MOVIE NEWS – The Mummy 4 is increasingly looking like a family reunion, because after Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, John Hannah is now officially coming back as well. That means Rick and Evelyn will not be the only familiar faces returning, and Universal is clearly leaning hard into the nostalgia surrounding the original films.

Universal Pictures’ upcoming The Mummy 4 is shaping up to be the kind of legacy sequel that arrives late but knows exactly what it is trying to sell. Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz had already been confirmed to return as Rick O’Connell and Evelyn Carnahan, later O’Connell, which naturally led many fans to wonder whether other franchise regulars would follow. Arnold Vosloo, Patricia Velásquez, and Oded Fehr were all names people hoped to see again, but now another major player has officially joined the list.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, John Hannah will return as Jonathan Carnahan in The Mummy 4. He first appeared in 1999’s The Mummy as Evelyn’s older brother, a charming thief with a near-supernatural ability to drag trouble wherever he goes. Hannah later reprised the part in 2001’s The Mummy Returns and again in 2008’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. His career, of course, goes well beyond this franchise, with notable credits including Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sliding Doors, and The Hurricane, while television audiences also know him from series such as Spartacus and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The New Team Is Still Building Around the Old Mummy Movies

The Mummy 4 will be directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, with the Radio Silence duo taking over from Stephen Sommers, who directed the first two films. The pair are already well established in horror, having helmed titles like Ready or Not, its sequel, 2022’s Scream, Scream VI, and Abigail. The screenplay is being written by David Coggeshall, whose name is attached to Orphan: First Kill.

Plot details are still being kept under wraps, but the directors have already hinted that the film may ignore the events of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, partly because Rachel Weisz was replaced there by Maria Bello. Universal has set the release date for May 19, 2028, which means the film will arrive 29 years after Fraser and Weisz first launched the franchise together, and 20 years after Fraser last played Rick O’Connell. News of John Hannah’s return also landed at the same time Universal was rolling out the 25th anniversary theatrical re-release of The Mummy Returns.

Universal abandoned the original Mummy series in the early 2010s and attempted a reboot instead with 2017’s The Mummy starring Tom Cruise, which was supposed to launch the Dark Universe. That movie collapsed with critics and audiences alike, and the shared-universe plan died with it. Since then, Universal has shifted toward standalone monster stories, which led to projects like Blumhouse’s The Invisible Man and Wolf Man, as well as two separate Dracula films. In that context, The Mummy 4 now looks like a carefully assembled nostalgia play, powered both by enduring affection for the first two movies and by the added prestige of bringing back stars who have since become Oscar winners.

Source: MovieWeb