Brendan Fraser Blames the Olympics for The Mummy 3’s Strange Shift

Without question, we’re all looking forward to Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz returning for The Mummy 4. But we also have to admit that, while the 1999 original may be perfect, it’s a franchise with only one good entry. Instead of realizing that the second film failed because it strayed too far from the formula of The Mummy, producers made the bizarre decision to set the third film in China, abandoning the titular monster altogether.

As he looks forward to his fourth outing as Rick O’Connell, Fraser can now explain why The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor broke the mold in the particular way it did. “The third one was a model of … how can I say this to the AP reporter?” Fraser recently revealed. “NBC [owned by Universal Studios] had the rights to broadcast the Olympics that year. So they put two together and we went to China.”

And so, a franchise about an American and a Brit battling a mummy became a movie not about a mummy. Set 13 years after The Mummy Returns, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor sends Rick and Evie (now played by Maria Bello instead of Weisz) to follow their grown son Alex (Luke Ford), who has come East with his archeology professor. There, they get caught up in a plot by General Yang (Anthony Wong) to revive the mythical Dragon Emperor Qin Shi Huang (Jet Li) and restore China to its former glory.

While Tomb of the Dragon Emperor made back its budget at the box office, it disappointed fans and critics alike, leading Universal to shelve the franchise until a somehow even worse reboot with Tom Cruise in 2017. But it wasn’t all bad for Fraser and the crew.

“Working in Shanghai, an incredible experience,” he told the AP. “I’m proud of the third one because I think it’s a good standalone movie. We picked up and did what we do with a different crew on deck and gave it our best shot.”

But that pride cannot take away from the fact that he had hoped that the third movie would have gone a different way. “The one I wanted to make was never made,” Fraser said of his idea third Mummy movie, before pointing out that a change is coming. “The one I wanted to make is forthcoming. And I’ve been waiting 20 years for this call. Sometimes it was loud, sometimes it was a faint telegraph. Now? It’s time to give the fans what they want.”

Fraser doesn’t get specific about how exactly The Mummy 4 will deliver what the fans want. But NBC still has the broadcast rights to the Olympics and Universal is still in charge. Does that mean we’ll see Rick and Evie in Italy or the French Alps to match the setting of the 2026 or 2030 Winter Olympics? Perhaps they’ll be in Los Angeles or Australia so Universal can save travel costs while covering the 2028 or 2032 Summer Olympics?

Or maybe they’ll just stay in Egypt and make a Mummy movie about the mummy, like they should have done in the first place.