Brendan Fraser has had one hell of a career. He went from playing a lovable goofball in Encino Man to battling dinosaurs in Journey to the Center of the Earth, winning an Oscar for The Whale, and, of course, becoming an unlikely action hero in one of the biggest adventure franchises of the late ’90s and early 2000s.
Now, one of Fraser’s most iconic performances is suddenly having a moment on Netflix.
That movie is The Mummy, the 1999 adventure blockbuster that turned Fraser’s Rick O’Connell into an enduring pop-culture icon. The Mummy is currently climbing Netflix’s charts, just as the first major set photos from long-awaited The Mummy 4 have started making the rounds online.
The film entered Netflix’s top 10 this week, according to FlixPatrol. While the new installment isn’t set to release until 2027, it’s never too early to jump back in and revisit the Sahara Desert thriller.
What is The Mummy about?
Released in 1999, The Mummy follows Rick O’Connell, an American adventurer who teams up with librarian and aspiring Egyptologist Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) and her brother Jonathan (John Hannah) to explore the ancient Egyptian city of Hamunaptra. Unfortunately, their expedition accidentally awakens Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), an ancient high priest cursed to live as an undead monster.
What follows is basically the perfect ’90s adventure-movie cocktail: ancient curses, supernatural horrors, treasure hunting, romance, explosions, and Fraser throwing himself into increasingly ridiculous fights.
Image: Universal Studios
The movie was a huge success and spawned The Mummy Returns in 2001, bringing back Fraser, Weisz, Hannah, and Vosloo, while introducing Dwayne Johnson as the Scorpion King. A third movie, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, followed in 2008, moving the action to China and replacing Weisz with Maria Bello as Evelyn.
The franchise later got a reboot with Tom Cruise in 2017, but that version went in a very different direction and failed to launch the planned “Dark Universe.”
Image: Universal Pictures
The Mummy 4 is currently filming with Fraser and Weisz both reprising their roles. Weisz’s return is particularly notable since she hasn’t played Evelyn since The Mummy Returns. The new movie is expected to ignore the events of Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, effectively bringing the original Rick and Evie back together for the first time in more than 25 years.
The new movie is currently scheduled to hit theaters on Oct. 15, 2027.
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