The Mummy 4 Has A Canon Way To Wipe The Worst Sequel From The Timeline

by

A fourth Mummy movie could easily ignore the poorly-received previous sequel and get the franchise back on track. The Mummy films launched the careers of Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, although the original 1999 film remains the best. That movie perfectly balanced action, comedy, and horror, and despite some outdated special effects, it’s still a really fun watch.

That’s why the new Mummy 4 movie is still something to look forward to. It will bring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz back together on screen for the first time in years, and it promises to feel like the classic adventure films of the past. Plus, fans of the filmmaking team Radio Silence will be pleased to know they’re directing!

The Mummy 4 Can Pretend Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor Was One Of Evelyn’s Adventure Novels

The upcoming movie has the potential to revive the franchise after 2008’s The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. While that third film was financially successful, it was a weak and easily forgotten sequel, largely because Rachel Weisz wasn’t involved. Even adding action stars like Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li couldn’t improve it.

Radio Silence, the team behind the upcoming Mummy film, seems to be distancing it from the previous installment, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. They hinted to Entertainment Weekly in March 2026 that the new movie will essentially disregard events from that earlier film. Most fans likely won’t be upset by this, and some might even be pleased.

As a big fan of the Mummy films, I’ve been thinking about how a new movie could handle The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. It’s not ideal, but they could actually explain it away pretty easily! They established that Evelyn, played by Maria Bello, became a writer, turning her adventures into those fun, over-the-top adventure novels. So, a new Mummy film could just present the events of Tomb of the Dragon Emperor as something that happened in one of her books – basically, a story within a story. It’s a clever way to acknowledge it without being bound by it.

To playfully address the book’s poor reception, the writers could have Evie act as if it doesn’t exist, since her fans didn’t like it. This would be a clever way to acknowledge the third book while also letting viewers feel okay about skipping it.

Why The Mummy 4 Is Going To Ignore Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor

While not a timeless film, The Mummy Returns (2001) largely retold the story of the first movie, but with a focus on louder action sequences and poor computer-generated effects. It did, however, introduce Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson to audiences, though his character, The Scorpion King, ultimately became a poorly rendered digital creature in the film’s climax.

Despite its own problems, Returns, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is significantly less enjoyable. While actress Belle is talented, she wasn’t a good fit for the role of Evelyn, making Rachel Weisz’s absence even more noticeable. The movie also unsuccessfully tried to replace Brendan Fraser’s Rick O’Connell with his son, Alex, played by Luke Ford.

Since Alex never measured up to Rick, the movie was always likely to fail. And beyond that, The Mummy 3 has a lot of issues. The action sequences are uninspired and easily forgotten, the humor falls flat, talented actors Li and Yeoh aren’t used to their full potential, and director Rob Cohen couldn’t create any real excitement or fear.

That’s why the next Mummy movie will essentially ignore the events of the previous film. The directors, Radio Silence, showed with their Scream sequel that they’re good at blending scares and comedy, and they just need to be better than the fairly weak Tomb of the Dragon Emperor to succeed.

Read More

2026-04-04 20:18