Rick O’Connell is officially back on the clock.
Brendan Fraser confirmed The Mummy 4 begins filming today, Monday, September 7, while accepting the Talent Award at the Deauville American Film Festival in France over the weekend, where the festival screened the 1999 original as part of the tribute.
“We start Monday morning,” Fraser told Canal+. “So I need to leave Deauville fast. I apologize. I have to be at work Monday morning.”
The shoot reunites Fraser and Rachel Weisz as Rick and Evelyn O’Connell for the first time since 2001’s The Mummy Returns.
Weisz sat out 2008’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, where Maria Bello took over the role. Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have said the new movie picks up from The Mummy Returns and ignores the 2008 sequel.
Filming In London And Morocco
Fraser is heading straight from Deauville to Sky Studios in London, where part of the production will shoot.
The film is based in the UK and will also film in Morocco, taking the franchise back to the desert.
Fraser is 57 now, and he told Canal+ he did a lot of physical preparation for the return.
He also joked that the heavier stunt work will go to the pros this time, imagining himself telling the stunt team, “You guys are going to be amazing on this shot, go for it!”
Putting Rick O’Connell back on, he said, feels “like meeting an old friend.”
Imhotep And Beni Are Back
The returning cast goes well beyond the leads. John Hannah is back as Jonathan, and Oded Fehr returns as Medjai leader Ardeth Bay.
It was confirmed last month that Kevin J. O’Connor is also returning as Beni, the same Beni who got eaten alive by scarabs at the end of the first movie.
How he’s walking around again is a question the script will have to answer.
Imhotep himself is coming too. John Hannah told Italian magazine CiaK that Arnold Vosloo is returning and was finalizing his deal from Cape Town, where he lives.
On the newcomer side, Numan Acar (Young Sherlock) and Michael Johnston (Obsession) have joined in undisclosed roles. Fans have guessed Johnston could be playing a grown-up Alex O’Connell, but that remains unconfirmed.
Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, the Radio Silence duo behind Ready or Not, Scream VI, and Abigail, direct from a script by David Coggeshall.
Sean Daniel, who produced the original trilogy, is back producing alongside Project X Entertainment’s William Sherak, James Vanderbilt, and Paul Neinstein, with Fraser executive producing.
Fraser has said this is the Mummy movie he waited 20 years to make, and he has pointed to fun as the ingredient missing from the 2017 Tom Cruise version.
Universal has The Mummy 4 set for theaters October 15, 2027 — a date it moved up from May 19, 2028, landing the O’Connells right in the Halloween corridor.
