We're 1 Year Away From A $1.4Bn Adventure Franchise's Return (& It Starts A New Era)

Published Oct 15, 2026, 11:30 AM EDT

Simon Gallagher has worked in movie and TV journalism for more than 17 years. He has written more than 6000 articles and reviews, and edited thousands more. He is an expert in the entertainment industry, particularly in the golden age of screen superheroes. Simon is also a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic.
 

Hollywood’s love affair with familiarity is reaching new heights, and you can’t really argue with it. Look at the top of the box office rankings for this year so far, and major IPs take up half of the slots, with Michael Jackson and Christopher Nolan pretty much qualifying as brands at this point, too. So it’s little wonder studios like to return to the same wells.

Big-budget original storytelling is not entirely off the cards, of course, as Project Hail Mary proved, but in 2026, we’ve seen some major franchise returns, including Spider-Man, Toy Story, Super Mario, The Devil Wears Prada, 28 Years Later, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, and more. Obviously, they can’t all be winners. 2027 looks to be shaping up for some more big-name returns, too.

Looking ahead to the next year, we’re going to see the big screen returns of Star Wars, Spaceballs, The Chronicles of Narnia, Air Bud, Ice Age, The Exorcist, and Sonic the Hedgehog to name but a few. And you can be cynical, but studio executives see established audiences as minimized risk, and as budgets balloon further above $200m, the instinct to take fewer gambles has to shout a lot louder.

In that 2027 film landscape, one specific project stands out as a huge draw for long-time action-adventure fans. Universal’s $1.4 billion The Mummy franchise is coming back in exactly a year’s time on October 15, 2027, with Brendan Fraser and the rest of the original cast returning in The Mummy 4, and it’s not just a revival, but also a chance to kick off a whole new era.

The Mummy 4 Releases In One Year - Why It's Taken So Long To Happen

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It has taken a long time to get The Mummy 4 off the ground. When Tomb of the Dragon Emperor released in 2008, the plan was for Universal to continue with the franchise, as Maria Bello, who replaced Rachel Weisz as Evelyn Carnahan confirmed. At that stage, a fourth entry would move to South America after Tomb of the Dragon’s ending teased the discovery of mummies in Peru. Development stalled though, and the Rise of the Aztecs project, as it’s come to be known, was canceled as Universal chose instead to reboot the Dark Universe.

After the major success of the MCU, Universal saw potential in a sprawling shared universe that would bring together its iconic monsters for an Avengers style crossover at some point. Again, best-laid plans led nowhere after Tom Cruise’s disastrous Mummy reboot lost almost $100m and critics turned on it entirely. To think we lost Fraser’s Rick O’Connell to that monstrosity is a tragedy of untold proportions, but the actor did express his willingness to return at various points. Eventually, the stars aligned as nostalgia for the franchise persisted and Fraser enjoyed a career renaissance. And in 2025, The Mummy 4 announcement finally came, with almost all of the original cast - Fraser, Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, and Kevin J. O'Connor - tapped to return. Some originals haven’t been confirmed, like Omid Djalili, Tuc Watkins, Erik Avari, and Jonathan Hyde, but there’s still time. And crucially, The Mummy 4 will wipe the third, critically panned movie out of canon.

The Mummy 4 Will Retcon The Franchise's Last Release To Save The Franchise

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It might have come out almost 20 years ago, but Tomb of the Dragon Empire left The Mummy franchise on a sour note. It might have made more than $400 million (off a reported $145m budget), but critics were unimpressed, and it sits on 13% on RottenTomatoes. It’s hard to argue that the score wasn’t justified. The setting moving from Egypt meant a major change in the franchise’s identity, and recasting Evelyn Carnahan simply didn’t work out.

Rather than trying to rebuild back on those shaky foundations, The Mummy 4 (which likely won’t be its final title for reasons that will now become apparent) will instead be a direct follow-up to The Mummy Returns. We don’t have any plot details beyond that, but the return of Arnold Vosloo’s Imhotep was always a strong indicator of an Egypt-set story. So that’s a good start.

So too is bringing back Rachel Weisz, who missed the last movie. Presumably, Evelyn and Rick’s son Alex will be at least referenced, but according to newcomer Michael Johnston, he’s not playing Alex, and the only other new addition is Numan Acar, who does not fit the bill as the younger O’Connell. His romantic involvement with Lin, protector of the Dragon Emperor's tomb presumably won’t come up if he does return.

No matter what the details, specifically, course-correcting from such a poor entry is a luxury that shouldn’t be overlooked. It is a shame Stephen Sommers isn’t returning to direct, admittedly, but the Radio Silence team of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett at least bring horror credentials. Let’s just hope they retain enough of the original movie’s charm to balance it. If it does, we could seriously be set up for even more Mummy movies.

Cast

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  Rick O'Connell

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  Rachel Weisz

  Evelyn Carnahan

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  Jonathan Carnahan

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  Arnold Vosloo

  Imhotep

The Mummy film franchise continues with the upcoming fourth installment, featuring the return of original cast members.