008 entry, where the role was recast with Maria Bello, is precisely why her return is the headline for so many fans. The O'Connells only work as a pair, and this is the first time in twenty-five years they will be one again on screen.

John Hannah as Jonathan Carnahan

Jonathan is the character audiences quote. A thief with far more charm than nerve, he sets the entire first film in motion by lifting a map off Rick in a Cairo prison, and he ends every adventure with something valuable quietly pocketed. Hannah has said for years that he would come back given the chance, and his confirmed return completes the family unit that the series has been missing. Read together, the three confirmed castings say something clear about intent: this is not a reinvention, it is a reunion.

Why the original trilogy became a classic

The 1999 Mummy succeeded by refusing to be one thing. It was a monster movie with the pacing of a serial, a romance with the manners of a screwball comedy, and a horror film that let you laugh three seconds after it scared you. The desert was shot like a place, not a backdrop. Practical sets, physical stunt work and crowd-scale spectacle gave the effects — groundbreaking for their moment — something tangible to sit against, which is why the film still plays today when contemporaries look dated.

Then there is Imhotep. Arnold Vosloo's high priest is a genuinely frightening creation who is also, crucially, a tragic one: a man punished for eternity over a love affair, clawing his way back through the centuries to finish it. He gave the franchise a villain worth returning to. And the Rick–Evelyn dynamic gave it a reason to keep going after the tomb was sealed — two people who like each other, argue constantly, and are visibly having a good time.

The 2008 entry, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, moved the action to China without Weisz and landed as the weakest-received of the three. The 2017 reboot starring Tom Cruise was a different proposition entirely — a darker, universe-building take with real ambition behind it — but it was pursuing a tone the audience for this franchise had never asked for. Neither film is why the series stalled; the series stalled because nobody had offered the version people actually wanted. Now someone has.

What fans hope to see (not confirmed)

None of the following has been announced by Universal. It is what the conversation around the announcement keeps circling back to, and it is worth separating clearly from fact.

• A return to Egypt and desert-set adventure rather than a relocation to a new continent.
• Practical sets, stunt work and in-camera scale supporting the digital effects.
• Imhotep acknowledged in some form, whether through Arnold Vosloo's return or through the mythology he left behind.
• The Medjai and Oded Fehr's Ardeth Bey woven back into the story.
• Alex O'Connell addressed rather than ignored, given where The Mummy Returns left the family.
• The original's tone: PG-13 adventure with real menace and a sense of humour about itself.

Timeline

• 1999 — The Mummy opens and grosses over $400 million worldwide, turning a Universal monster into an adventure franchise.
• 2001 — The Mummy Returns arrives with a bigger scale and an even larger global take.
• 2008 — The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor moves to China without Rachel Weisz; the series goes dormant.
• 2017 — A separate reboot starring Tom Cruise takes the property in a darker direction.
• Late 2025 — Trade reports first indicate Fraser and Weisz are circling a new sequel with Radio Silence attached.
• February 2026 — Universal officially confirms the film and dates it for May 19, 2028.
• March 2026 — John Hannah is confirmed to return as Jonathan Carnahan.
• May 19, 2028 — Theatrical release.

What we know so far

Confirmed: Brendan Fraser as Rick O'Connell; Rachel Weisz as Evelyn; John Hannah as Jonathan Carnahan; Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett directing; a screenplay by David Coggeshall; Sean Daniel, William Sherak, James Vanderbilt and Paul Neinstein producing; a Universal theatrical release on May 19, 2028; and a continuation of the original adventure series.

Not confirmed: the title, the plot, the shooting locations, the production start date, whether Imhotep or Arnold Vosloo appear, whether Oded Fehr returns as Ardeth Bey, how the film treats the events of the 2008 entry, and any rating or runtime details. We will update this piece as Universal confirms more.